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ROB STEVENS
My name is Rob Stevens and I am a 29-year old male from Nottingham. The three main passions in my life are Nottingham Forest, music and going out. An ideal day would involve watching some Championship football, going to a quality gig then hitting a club to cap off the night.
Favourite bands currently include Gaslight Anthem and Biffy Clyro as I like my music loud but with emotion. I tend to listen to bands across the broad spectrum of genres and am open to all from acoustic to dub-step.
My favourite song of all time is Weve Got the Whole World in Our Hands, released by Paper Lace and Nottingham Forest FC in 1978 – a true classic.
How much more Beatles merch can there be??
I have just read that Apple and record company EMI are planning to release a limited number of USB devices full of music by The Beatles.
While not a Liverpudlian myself, I am a huge music fan and appreciate the impact that The Beatles had on music as a whole.
I do indeed have some of their classic songs on my MP3 player and listen to them while travelling the country watching my beloved Nottingham Forest play in Championship football matches.
However these limited edition USB apples, which are shaped like the fruit and are loaded with re-mastered versions of songs, documentaries, album art and expanded notes, are set to cost around £200.
As there are only going to be 30,000 produced, I don’t think I will be rushing to part with a huge chunk of my hard earned cash just before Christmas (the USB apples are released on December 8th) on this.
Think I will probably just stick with my old copy of Revolver and Sgt Pepper, along with of course the obligatory Best Of… album (exactly which version I own I cannot remember).
With the recent success of Beatles Rock Band, the remastered albums, the new USB drives and countless other band-related merchandise available, I am beginning to wonder what else there is that can be released.
Surely there has to come a time when there can be no more Beatles products, or I could be wrong, they could copy Kiss and produce a Beatles coffin.
Do illegal downloaders actually make money for music industry?
There has been a long-running debate about the issue of illegally downloading music off the internet and how it ruins the music industry as a whole.
While many faces including Lilly Allen have recently condoned the practice, other such as Colombian singer Shakira have supported the actions of downloaders, with the Latin superstar claiming it makes her feel closer to her fans.
With the practice of music fans illegally downloading music in their front room even being discussed in the House of Commons, a new survey conducted by Ipsos MediaCT for leading think-tank Demos claims the practice actually makes £200 million for the industry a year.
It surveyed over 1,000 people and 83 per cent said they legally purchase the same amount or more per year than they illegally download, while over four in ten said they use the practice as a form of “try before you buy” service.
I listen to a lot of music while travelling around the country watching Championship football matches and have acquired all of it 100 per cent legally, well I suppose getting copied CDs of mates does not count but that is a different issue for debate.
For me, there is nothing like having the physical copy of the album in your hand, with the sleeve notes and packaging often complimenting the album itself.
The debate over the issue of illegal downloading is going to run and run and I believe the government and major labels will look for increased enforcement and punishment to be made legislation in the near future.
Some 61 per cent of the people surveyed in the Demos research claimed they would stop illegally downloading if they faced large fines, so this could be seen by many in the industry as the next step.
