Opinion: Elton, how much digital music will you sell before you try to "shut down the whole Internet"?

Andy Merrett writes…

Despite his rants and raves, I’ve got a fair amount of time for Elton John, but his latest idea is just plain crazy.

According to an interview in The Sun, he’d “shut down the entire Internet for five years” in order to “see what sort of art is produced over that span”. He’s concerned that too many people are sitting at home using the Internet to blog rather than getting stuck in to good old-fashioned face-to-face communication.

That, apparently, has led to the death of long-term artistic vision.

Yours, perhaps, Elton, but c’mon – are you serious?

I note that the Internet is good enough for you to sell your albums via digital download. But then, of course, you’ve made plenty enough money that it doesn’t really matter to you. Never mind how the Internet has revolutionised music delivery and independent music.

If you really believe that “the next movement in music will tear down the internet” and that it’s possible to “get out in the streets and march and protest” (about the Internet, presumably), then you obviously don’t realise just how powerful and influential the Internet is.

Sure, VIrgin Media can screw up half their customers’ Internet accounts in one go, but that’s not the Net’s fault – cheap dig I know.

Elton, you need to realise that the Internet is here to stay. Rightly or wrongly, some of us go stir-crazy if it’s down for five hours, never mind five years. Certain research also suggests that the likes of Facebook and other social networking sites are actually making many people more sociable, and there are real people making real music using real instruments in real life, and using the Web to let people know about it.

Whatever this “next movement in music” is, you can bet it’ll involve the Internet in some way.