An Interview with Ghost Beach.
A few weeks ago, a Times Square billboard displaying the phrase, “PIRACY IS OUR GENERATION” caught the attention of millions of music industry professionals, blog writers, and New York City pedestrians.
The 15,000 square foot sign called for artists and musicians to head to Twitter and publicly declare their stance on piracy with the hashtags, #Artistsagainstpiracy and #Artistsforpiracy. Spawning a slew of buzz and world of criticism, it is almost surprisingly ironic that the creators of this controversial project are the notably underground music duo, Ghost Beach.
The Grooveshark team got the opportunity to speak with Josh Ocean and Eric Mendelsohn of the band Ghost Beach to learn more about their campaign that pitted Artists against Artists.
How long have you guys been making music?
Together as ghost beach about two years. Our first release was in october of 2011
Did you expect the Time Square Billboard to garner as much attention as it did?
We had no expectations of the billboard. We had the canvas to work with and we decided to start a discussion.
What were your intentions when you guys created the ArtistsVsArtists.com Campaign?
Our intention was simply to start a dialogue on what “piracy” means in 2013. Our hope was that by discussing the topic we can bring to light many new ways that internet helps artists defeat piracy while still maintaining respect to their intellectual property
How has the support, or the backlash, been for your campaign?
Support from our fans and friends were strong. There was also a lot of support from our musician friends and other upcoming musicians. However there was a lot of anger generated towards us by some artists as if we were selling them out for a billboard. When in fact we were always on the side of #Artistsagainstpiracy. People seemed to only pay attention to one side of the billboard and forget there was a side just as big saying that piracy was wrong. We asked people to pick a side. We did.
What are your beliefs about piracy in the 21st century?
While we do think that there have been tremendous strides in the development of music distribution and technology as a result of illegal file sharing online, ultimately we stand with #artistsagainstpiracy. The Internet enables artists to share their music with more listeners than ever before the important thing is to find and support the platforms that do this while still maintaining the integrity of their intellectual property. We believe by offering music consumers convenient choices that respect the artist piracy can be defeated.
What are the plans for Ghost Beach for the rest of 2013?
More new music, more shows, more fun!
Latest Results as of April 11th.

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