A brief reflexion about SOPA and its effects on music (industry).

I don’t know if you have already heard about SOPA so before anything else I’ll try to resume what it is all about.

SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act. The general idea is to prevent piracy and copyright infringement but it has been said that it’s going to be done in an overly-aggressive and overprotective way. This act can create a blacklist of censored websites and shut them down.
Websites such as YouTube can be very affected and even shut down if this bill becomes a law.
Basically it’s this, a lot of information is available on the internet about it– you may want to take a look before it disappears.

Let’s start by thinking about the artists’ position on this whole big mess. It's obvious that labels will always say that this measure will help bands/singers selling more albums. But in my opinion artists point of view can be very different.

The number of bands that once in a while release albums for free is growing. For example, in 2007 Radiohead challenged the labels with their In Rainbows available for free – fans were able to pay as much or as little as they wanted. The Gift had the same decision last year for their album – Explode.


A lot of starting artists use websites such as YouTube to promote their talent uploading videos of them doing covers. Many artists have been found due to that strategy. With this new idea such videos won’t be tolerated.

Some people can say that artists that are already rich can live with their albums being heard for free, but the ones that are not, need people to hear their albums on the internet otherwise they won’t get known. There is no one that makes a bet on a band before listening to any material. I think artists, above all things, want their music to be listened. Personally, there is not many bands I would buy their CDs before listening and I think I’m not alone this. Music discovers won't be possible.

On the other hand, money shouldn’t be what move artists - I know everyone needs money to survive - , I think from the moment it’s what move them they better stop.

And… What about those websites that publish the song lyrics? Will they also be removed?

Here are some loose thoughts about this matter.
If you have any opinion – I believe we always have – would you like to share it with us?

We never know.. But can this blog be censured as well?