WE WANT OUR MP3!

The band sample a host of artists, including The Beatles, Eminem and Madonna without permission...

Chumbawamba have started a sampling war with anti-file sharing artists including Metallica, Eminem, DR DRE, THE BEATLES, ELVIS and MADONNA by sampling them all without permission on an MP3 version of their song ‘PASS IT ALONG’.

The ‘MP3 Mix’ of ‘Pass It Along’, is a track, according to a statement on the official Chumbawamba website, [url=]www.chumba.com, which is “a reaction to the hokum that opposing file sharing is somehow linked to artistic integrity…(and a) reply to the hot air being spouted by millionaire pop stars and record executives. Laughing outright at the assertion that MP3 and file-sharing is killing music.”

Speaking about the effect of Napster, Chumbawamba vocalist Dunstan Bruce said:”What? Killing music the way that home taping killed music in the Seventies? It’s not passing music around for free which is killing music, but the industry which is stifling creativity by only ever thinking in terms of dollars and pounds.

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“This is about commerce rather than art or integrity…If (Metallica‘s Lars) Ulrich, Madonna and Eminem had never sold any records and were worried about entering a poverty stricken old age, then their determination to stop their music being passed around would be understandable – but what we’re seeing is some of the richest pop stars in the world making the biggest stink…after all, file sharing is hardly going to have an adverse effect on their standard of living.”

A UK spokesperson for the band told NME.COM that Chumbawamba, who posted the song on their website on Friday (October 20), had not yet received any threats of legal action from the artists sampled.

In addition to the track, Chumbawamba have just announced details of a UK tour for November. They will play:

Cambridge Junction (November 16)

Whitehaven Civic (17)

Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall (18)

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Sheffield Leadmill (19)

Brighton Concorde (December 6)

Barnstable Queen’s Theatre (7)

Burnley Mechanics (8)

Oxford Zodiac (9)

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