Life’s a riot with Bragg vs Bebo
To most readers, Bebo is a social networking site hugely popular among Irish teens and school-goers.
To musician and activist Billy Bragg, however, Bebo is a company who’ve become successful by using the creative blood, sweat and tears of musicians such as him to attract new members and advertisers.
Bragg’s attack on Bebo comes on the back of the sale of the site to AOL for $850 million.
Writing in the New York Times this week, Bragg wondered if some of this cash should be paid to acts whose music is streamed on the site.
“The musicians who posted their work on Bebo are no different from investors in a start-up enterprise,” argued Bragg. “Their investment is the content provided for free while the site had no liquid assets. Now that the business has reaped huge benefits, surely they deserve a dividend.”
It’s not Bragg’s first run in with a social networking site. He previously took the News Corporation-owned MySpace to task over a potential rights-grab clause in its terms and conditions, gaining a huge amount of positive PR for his stance.
This time, though, the daggers were out for Bragg from the get-go. Internet business blog TechCrunch called his move a “crazy-stupid idea” and said Bragg “ignored the fact that music was uploaded to the site by artists themselves, with full knowledge that they would not receive payments of any kind (except free marketing, of course, and access to Bebo’s tens of millions of music-loving users)”.
Glenn Peoples from music industry blog Coolfer was a little more reasonable, pointing out that Bragg’s protestations came too late.
“Artists of all stripes should create the mechanisms and institutions that can negotiate with companies such as Bebo before they are acquired for millions, if not billions. Asking for money after the fact will get you nowhere.”
Of course, no one involved has as yet suggestd a way to calculate the value of a song streamed on Bebo or MySpace to everyone’s satisfaction.
Great to see Bragg voicing his opinions for a change, oh look, he also has a new album out, hmmmmmm.
Comment by Sean | March 28, 2008 at 9:05 amHe’s a tool, just look at him in the Man in the Sand documentry about Woody Gutherie. And didnt he say the same thing about MySpace a year or two ago ?
If anyone should get anything perhaps it should be all the kids that built the audience for Bebo. Music streaming came quite late to Bebo and it would have been just as big without it. The Techcrunch piece was way over the top and I think (thank god) most people saw it as such. Saying that music tracks are a way of marketing an artist and should be free, quite stupid.
bobbie Johnson’s take is good: http://www.bobbiejohnson.org/?p=1208
Comment by Damien Mulley | March 28, 2008 at 10:16 amBilly Bragg is a terrible sac. I know that is just bald ad hominem but I just couldn’t be bothered engaging with his argument. No, suffice it to say, he is a SAC.
Comment by Andrew Sheridan | March 28, 2008 at 11:56 amhe’s way off the mark. He fails to understand how much money would be involved to host his own mp3s, both in terms of setup costs and hosting fees; and fails to understand the benefits that come of allowing members of social networks to “attach” to his music. There’s no question that the situation with Bebo was effectively a gift to him in the first place.
Comment by Justin Mason | March 28, 2008 at 12:53 pmsean - such cynical thinking. I’m sure the thought of plugging his album never crossed Mr Bragg’s mind
damien - exactly. Of all the social networking sites, I’d rate Bebo as the one with the least heft when it comes to music. Yeah, TechCrunch got ants in their pants and I think Coolfer’s points were far more relevant
Justin - What he’s doing is replicating the same mistakes which the traditional record industry made back in the mid to late 90s when the tech and telecoms first came calling. He is assuming all the value is on his side, forgetting the costs you mention and also the value which Bebo etc bring in terms of punters.
Comment by Jim Carroll | March 28, 2008 at 1:18 pmBit presumptuous, isn’t he? I mean, I sure as shit didn’t sign up to Bebo for the music. Logically, all my mates should get a fat payout for getting me on board.
Comment by emordino | March 31, 2008 at 1:34 pmtoo little too late billy
Comment by Leigh O'Gorman | March 31, 2008 at 6:13 pmno f*cking way is bebo worth that, especially for AMERICA-on-line.
Comment by B | April 2, 2008 at 5:14 pm