Def Leppard's Guitarist Doesn't Seem to Think Piracy is All Bad

[Len]

We've all heard the stories. Piracy is bad for the entertainment industry, and it's bad for musicians. It's been going round for years, in a attempt to guilt people into paying for their music, rather than downloading a slightly rubbish-sounding MP3 from a file-sharing service. Well apparently not everyone thinks that way, including Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell.

In an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Campbell spoke of how piracy does have it's upsides - particularly for the long-lived bands that are still kicking around.

"In recent years, we’ve been really fortunate that we’ve seen this new surge in our popularity. For the most part, that’s fueled by younger people coming to the shows. We’ve been seeing it for the last 10, 12 or 15 years, you’d notice younger kids in the audience, but especially in the last couple of years, it’s grown exponentially.

I really do believe that this is the upside of music piracy. You know, people bemoan the fact that you can’t sell records anymore, but for a band like Def Leppard at least, there is a silver lining in the fact that our music is reaching a whole new audience, and that audience is excited to hear it and they’re coming to the shows."

The interesting thing about Campbell is that he's been saying this sort of thing for over a decade. Back in 2011 he even admitted that while he knows most "kids" with the entire Def Leppard back catalogue on their iPods probably didn't pay for it all, he hoped that it would mean they'd go out and buy a ticket to see them live.

“We do not expect to sell a lot of records, we are just thankful to have people listening to our music. That is more important than having people pay for it. It will monetize itself later down the line.”

He's certainly not alone in that opinion either. A number of big musicians have spoken out against anti-piracy sentiment - or at the very least the idea that illegal downloads are killing their livelihood.

We certainly don't condone piracy here at Giz UK, especially if you're fond of that artist or band. You not buying a CD/vinyl/iTunes album could be what forces them to settle for a Gulfstream 3 jet, which doesn't even have a remote for the surround sound DVD system.