Bye Bye BPI - Dan Bull

This is addressed to Geoff Taylor of the BPI

Thanks to STB for the beat

You’re the BPI’s VIP and you’ve picked a fight with TPB

But P2P's too deep to preclude, don’t you see?

You can’t stop it

You won’t stop it

You won’t block it

So find another way to lie and line your own pocket

Most of us have composed a lot, no profit

99% of us will never have a pop hit

It’s not rocket science, so don’t knock it

And don’t pretend like you’re being philanthropic

Talent isn’t rare, it doesn’t need protection

Any claim to the contrary is pure condescension

A con, deception, the wrong perception

Propagated by a proper dong, it’s evident

Go to any pub

In any town

In any county

And count the musicians doing it without need

For some rudes in suits, shitting on our scene

And sticking in the boot

So you can stop telling me stuff

Put your money where your mouth is

And take a salary cut

Cause I’ll happily put your cash into the hat of a busker

The BPI doesn’t give a fuck for

Look, I’ve studied your justifications of what you seem to think

There couldn’t be a clearer case of circular reasoning

You judge talent by how well they’re selling

But they’re only selling from how well you’re selling them

You think Adele’d have reached where she was

Without the media machine feeding the buzz

You say artist should get paid for the work they do

But you only care about the ones that bring in revenue

If the bottom line is the sign of a good artist

The why the need to manipulate the market?

So Pro laissez faire you recommend protectionism

Where’s your decision, on which method it is or isn’t?

The only way your in today’s position

Is through decades of ripping of plagiarism

But now the next generation’s risen

You’re complaining «Hey, we need to change the system

These crazy kids and their disco dancing

It isn’t legitimate if we haven’t cleared the sampling»

But surely sampling is always a bad thing

Not just when the bank accounts need balancing

And if MC’s are paid related to their talent

How come I make a fraction of what T-Pain is selling?

If I re-made a ballad with sheen aimed at amorous teenagers

Daniel’d be famous now but it isn’t gonna happen

So I’ll stick to rapping with integrity

Something your industry is lacking

Ask any MC or composer

Piracy?

Yes Please!

It’s the only method I know to my VSTs

Nothing is proportionate, the prices are extortionate

To lawfully produce, only a portion can afford the stuff

I’m sure that cutting off connections and dealing bans

Would leave the music scene desolate, completely bland

Innovation comes from underground

Where there ain’t much money round

So we resort to lawlessness to make the funny sounds

And then of course all that goes around comes around

The majors wander round and plunder from the underground

See you need us as much as we need you

And that might not be much depending on your view

I was once on the tube once and overheard a conversation

Between two rec execs planning exploitation

A singer had passed on

So they tacked a crap track onto the back catalogue

And laughed a lot

I thought: «I can’t believe it, this is a mix up»

I’m literally listening to paint a vulgar picture

That the BPI can leave a site on the net censored

Is an incredibly terrible threat to the new tech sector

Now there’s a industry that really needs fighting for

They’re the future, you’re just a wounded dinosaur

Tchaikovsky didn’t need the BPI

Stravinsky didn’t need the BPI

Verdi didn’t need the BPI

Vivaldi didn’t need the BPI

Rossini didn’t need the BPI

Debussy didn’t need the BPI

Puccini didn’t need the BPI

So why do we need the BPI?

I don’t need the BPI

Homeless busker doesn’t need the BPI

British music doesn’t need the BPI

The future doesn’t need the BPI

You don’t need the BPI

We don’t need the BPI

They don’t need the BPI

The BPI needs the BPI

BYE BYE BPI

BYE BYE BPI

BYE BYE BPI