Skip to main content

GOLDIE BECOMES ANTI-PIRACY AMBASSADOR

Drum & bass don joins fight against digital music piracy

Drum & bass don Goldie has become an anti-piracy ambassador – in an attempt to try to stamp out commercial music piracy.

Digital music piracy is big business, and can deprive an artist and label of around 25% of income through music sales.

Piracy is more than fans just sharing tracks with each other — commercial pirate companies can make thousands by ripping off an act’s new track and offering it for free download via their ‘cyberlocker’.

These links (Zippyshare etc) then appear in a Google search, and when a music fan visits the pirate website they are shown adverts or encouraged to upgrade to a premium download speed in order to (illegally) access more tracks faster.

Anti-piracy companies simply force the pirate companies to take down these illegal links — thereby protecting the sales for labels and artists.

“I started my label Metalheadz 20 years ago, and we’ve enjoyed great success,” Goldie said, “but in the digital age piracy has had a hugely negative impact on us as a small indie. The music we put out across Metalheadz is the result of lots of hard work from all involved, dedication and an amazing amount of creativeness from each and every artist we sign.

“Because of this, we believe, both for the benefit of ourselves as an independent label and on behalf of our artists, that it’s our place to make every effort to ensure that all of this hard work is rewarded and that artist’s releases are protected against piracy,” Goldie continued.

Goldie joins Judge Jules, Mark Doyle from Fierce Angel and Steve Miller from Afterlife in being an ambassador for leading anti-piracy company AudioLock, the company set up by DJ Ben Rush.

“Music piracy is one of the only forms of criminal activity where it is still seen as being socially acceptable to discuss it down the pub,” Ben Rush told DJ Mag. “For change to happen, this attitude needs to shift.”

AudioLock is featured in a major article in the July issue of DJ Mag about music piracy – out this week.