Online file-sharing 'good for music'

Online file-sharing has been good for music as it has helped to create a new generation of promising acts‚ one singer has claimed.

Illegal downloading has long been accused of threatening the future of the music industry, but one singer believes it has actually helped to develop better musicians.

According to the BBC, Robin Pecknold from the US band Fleet Foxes has argued that online file-sharing has prompted the emergence of a new generation of talented acts.

He pointed out that access to free music on the internet has allowed up and coming bands to listen to and discover music from the past and present which has inspired them in their own efforts.

Indeed, he said he was exposed to a wide variety of music through the web, including "really obscure stuff" that has influenced him today.

"As much music as musicians can hear, that will only make music richer as an art form," he told the BBC.

"I think we're seeing that now with tons of new bands that are amazing and are doing way better music now than was being made pre-Napster."

Napster was seen as the original peer-to-peer file-sharing service when it was launched in 1999. It shut down in 2001 after a court injunction was filed against it. Today it operates under the Napster brand name, but as a pay service.

Mr Pecknold also hit out at artists who complain about the intellectual property issue and the money they are losing as a result of illegal downloads.

"I've downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records - why would I care if somebody downloads ours? That's such a petty thing to care about," he remarked.

A recent report from the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property concluded that illegal downloading is costing the UK economy millions of pounds every year, with 1.3 million web users on one file-sharing network at noon on a weekday.

If each of these people were to download one file per day, this would total around £12 billion worth of content.