|
Activist-musician Bragg focused on "Justice"
09/09/2007 10:05 PM, Reuters
Ever since his 1983 mini-album "Life's
a Riot With Spy Vs Spy," folk-rock artist Billy Bragg has been
known as a spokesman for a generation.
But where his politically charged anthems and offstage
activism once urged fans to support striking miners or kick out
Britain's Conservative government of the '80s and '90s, he's
now become an authority on artists' rights for the Web 2.0 age.
In the past year he has had high-profile clashes with Web sites
including MySpace and MTV Flux over what he saw as unfair
proprietary rights clauses.
Consequently, he's now as likely to be found addressing
executives at music industry conferences as campaigners at
political rallies or music fans at his legendarily heartwarming
shows. This month he will play live and give a keynote address
at the Popkomm music and entertainment industry conference in
Berlin.
With a new album, "Mr. Love and Justice," scheduled for
2008, and current projects including everything from rewriting
the lyric for Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" to raising funds for
prisoners in the guise of a one-man Clash tribute act, Bragg
took time out to chat with Billboard about his new role and the
future of the music industry. "I've always been an opinionated
so-and-so," he says with a smile.
Q: Now that you've got the chance to address the European
music industry, what will you talk about?
A: "There are two things I'm absolutely sure about:
Whatever the music industry looks like in 10 years' time, there
will be people who want to hear music and people who want to
make music. And as one of those people, it's our job to get the
industry to understand that the old industry-led model is going
to have to change and the artist is going to be in much more of
a powerful position. I work with Ian McLagan, who played in the
Small Faces ... wherever we stop on the motorway, there's
always a '60s compilation with a Small Faces track on it that
he doesn't make any money off of. The old idea of signing your
rights away for life of copyright is over."
Q: What system would you like to see replace it?
A: "In my contracts, my albums ultimately revert to me, but
what very often happens is I sign them back to the label that
put them out, if that label's done a good job. But it allows me
to update my recording contracts to take into account new
technological developments. The records you made in your 20s
you should be able to put out yourself in your 50s. Mac's got
several solo albums that he could press up and sell at his gigs
but he can't because of the lifetime of copyright ownership."
A: Are you happier with the artists' rights situation on
MySpace now?
Q: "Yes. The problem was, when they set up the site, the
language used implied that they owned the rights to the
material posted on the site. I own the rights to my catalog,
and I don't let those rights go lightly. But it was an
ambiguity rather than a sordid attempt to steal the work of
artists. And they clarified it -- the clause now begins, 'You
own the rights to the stuff you post on MySpace.' And the most
important thing of all is that, when you take your stuff off
MySpace, the deal ends. That's absolutely crucial -- MTV Flux,
the last time I looked, didn't have a termination clause, and
that really concerns me because they could be harvesting
rights."
Q: Do you still see a long-term role for traditional record
companies?
A: "Yes. The climate is changing and the glacial record
industry is melting into something much more fluid and
faster-moving, but much more difficult to control. That doesn't
mean it's the end of the industry or good music, but record
companies' mode of work has got to change. When the bank lends
you the money to buy your house, you pay the money back and you
own the house. Record companies lend you the money to make a
record, you pay the money back but they still own the record.
When you've paid it back you should own the damn record, not
them."
Q: Why has it been so long since you made a record?
A: "Instead of making an album when I should have done, in
2003-04, I wrote a book ('The Progressive Patriot'). After the
(far right) BNP (British National Party) got elected in my
hometown, Barking, east London, I needed to do something more
than write a song. 'Mr. Love and Justice' will be out in the
new year, and it'll be the usual wonderful mixture of love
songs and polemical stuff."
Q: What inspired you to start the "Jail Guitar Doors"
project?
A: "Someone doing drug and alcohol rehab work in a prison
near where I live got in touch to see if I could supply some
guitars to help his work. I wanted to mark the fifth
anniversary of Joe Strummer's death, so I took the name from an
old Clash B-side, set up a Web site (jailguitardoors.org.uk)
and started soliciting donations. The first person to give me
any money was Mick Jones, who actually wrote "Jail Guitar
Doors," and last month we delivered half a dozen guitars to
Wormwood Scrubs Prison, west London. Anyone who's sat upstairs
at their parents' house knows how a guitar can help to
transcend your surroundings. As Mick said to the inmates, they
can help you to escape ... there was a brief pause before
everyone started laughing."
(Bragg's Jail Guitar Doors benefit single "Old Clash Fan
Fight Song," released under the name Johnny Clash, is available
via billybragg.co.uk.)
Q: Would you ever take a full-time post within the music
industry?
A: "I don't think you can do that and be a musician. If
you're going to hold an elected post, like in the Musicians
Union ... you have a responsibility to those people who elected
you, you can't just do it part time. As a musician I'm still a
bit too busy for that. People often ask me that about politics
as well, but I look really rotten in a suit and tie."
Reuters/Billboard
|
