ZeroPaid's soulxtc today picks up on an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that quotes the Great Lake Swimmers' Tony Dekker as crediting filesharing with his band's success.

"It's not just something that's specific to a region anymore," Dekkers says. "It's global. It's global word-of-mouth. People can share ideas, share music files and stuff, and I think it's good. It's good for music because you don't have to scratch far below the surface to find interesting music that doesn't have the machinery of a big record label behind it."

"Record labels tirelessly argue that illegal file-sharing harms the music industry and artists at the same time, as though the interests of both are one in the same when in reality the profits of the former come well ahead of the interests of the latter," ZeroPaid's soulxtc writes. "What's left out, and what studies have shown, is that P2P actually increases music consumption because people are able to listen to, become fans of, and perhaps buy more then they would have otherwise. P2P can spark global interest in a way that the music industry just hasn't been able to figure out, and for emerging bands like the Great Lake Swimmers that are trying to reach music fans it's importance cannot be understated."