Winning the `free music' debate. (mw comment).

A student audience is always going to be a tough one to win over, when it comes to fighting the good fight on the issues of file-sharing and free music. And the audience of 200 or so Oxford University undergraduates who attended last Thursday's debate were probably pretty typical of most students.

There is little doubting where the music community should stand: free music endangers the future of all musicians, big and small, as weft as the many thousands who work in every part of the music business. And, as it currently operates--illegitimately--file-sharing facilitates this.

Of course, there is a strong argument that the industry has failed to take the most important step in the battle against file-sharing, in falling short of offering practical, legitimate alternatives. But there is another key weakness in the music industry's position.

The most persuasive speaker in Oxford was Chrysalis Group co-founder and chair Chris Wright. His point was very simple--his companies have supported, over many years, a string of acts which have taken time and investment to break into the mass market. Feeder, Moloko and David Gray are three recent examples from a career spanning almost 40 years.

If music isn't paid for, there is no incentive for music companies to develop talent for the future in this way, he added. Instead it will ...