Apple is a digital vampire

WINDMILL ARM SWINGING GUITARIST Pete Townsend has called Apple a digital vampire that sucks cash out of talent without fostering it.

Speaking at a digital radio conference, Townsend said that the firm should do more to foster and support artists, and stop running them through a mincer. Comparing the firm and its Itunes service to a financial organisation, he said that Apple "bleeds" musicians, according to a report at the Guardian.

"Is there really any good reason why, just because iTunes exists in the wild west internet land of Facebook and Twitter, it can't provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire Northern Rock for its enormous commission?", he asked at the 2011 Radio Festival in Salford.

Townsend recommended that Apple give free computers and advice to the 500 artists that it felt needed the help the most, and said it would then be working like a traditional music label, one that spends money as well as makes it.

Townsend has not spoken up about the internet for a while now, but since he had the ear of the audience he also took time to discuss illegal downloading and suggested that its increase is a sign that society is decaying.

"If someone pretends that something I have created should be available to them free. I wonder what has gone wrong with human morality and social justice," he said.

"I once suggested that people who download my music without paying for it may as well come and steal my son's bike while they're at it." µ