Billie+Ray+Martin

Billie Ray Martin is a legend.  

She's the queen of electronica soul and in a ground-breaking new campaign for her latest single "The Crackdown", she has partnered with torrent file-sharing website Mininova to release her latest work!

This new project is aptly called "The Crackdown Project" and features Billie's interpretations of the Cabaret Voltaire classics "The Crackdown" and "Just Fascination" which also features Stephen Mallinder from the Cabs in a rare vocal appearance.

When asked about her involvement with Mininova – this is what Billie Ray Martin had to say:

"Torrent sites are no longer the enemy. All music has basically become free. If a label holds on to their file for dear life, the minute they release it, it will be out there free. It’s a fact and you can’t get away from it. So there’s no point in fighting it. Distributing your music more or less for free might be a bit of a hard-to-grasp concept—it certainly is for me still—but the way it works now is simply that the money is no longer in sales, but in live gigs and licensing. So MP3s are merely there to create interest now. So they’re given out for free really. In a couple of years, all music will be free. Don’t ask me if I am pleased, I’d rather have the $100,000 advances that I used to get from record companies. On the other hand, this process is more democratic. Kids download the files if they like them, you’ve just reached your audience."

Very very interesting – we were just debating this very subject over on Facebook!

Update: ModFab chimes in on his thoughts about this project…

Let's watch the new music video to "The Crackdown" shall we…