Think of it as a Pirate Bay for tasteful independent Lebanese music (Mashrou’ Leila, Blend, Meen..etc). The site offers entire albums for free, with a stated aim of generating awareness of indie Lebanese bands.
But aren’t they effectively stealing from those artists by offering their music for free? Not at all they insist:
We’re actually promoting them by distributing their work and making everything more accessible. A direct link between the artist and the consumer is created and we’re confident that this will get more people to go to concerts and see live performances.
You got to give the guys credit for staying clear from the Ragheb Alamas and the Nancy Ajrams of Lebanese music, but by choosing to remain anonymous, they at least concede that what they’re doing lies squarely outside of the law.
Hello, my name is Mustapha and I've been blogging about Lebanese society, business and politics since February 2005.
To be fair, they introduced me to heaps of artists I had no idea existed.. so I’m very thankful for them.
However, its is indeed illegal. Perhaps they shouldn’t be sharing full albums, and just give us a taste of what the music sounds like.
I was at first reluctant to link to them, but like you I was introduced to artists I didn’t know about, so I figured why not?
Mustapha, thanks for linking to us.
We also have a twitter stream (@piratebeirut) and a facebook account for those who do not feel like regularly checking the website.
Not saying it is right, but in a sense it is a promotional and awareness-making device. This really isn’t any different than being able to get the music or dvd’s from street vendors all over Beirut or going to a music store and having them copy the newest cd for 5,000LL (as compared to buying a legit copy for 15,000).