[A2k] Billy Bragg squares up to MySpace

[Manon Ress]

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2006/06/13/
space_battles.html#more

Space battles
It's computer mice at dawn this week, as Billy Bragg squares up to
MySpace. Still fighting the socialist fight 25 years into his career,
the singer-songwriter has withdrawn songs from his page on the site
after discovering a clause that would apparently allow MySpace to use
his music without permission.

The "Bragg office" has put an explanatory message on his page <http://
blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?
fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=34570397&blogID=122481288&MyToken=6eba5ed6
-b2c8-4868-8edb-125d5e22caf7>: "Once an artist posts up any content
(including songs), it then belongs to My Space (aka Rupert Murdoch)
and they can do what they want with it, throughout the world, without
paying the artist."

This is exactly the kind of scrap Bragg adores: himself, armed only
with his fascist-killing guitar, versus some corporate behemoth, in
this case Murdoch's News Corp <http://www.newscorp.com/news/
news_251.html>. But this battle seems to be one-sided.

Having readily admitted that the clause in question can be mistakenly
interpreted to mean that the site owns an artist's music, MySpace are
busy re-wording it. A spokesman says <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
entertainment/5065632.stm>: "Because the legalese has caused some
confusion, we are at work revising it to make it very clear that
MySpace is not seeking a license to do anything with an artist's work
other than allow it to be shared in the manner the artist intends."

This may not appease Bragg, who - given his long-running anti-Murdoch
sentiments - has probably been looking for an opportunity to weigh in
ever since News Corp bought the site last year. He's also unlikely to
be pleased that several of his own fans have left messages on his
page suggesting that the singer has "overreacted".

Nor has he had much support from contributors to the
Recordoftheday.com music business messageboard <http://
www.recordoftheday.com/mb/>. A poster called Spodzilla <http://
www.recordoftheday.com/cgi-bin/rotd-mb/rotd_config.pl?read=78136>
seems to speaks for most by describing it as "a lot of fuss about
nothing". Thus his call for other artists to take their music off
MySpace probably won't be heeded to any great extent, given its
perceived power as a promotional tool.

But has said power been exaggerated? MySpace's supposed importance in
breaking the Arctic Monkeys was a fallacy <http://
technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1781879,00.html> - the band
did it all via their own website <http://www.arcticmonkeys.com/>.
Some lesser-known artists complain that, despite acquiring hundreds
of MySpace "friends" via the network's famed cross-referencing
system, they haven't seen much in the way of increased sales. Others
report their pages being deleted without explanation <http://
www.recordoftheday.com/cgi-bin/rotd-mb/rotd_config.pl?read=77036>,
leaving no way of contacting their friend network.

And, inevitably, MySpace now has competition. Social networking site
ProfileHeaven.com <http://www.profileheaven.com/> ("You don't just
get a profile, you get your own little piece of heaven!") has just
launched a music platform, while the burgeoning Bebo.com is starting
to breathe down MySpace's neck, as some bands see its set-up as a
more efficient way of reaching fans - rather than operating as an
amorphous "community", Bebo users are grouped according to which
school they go to (record company marketing people love this sort of
information).

Still, it's reassuring that Bragg's revolutionary spirit is still in
working order. Few others are willing to fight the unglamorous
battles that he has taken on as his life's work. But there are
worthier targets than MySpace.


************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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