Joss Stone on piracy: “I love it, music should be shared”

Joss Stone: "Totally cool"
Joss Stone: "Totally cool"

Joss Stone hates the music industry and doesn't care if music is shared. In fact, she thinks that all music should be free, so the industry she despises so much would not exist. After paying herself £2.2 million from her own industry enterprise - Joss Ltd, Joss ROW Touring, Joss Publishing etc - these statements could be perceived by some as… unbelievable?

The comments were made after a recent concert in Argentina. A bewildered journalist asked Miss Stone for her thoughts about music piracy on the internet, to which she replied "It's great".

"I think it's great, I love it. I think it's brilliant and I'll tell you why… music should be shared. I believe that this is how music turned into some crazy business. The only part about music that I dislike is the business attached to it. Now, if music is free then there is no business, there is just music".

After reading that, you might think that Joss Stone is either a hypocrite or just plain stupid. Well, she's certainly not the latter, after all, she knows where the real money is at: "As long as you come to my show and have a great time it's totally cool".

"It's ok, one person buys it, it's totally cool, burn it up, share it with your friends, I don't care. I don't care how you here it, as long as you here it".

She finished by accusing every other artist of being "brainwashed" by the industry. How nice.

Tom Porter worked on MusicRadar from its mid-2007 launch date to 2011, covering a range of music and music making topics, across features, gear news, reviews, interviews and more. A regular NAMM-goer back in the day, Tom now resides permanently in Los Angeles, where he's doing rather well at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).