After yesterday’s long post about the notions of free content, it was interesting to receive a link from a friend exploring the demise pirate radio. Funnily enough, my favourite well turned out pirate, Matt Mason, the author of the book The Pirate’s Dilemma, narrates the history – present and the past – of pirate radio in the UK.

After 16 minutes of watching, I think the starkest revelation for me came from the one  of the first interviewed pirate radio DJs, who proclaimed:

The internet killed pirate radio, and I don’t think it can come back from it.

For once in my life I am hearing a pirate complain about the impact of the internet!  Talk about a role reversal.  If anything the internet had become the vehicle for many a pirate,  so to hear the reverse was a surprising change. No doubt about it, the internet has altered the entire playing field for the music industry, but to hear the pirates ‘complaining’, you have to sit up and listen.

The Digital Economy Bill – Death of Analogue

And where the internet hasn’t killed the pirate radio stars, it seems the politicians and big music business will instead.  The forthcoming digital bill that’s being forced through the British parliamentary system, not only aims to make broadband users criminals and unfairly tax fixed line subscribers but will also kill off the last of the legal analogue broadcast in the UK.

According to my good friend Zen, from Nomad Radio, the likes of the analogue pirate radio listener are going to be turned into nothing more than niche freaks, the equivalent of ham radio specialists.  This, he surmises, is because the end of analogue will see a massive decline in the production and purchase of analogue radio equipment and to this end, the internet will to be the new frontier of pirate radio.

“So What!” I hear you say, “let it die like the newspaper and the rest of traditional media”, and perhaps you would be right.  The loss of an analogue listener isn’t the end of the world, as it forces radio stations online and means pirate radio stations can reach out to new audiences beyond their original broadcasting realm, but there is something to be said for supporting niche music in the tiny pockets where it flourishes. Would Garage, Grime et al be the same otherwise?

The New Frontier = Big Business

The irony is that this “new frontier of music online”, from Napster to MySpace and onto Last.fm, the much vaunted backlash to the mainstream of the corporate music business and heavy handed regulation, are now owned by the massive companies they were supposedly rebelling against. Napster, sued out of existence was snapped up by software developer Roxio, and never really recovered;  Myspace is now owned by News Corp, the Rupert Murdoch owned megalith, and Last.fm has become an offshoot of CBS Interactive, itself an arm of CBS Corp.

Mainstream ad-funded radio that give listeners what they want, i.e. regurgitated content without any soul, is fast replacing these pirate networks, and of course, fighting against massive ad-spend and large corporations is hard.  It’s also a tough battle to fight through the backwash of music content online, but in spite of this, the internet does open up new vistas.  Look at the story of Rinse FM, as outlined in the mini-documentary.  How they turned themselves from a pirate network to a household brand, reaching far wider than they would have otherwise and turning themselves into a viable business and a support mechanism for the kinds of artists they play.  Definitely a good thing, even if in the end they do sell out!

Long Live The Good Old Days

Pirate radio is everywhere in London:

[...] born in the 60’s from rusting anti-aircraft towers in the mouth of the Thames. Today’s broadcasts are hidden in plain sight, transmitting from secret tower block studios via homemade rooftop antennas.

There’s something to be said for heritage, but of course each new generations feels as if they are at the vanguard with their cutting edge tunes, but for how much longer? And with it being so much easier to control things on the internet, isn’t it more likely these piratical endeavours will have the plug pulled on them much sooner. The so-called back loop will soon no longer exist and the police will be banging at their doors before they know it.

As Matt Mason so eloquently puts it:

It feels like the end of an era, but a new one is just beginning.

Check out the documentary on the Palladium Explorers web site, click and enjoy!