Paulo Coelho featured on FrostWire

The Way of the Bow -- Paulo Coelho

I appear to have forfeited my recording deal because I won’t do reality TV. No one needs to make an album that badly. Tea anyone? — Alison Moyet

Thank you Paulo Coelho, you are a gift to mankind. — FrostWire

And remember, DO NOT PAY A DIME FOR FROSTWIRE, EVER. You can use it all you want in as many computers as you want, it’s absolutely free. — FrostWire

Artists: sell your music & merch directly to your fans. — bandcamp

Fans: discover new music & directly support the artists who make it. — bandcamp

The uses we make of this world are, in reality, the rules and laws which we agree; and not the reverse. — Laetitia Kava

I had never heard of FrostWire until Paulo Coelho mentioned on twitter that he had placed The Way of the Bow there for free download. It had been previously available as free download on his blog.

– Paulo Coelho featured on FrostWire
– Paulo Coelho’s The Way of the Bow to be featured on FrostWire
– Paulo Coelho: The Way of the Bow – an inspirational short read

Checking stats this evening on FrostClick (2321 GMT), 7,020 downloads, downloading 24, sharing 974.

FrostWire is a free, open source BitTorrent client first released in September 2004. Developed in Java by the FrostWire Project. FrostWire was spun off from an earlier project that was shut down by the music industry.

Another download system I have recently come across, thanks to ShadowBoxer who have placed their excellent EP Two Cities for download, is BandCamp.

– Shadowboxer – Chase and Status – Time
– Shadowboxer – Scott Matthews – Elusive

With Two Cities, you decide what you wish to pay. You can download for free if you wish.

Marcel Legane lets you download his Heart Life EP for £3 or for £4 you can download and he will send you an actual real physical album, signed limited edition.

Bandcamp connects creative artists with those who may appreciate their work, thus bypassing the music industry. But it does far, far more.

What is surprising is the amount of revenue being generated on bandcamp.

– Cheaper than Free

I do not download music. The quality is too poor due to the use of lossy digital compression. BandCamp is offering high quality digital downloads (file size large).

We like to share, as human beings, we are social animals, that is what helped our brains expand and us evolve (though I do wonder with many people).

If we look at musicians from the 1960s who are still around, they played music because that is what they enjoyed doing, it was not to become mega stars or celebrities or to become rich and famous. That playing music earned them some money enabled them to carry on doing what they loved doing.

Paulo Coelho, Neil Young, Michael Moore recognise this need to share. They want people to be aware of their work.

– Paulo Coelho calls on readers to pirate books
– Piracy is the new airwaves

We read a book that we are given, lent or recommended to read by a friend. Or if we are very lucky we meet the author.

My first encounter with Paulo Coelho was meeting a lovely Lithuania girl sat by a river reading The Zahir. I was curious what had her so entranced. We had a long conversation about writers. I have since not only read all the books by Paulo Coelho but actually met him.

– Synchronicity and Paulo Coelho
– Paulo Coelho Press Conference at Pera Palace Hotel
– Paulo Coelho’s St Joseph’s Day Party at Pera Palace Hotel

I had never heard of Orhan Pamuk until my lovely Russian friend Alissa recommended that I read My Name is Red.

A little over a year ago, I met Canon Andrew White. I bought all his books, which I read, then gave as Christmas presents to my lovely but sadly mad friend Sian. A year later we met again and I bought six copies of Faith Under Fire, one for myself, the others to be given away as presents.

– Dinner with Canon Andrew White
– Canon Andrew White at Guildford Baptist Church
– Canon Andrew White at the Boiler Room

Fulla tells her story in Suffer the Children. We are now in regular contact and we will meet in Brighton in September at a conference on Iraq organised by Canon Andrew White.

Little known author Neil Gaiman persuaded his publisher to make available one of his books for free download for a month. Monitoring only sales in independent bookshops they found sales increased by 300%!

Paulo Coelho had only sold a few thousand copies of The Alchemist in Russia, his publisher was no longer interested, until a pirate copy was posted on the net, sales then became millions!

In 1999, when I was first published in Russia ( with a print- run of 3,000), the country was suffering a severe paper shortage. By chance, I discovered a ‘ pirate’ edition of The Alchemist and posted it on my web page.

A year later, when the crisis was resolved, I sold 10,000 copies of the print edition. By 2002, I had sold a million copies in Russia, and I have now sold 12 million.

When I traveled across Russia by train, I met several people who told me that they had first discovered my work through the ‘ pirated’ edition I posted on my website. Nowadays, I run a ‘Pirate Coelho’ website, giving links to any books of mine that are available on file- sharing sites. And my sales continue to grow — nearly 140 million copies world wide.

Writers do not slave away in their garrets wishing no one would read their works. They write because they have a story to tell, they want to be read.

The music industry and now publishing is in crisis because of greed. There is no nurturing of talent. It is the latest me-too, copycat, blockbuster mega-selling act, book, then on to the next, mindless brain-numbing book, act. Moronic TV shows like X-Factor encourages the dumbing down, me-too I want to be rich and famous celebrity no talent culture.

Alison Moyet was refused a recording contract because she refused to degrade herself and appear on a crap reality TV show.

We were angry over Sopa, we are even angrier over Acta, we are seething with anger. Sopa was defeated and so will be Acta. We will not allow Hollywood and the music industry to control the internet. We will continue to share. If sharing is piracy, then I am proud to be a pirate. Sharing is not theft.

– Say NO to ACTA
– The cultural industry
– Documented@Davos: SOPA Panel
– Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea)
– Thoughts of Paulo Coelho on Sopa
– Stop SOPA

A couple of years ago I picked up Unlimited Art by Jacob’s Stories. I got Unlimited Art from Resident Records in Brighton, having been pointed in their direction by Brighton Books, where I first heard Unlimited Art. I got home from Brighton some time after midnight, listened to Unlimited Art until the early hours of the morning. I gave copies to friends. Can you buy us a copy next time you are in Brighton? I bought several copies to give away as presents.

Next time I was in Brighton, I asked in Resident Records, anything else by Jacob’s Stories? No, but you will like Mechanical Bride.

Last Easter, I asked again. No, but we expect something later in the year. I picked up a copy of The Ordeal by Stuart Warwick. Stuart Warwick was founder of Brighton band Jacob’s Stories. Or maybe it was the year before, I lose track of time.

Brighton Books, Resident Records are a rarity, another good reason to visit Brighton. The reason independent bookshops and record shops are a rarity is because they have been destroyed by the greed of the music and publishing business.

– A quarter of independent bookshops lost in last five years

Who needs a record label? Shadowboxer are doing ok without. Watch them in a recording studio and see the sheer joy on their faces.

Maybe Shadowboxer can show Alison Moyet how it is done without needing a record label, without a degrading appearance on a reality TV show.

Big business has alienated those who buy by treating them as criminals. Alienated those who have talent as they are incapable of recognising talent.

What the internet demonstrates, via systems like FrostWire and BandCamp, those who create can communicate directly with those who appreciate what they create. To Big business both are simply a source of money, a product, a brand, a commodity, all consumed by easily manipulated mindless consumers who can be sold the latest fad. It could be a can of baked beans for all they care, so long as it has a monetary value attached, the bigger the price tag the better.

We make the rules, not Big Business. By making use of services like FrostWire and BandCamp, by sharing, by telling our friends to do the same, we can bypass Big Business and put them out of business.

We need more creative people to make use of platforms like FrostWire and BandCamp. And for us to support them when they do.

Well done Paulo Coelho for setting an example by putting The Way of the Bow on FrostWire for free download.

Top Story in Creative Industry Articles (Wednesday 8 February 2012).

Top Story in Creative Industry Articles (Thursday 9 February 2012).

Tags: Acta, copyright, freedownload, FrostWire, Paulo Coelho, piracy, Shadowboxer, Sopa, StopActa, StopSOPA, The Way of the Bow