Friday, June 15th, 2001
Pete is interviewed in The Hollywood Reporter. He says that his commercial website eelpie.com has already taken in a seven-digit dollar figure in the first year.
Transcript:
Online revenue g-g-generation: A Q&A with Pete Townshend
June 15, 2001
Pete Townshend is one of the best-known voices of his generation. As
the guitarist and main songwriter for The Who, his songs have enriched
the lives of countless rock music fans. His songs can also be heard in
films such as "Jerry Maguire," "Apollo 13," "Fever Pitch," "Rushmore"
and "Austin Powers - The Spy Who Shagged Me" as well as on Broadway
and elsewhere. Townshend helps support his creative ventures with his
official commercial outlet www.eelpie.com and a sanctioned site at
www.petetownshend.com. He spoke to The Hollywood Reporter's new
media/technology reporter Chris Marlowe about how the Internet has
affected his nearly 40 years in the music industry.
THR: Many people have hypothesized that freely available music
devalues it and makes fans less likely to pay for music in the future.
Do you agree?
Townshend: No. It is packaging that makes me buy CDs. Owning a
beautiful thing. I don't buy a Tom Waits CD to support him as a
struggling artist, I buy it because the artwork is usually as
brilliant as the music. If all I wanted was a few lead tracks I'd
download them today from Napster and next time I saw him I'd tell him
I love him and - you know what, he'd be so pleased he wouldn't even
think to ask why.
THR: As a recording artist, do you think organizations like the RIAA
and BMI are acting in your best interests when they sue file sharing
companies such as Scour and Napster?
Townshend: No. BMI in particular should pay artists the money they
have collected on their behalves. It is that simple. If they do manage
to sue Napster who will get the cash? How will they distribute it?
They can't even properly account for performance fees taken from bands
who perform their own works on the road. They still rely on a general
distribution based on some random formula and sales that no one quite
understands.
THR: What do you think of Napster?
Townshend: I don't use it. My son and I checked it out. It's
interesting. It will never make a cent. Mark my words. I already have
a better idea.
THR: Have you discussed your Internet activities with your record
label?
Townshend: I don't have a record label.
THR: You have said that the future is broadband entertainment. Why?
Townshend: Let's say The Who are in the recording studio. We decide to
perform a show from there. To reach 100 people at one time with decent
sound alone would cost my company about #45,000 every year for open
bandwidth. Most people on the receiving end wouldn't bother to log on
unless they had fast connections, but they would soon give up if they
couldn't log on within minutes. Moving images of decent quality
require even more bandwidth at even more cost. But once the cost comes
down, there will be no stopping the artists of this world. Freed from
promoters, managers, agents, fixers , middlemen, press, and even
accountants, they will perform like buskers whenever they have the
need. It's true piracy. Maybe what is happening cost-wise is
reflection of the fact that the large corporations have an interest in
keeping the cost of bandwidth high? That way at least they keep the
artists tied to the old methods a little longer.
THR: As broadband becomes more common, do you think your opinions
about downloading music will change?
Townshend: What you mean I'll want to charge people? I already do. I
give some stuff away (like I've always done on loss-making tours, the
radio and in home taping) and I sell some stuff. The one feeds the
other.
THR: You have a retail component to your online presence. Does the
income make it worthwhile, or are there other reasons you do it?
Townshend: It's hugely lucrative for me. Our dollar gross ran into
seven digits in the first year of trading.
THR: You post many of your own songs on your Web site for your fans to
freely download. How do you select which tracks to give away?
Townshend: On a whim.
THR: Has the Internet changed anything the way you create, what you
create, or in how you perceive yourself as an artist?
Townshend: It has sharpened my sense of myself as an artist. I do more
of what I really want to do musically knowing that however arch or
narrow I become, there will be people I can find to touch. Ironically,
that self-indulgence frees me too. Pampered as I am by my Web site
works, I am far more willing to attend to my old established and
readily recognized methods. This has allowed me to do Who touring in
the old manner without feeling I am letting my artistic vision fester.
THR: Does the Internet make you more or less in control of your
career?
Townshend: I control only what I put up on my site. Sadly, it is open
to misuse and misinterpretation (like normal press statements) because
what I say can be taken out of context, sequence or suffer because
intended irony is lost in translation to other mediums. I suppose
there is no control really. That's good I think. If there were too
many Madonnas in this world we'd all want Johnny Rotten back. I want
him back anyway.
THR: You have been actively posting quite personal video diaries and
messages on your Web site. Why do you do this? You spend a lot of time
on it, and you're surprisingly intimate; do you get something out of
it yourself?
Townshend: I spend no time on it at all really. I'm an artist. You've
seen my guts already you just don't know it. The diaries are nothing
more than what I've always done in interviews. I'm not interested in
secrets or facts, just truth.
THR: Do you think your answers to these questions would be any
different if you weren't already successful?
Townshend: Yes. I've spoken to a lot of young artists who are trying
to use the Internet to build their names. It doesn't seem to work. If
and when they break they break in fairly normal ways. They get found
by a publisher or record company, or build up a large fan base from
doing home-based live shows. I already have a good name so the
Internet works well for me.