Revelation, Lookout, 31G, Deep Elm discuss file sharing

Deep Elm's owner John Szuch, along with label representatives from Revelation, Lookout, 31G and Ninja Tune, were recently interviewed by the Norwegian music press regarding illegal file sharing.

John's assessment is this:

It's easy for multi–millionaires like RadioHead to give away their music, but not for true indie artists that are touring in vans, sleeping on stages and eating pizza every night. And it makes it impossible for true indie labels like Deep Elm to survive, develop and support their artists. Fans may be more apt to buy tickets for a tour and tee shirts when they arrive since they got the music for free, but remember that labels do not share in any tour revenue.

So how are we supposed to generate money to keep our doors open? If free music becomes the trend, we will be forced to stop releasing new records and supporting independent artists....like so many other indies have already done.

His solution? " Sites are being used 99% of the time to share and illegally download copyrighted [material] and they should be abolished. "

Revelation's Vique Martin also comments:

Sales are way down compared to years ago. But I don't think it's just file sharing – I think it's also a combination of cd burning along with entire libraries of music being shared via ipods. But it's getting tougher and tougher to sell less and less cds, and if this continues I think we'll see a lot of labels going the way of GSL over the next 2–3 years. It's a shame.

Lookout!'s Molly Neumann shys away from too much government intervention, saying:

A larger conversation that is not just enforced by the government can happen with kids to help them understand that what they are doing is stealing. They know they can't walk into a store and take what they want and they should feel the same way about music. The industry needs to understand that consumers are very sensitive to price and figure out ways to present music in a more economically viable way, and to help expose the consumers to the music they want.

Despite where you sit on the file sharing fence, many labels are becoming frustrated with the rather rampant downloading of music, and independent labels without deep pockets to weather the storm are often the first to shut down. You can check out the entirety of the label's comments here.