The recent court verdict regarding Pirate Bay makes me wonder if it will make any difference to the download world, this also begs a new question, whether illegal file downloads are actually damaging to the music industry like the major labels would have you believe.

I don’t think I know one person who doesn’t own some music downloaded via P2P or torrent, it has become a normal part of life for a whole generation and will only increase even though the authorities are frantically trying to strike the fear of god into people.  The Pirate Bay verdict is in my opinion futile, there are an infinite number of torrent sites offering the same services as Pirate Bay, all this recent verdict and any future verdicts will do is force change within the download community.  For example before torrent there was Peer 2 Peer, and after torrent there will be something else and so the cycle will go on.

At the heart of all this is the music labels fear of users getting MP3s for free, but hasn’t that always been the way of things, from vinyl to tape, Mini-Disc to CD  there has always and will always be a way to copy and share; what is it that makes the industry assume illegal MP3 downloads will suddenly put them out of business.  The industry lays blame for the drop in revenue on download culture but surely it could be simply that media is just more accessible and cheaper than ever before, even if downloads have increased I don’t believe for one minute that would stop people purchasing music they really like; there is just something more human about wanting to own the music you really like.

I mean, am i missing something , surely MP3 downloads are only making music more accessible? If music is more accessible then you can hear a wider range and if you can hear a wider range then I believe the user is likely to buy more music not less.  In my late teens I would purchase an album every few months, Cd’s were expensive back in the day and I wanted enough cash left to go and get blitzed at the weekend!  These days I purchase music monthly and instead of having the weekend to worry about I have a house, 3 kids and car to maintain which are not cheap, yet I purchase more regularly, the music business is missing the point I think.

The internet has always offered things for free, google are a prime example of how giving users something they want for free can make you money (they are after all one of the richest companies in the world!), and in recent years a number of bands have chosen to give fans the option to put a price on what they feel the music is worth, immediately you would expect that to be a mistake but Radio Head were said to have made more money on their recent album than their previous offering, surprising?, no not really, if you offer something for a low price then interest will be considerably bigger. A good example of offering music for free is spotify where you can listen to music through there website, although you cannot download the music to own, but you just never know what may happen.

If the authorities and industry fail to realise that free isn’t always a negative then I will start to worry for the Internet, the ethos of the web has always been the free communication and sharing of information between people, to try and control this would be to change it for ever and that will be the worst crime of all.  I am not saying that illegal downloading is right but maybe there is something in the idea of free downloads that could be controlled by the music labels, and maybe, just maybe it would increase sales and restore people’s faith in the music business.

On the 18th August 2008 my wife and I arrived back at our home both aching and tired from the weekend behind us. After unpacking our things and hanging all the wet clothes and sleeping bags out to dry a depressing thought entered by head, AM I TOO OLD FOR MUSIC FESTIVALS?

We were both over the moon when two tickets to the V festival became available through a friend, my wife had already ticked the festival box some years ago and I was keen to do the same before I became unfashionably old. 

The morning of Saturday 19th soon arrived, and with a nervous excitment we started our 2 hour journey to Stafford Park and the V festival.  We arrived at noon and after unpacking the car and finally finding the ticket exchange point all we had to do was find a decent spot for our tent, and as you can imagine this was easier said than done.  So we pitched the tent and did the 30 minute treck to the main arena where we would see all the bands we had eagerly awaited. 

We were immediately greeted by Girls Aloud on the V stage, as I expected they were well rehearsed and probably miming, but they weren’t who I was here to see and after aclimatising to our surroundings we caught the first of many great acts, Lenny Kravitz had taken the stage and blew us away with a string of hits, then swiftly we moved on to catch David Jordan, Tom Baxter, One Republic and the odd song from a few bands here and there as well as what can only be described as an awful performance from Amy Winehouse.  After grabbing a bite to eat we made our way back to the V stage for the Kings of Leon and I’m not lying when I tell you they were amazing, simply great music played to perfection, it had started raining but nobody cared.

As the evening was coming to an end we had to make the choice between The Verve, Kaiser Chiefs and The Chemical Brothers, as the wife wasn’t sure about the Verve and I had seen The Chemical Brothers we opted for the Kaiser Chiefs and what a good decision that turned out to be.  Their performance proved to be a lesson in how to perform a series of good song you didn’t even realise you knew with an energy and passion that I haven’t seen before, I couldn’t of asked for a better finish to our first day, but that was soon to change.

We started to make our way back to our tent in the pooring rain both still buzzing from the amazing day we had, only to be presented with a tent that had no front pegs and sleeping bags and clothes that doubled as sponges.  After a few hours of uncomfortable wet sleep I made the decision to pack up and get back to the car to try and dry the contents of the tent and ourselves, this was not however, a pleasant journey and after walking for 2 hours back to the car drying our clothes and walking back to our tent it was nearly 8am. Once back at the tent we laid out the dry covers and managed to catch a few hours kip.

Now mildly refreshed and slightly dryer we packed up and ventured back to the car park to return our clothes and tent to the car ready for the journey home that evening, but with blisters on my blisters this was proving not to be an enjoyable exercise.  We finally made it back to the arena for the final day and had decided to make the best of it and try and forget the previous night, but this was proving difficult and after catching a few average performances and a suprisingly good set from the Sugababes we decided at 7.30pm enough was enough and made the journey home, unfortunately missing what would have been a highlight for me ‘The Prodigy’.

So now this is where I cannot work out whether it was bad fortune that made me leave that festival early or was it simply my age, I’d like to think I am a spritely 32 years old; but leaving a festival early and 3 days to recover makes me wonder if it was just too much for me and my weary old bones. 

All said and done I think I may have learned to important things; don’t go camping to a festival and wear thick socks inside your wellies and you probably will enjoy the whole experience a lot more, well when you’re my age anyway