Indelicates: 'Piracy talk a distraction'

The Indelicates have claimed that the attention given to illicit filesharing by the record industry is a distraction from a wider issue.

Singer-guitarist Simon Indelicate told DS that the music business is doomed to fail in its current guise regardless of the debate about illegal downloading.

"Their business model is based on a scarcity that doesn't exist any more," he said. "If the resource you trade in is not scarce, you can't make profit from it in the way that they have been. All this stuff about piracy, I think it's a distraction from a much broader economic trend."

Bandmate Julia Indelicate added: "I think the argument that lots of staunch digital economy bill supporters have is that you have to support artists. You have to support the arts and culture - and music is part of that - and if you don't support it, it won't exist.

"I don't think it's a good argument because I don't think it's true, but I also don't think it works. It ignores the market and tries to raise up the idea of specialness - that musicians are somehow more special than anyone else. That's not really true, and it never really was."

> Click here to read our full interview with The Indelicates