now, i'm a musician, and although i'm all about musicians getting paid for their work, it just seems like bragg is spending far too much time complaining about the internet and not doing much to combat the fact that the internet's not making him any money. but come on, ever since the guy has become a headline-grabber for attacking myspace, has the guy put out any work that's actually BEEN FOR SALE? not to my knowledge. and if it has, it's not a piece of work that's worth being bought, because noone's talking about billy bragg's new album.

the whole argument about radio paying royalties is tired, because YOU PRACTICALLY HAVE TO PAY RADIO STATIONS TO GET AIRPLAY. i mean, come on dude, it's 2008; at this point, the internet and file-sharing is never going to go away. my advice to mr. bragg would be to stop being counterproductive and put some stuff out for free on the internet, and THEN put out an album-- A GOOD ALBUM, mind you-- that people would be willing to go out and pay for. in my experience, putting out a shitload of music for free has only increased the demand for a physical, buyable product.

mr. bragg should try this, instead of bitching over spilled milk that's never going to get mopped up.

i think there's a fight to be made over a guy that makes SIX HUNDRED MILLION dollars in large part because of the content that musicians provided him. what if network executives made all the money and the folks that made the tv shows got none?

i understand that there probably should be some kickback, but at the same time, most musicians who post their work on myspace, etc. know what they're getting themselves into. it's a means of free promotion, kinda like a good review in a widely-read publication, you know? if you had to pay a monthly fee for a myspace page, this would be a much larger problem.

if royalties had to be paid out for using myspace or bebo, then the same would have to go for mp3 blogs and the forkcast sidebar on pitchfork. touch one, touch all.

the bebo case is especially gnarly... and speaking of gnarly, it would be extremely difficult to divide the monies between so many bands and still have it make a difference. perhaps a sizable donation towards something like health care funds for aging musicians? i know there are organizations like this in the jazz world...