The Who's chief songwriter and guitarist Pete Townshend appeared on stage in Salford, England last night to deliver the first John Peel Lecture, taking the opportunity to rail against Apple, iTunes, and illegal downloading.
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Townshend, half of the surviving Who lineup, called Apple a "digital vampire", clarifying: "Is there really any good reason why, just because iTunes exists in the wild west internet land of Facebook and Twitter, it can't provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire, like a digital Northern Rock, for its enormous commission… Apple should employ 20 talent scouts from the dying record business to give guidance to new acts and provide financial and marketing support to the best ones." (via NME.com)
Pete's thoughts on that copy of Tommy you didn’t exactly pay for?
"[File sharers] may as well come and steal my son's bike while they're at it. If someone pretends that something I have created should be available to them free, I wonder what has gone wrong with human morality and social justice."
I’ve got unconfirmed reports that an audience member tried to explain it all to Mr. Townshend, but the grumpy guitarist couldn’t hear a word of it because he’s gone legally deaf after more than 40 years of turning his Marshall stacks up to 11. (I made that last part up… but it's true, Pete can’t hear shit.)
What do you guys think-- does Pete Townshend have a point about the lackluster relationship between digital music services and the bands and artists they’re offering up? Is he just being a sour curmudgeon? Hit up our comments section below.
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