File sharing works “Wonders” for unsigned duo.

Last year the unsigned UK pop duo Georgia Wonder tasted minor but traditional success through supporting Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall on his first solo tour.

This year an unconventional approach has seen their debut EP “Hello Stranger” downloaded over 30,000 times in four days by users of Frostwire, one of the file sharing programmes the music industry would prefer to shut down rather than harness.

For Georgia Wonder’s vocalist, Stephanie Grant, the opportunity was irresistible:

“What Frostwire helped us achieve is incredible. Their support has put our music into the hands of tens of thousands of potential fans in a matter of days.”

And all Frostwire did was add a link to the duo’s songs on the programme’s welcome page, their spokesperson Kademlia explained (via email) that Georgia Wonder was an act they believed in:

“When we first heard Georgia Wonder's EP, we couldn't stop humming 'The Girl You Never Knew' (see below). We knew there is something unique about them, because this doesn't really happen within our team. Another interesting thing was that we immediately felt the need to share the word about them.”

Even though this altruistic attitude has given a massive boost to Georgia Wonder’s listener base, Frostwire’s software is also helping a vast amount of people share music that should have been purchased.

When you read the latest statistics you can’t blame record companies from gnashing their teeth over the huge sums of money they are potentially losing.

Figures recently published by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) showed that forty billion files were illegally shared in 2008.

As these statistics are based on results from only 16 countries the extent of their problem is potentially much bigger.

Sharing this many files has been made very easy thanks to the “BitTorrent protocol” which allows a computer programme to download a file from many sources instead of the traditional one point of contact.

For example: if you were using the BitTorrent protocol to buy a book in the physical world, individual pages would be sent to you by hundreds of people instead of the whole book delivered from just one shop.

This type of data transfer is known as Peer-to-Peer (P2P) with the “peers” being thousands of domestic computers running programmes like Frostwire.

If you visit the charts hosted at “The Pirate Bay” you’ll see what is currently popular in the BitTorrent universe.

Heading music’s Top 100 is Pink Floyd’s full discography – all 27 albums wrapped up in a file that is just under 4 gigabytes in size.

Also in the charts are established groups such as U2, Metallica, Coldplay and The Beatles as well as a host of present day artists.

Unbelievably, unsigned Georgia Wonder are rubbing shoulders with these giants and, during the period their EP was available on Frostwire, they broke into the Top 20 – which is a remarkable achievement.

It would take many months for Georgia Wonder to reach a similar number of listeners using networking sites such as MySpace, YouTube, ReverbNation and Facebook but at least with those places a firm relationship can be developed with the visitor.

However, as Frostwire only promote music they believe to be a worthy listen, they themselves will form a relationship with their users and that level of trust will mean many more digital artists knocking at Frostwire’s door.

As Kademlia points out: “Music just seems to be the natural thing to share and young and up-and-coming musicians seem to be first to understand and utilize the advantages of peer-to-peer distribution. After all, today's new artists are the pioneers of the future music industry, one which will not be controlled by a hand full of record labels.”

With this type of success it won’t be long before the music industry embraces P2P trading and, with yearly downloads of 40 million; even fifty percent of that traffic would be a tidy sum.

For Kademlia the future is obvious: “P2P has been proven to be an effective media distribution technology. It's been embraced by millions organically. Hopefully, the music industry will evolve and figure out way to use it, instead of fighting it.”

Goodbye to Dark Age 2

The inauguration of Barack Obama sees the world start a new and more positive chapter in its life.

For the past 100 years the planet has experienced its second Dark Age: two world wars, a cold war, the incredible rise of materialism and the ensuing deterioration of our environment.

It seems that humanity has been wandering around with an executioners sack on its head, waiting for the chop. Since the arrival of Barack Obama, people are beginning to feel the sun on their face and the light in their eyes.

His arrival also sees the beginning of the retreat of the people who have been holding the world back.

George W Bush will be remembered for his financing of the fight against Aids in Africa but had he approached Afghanistan, Iraq, Wall Street and the environment with the same conviction we might be looking back fondly on his eight years in power.

However for many his tenure will be seen as the cold part of the night just before dawn.

The new President will still face opposition to his message of hope in the Parliaments and Presidential palaces where the idea of change conflicts with the desire for power.

Within those walls there is a belief that the current system will survive the financial meltdown and that eventually Obama will be drawn into the fold; in a similar way Tony Blair succumbed in the UK.

Blair was also elected on a wave of optimism and hope but it wasn’t long before he was enthralled by the financial world and men of money who seemed to be saying: “If you make change it will be bad for the economy!”

The financial crisis has drawn the rug from under that argument and no matter how many billions are pumped into the system it seems that nothing can stop the collapse.

On one hand Barack Obama brings hope and great expectance and but also the knowledge that we have many miles to travel before we can relax in a rebuilt world.

It was written somewhere that wisdom is intelligence with love, in Barack Obama that love of the people shines through and will hopefully saturate us all.

How To Stop a Miracle

As we slowly roll into the middle of January the “Christmas Miracle” that Benjamin Crème predicted seems reluctant to appear.

If you are new to this story some background links are available at the end but, in summary, December’s issue of Share International and a subsequent press release announced a Christmas Miracle was expected:

“In the very near future a large, bright star will appear in the sky visible to all throughout the world – night and day.”

This “Miracle” would signal the beginning of the open Emergence of Maitreya, a person who will guide humanity to a golden future. Soon after the star’s appearance Maitreya, under a different name, would be interviewed on American television and start delivering His message of hope and change.

According to Benjamin Crème, editor of Share International, Maitreya is the One awaited by all religions who’s Emergence has been ongoing since His arrival in London in July 1977. It’s potentially a massive news story.

People who naturally deride this whole story see this new star’s non-appearance as yet more proof that Maitreya and the Masters of Wisdom do not exist as well as proof that Benjamin Creme has been deluding many people for many years.

However if Maitreya is of the stature that Crème suggests, someone who seems to be saving humanity from humanity, then no doubt any “opposing forces” would try to stop, or at least delay Him. They have been blamed before.

In 1987 twenty-two journalists gathered in Brick Lane, in the East End of London, to hopefully meet Maitreya or one of His envoys.

Crème has always stated that Maitreya needs the media to invite Him forward because He cannot infringe humanity’s free will. Which is why Maitreya is unable to launch Himself unannounced on an unsuspecting public during the final of major sporting event.

Maitreya sees the media as the true representatives of the people, so instead of “take me to your leader” it’s more like: “put me in your leader”.

So this group of expectant reporters met in a curry house at 8pm on 31st July hoping to start the ball rolling. Unfortunately for everybody concerned nothing happened; at least in that room.

An explanation from Benjamin Crème’s Master was printed in Share International (September 1985) and might well give some insight as to why the “Christmas Miracle” has yet to be seen.

“The advent of a Being of the stature of the Christ is an event of planetary and even cosmic importance and is governed by certain laws. Inevitably it also inspires the opposition of those materialistic forces, seen and unseen, planetary and cosmic, who stand to lose the power which has kept humanity in thrall for untold ages.

On that day, beginning about 12 noon, an initiative was launched by these forces which took the total attention of Maitreya and His Brotherhood of Light to contain. This was not achieved until about 3 am.

The unanimous advice of the Masters was to postpone the contact. This decision was finally made about 9 pm. It was decided that the reception through the news media channels would not be of the best, evoking more disbelief, opposition and fear than was desirable.”

As we have no idea what was happening in the unseen areas of our planet we have to look elsewhere and a search of the Internet reveals two “seen” events which could have a bearing on the above explanation.

In Mecca 400 Iranian pilgrims were killed in clashes with Saudi Arabian security forces and in Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) calls July 31st 1987 Black Friday because of a very strong tornado: “…the weather in Edmonton is reaching biblical proportions: torrential rains, rivers rising and severe hailstorms.”

Deadly Skies: Canada's Most Destructive Tornadoes

Another event that is probably unrelated, but still would have caused extra activity in the media, was the UK’s Attorney General deciding to sue the Sunday Telegraph over the publication of details from Peter Wright's Spycatcher novel.

That aside there are parallels with the previous two events and a couple surrounding the Christmas Miracle that Creme predicted.

The festive time frame for the miracle was only announced in December’s issue of Share International, although it was first mentioned at Crème’s public meeting* in October but then is was expected “soon” and not a specific period.

Since the press release was sent out, two situations have shaken the world: Israel has attacked the Palestinians in Gaza and the Russians have cut off gas supplies to many homes in Europe.

No one is suggesting that the leaders of Russia or Israel are in league with “the other side” but the influences of the forces of materialism were blamed before, so have they sown seeds of discontent and suggestion again?

* Benjamin Crème’s next public meeting is Thursday January 15th 2009 at Friends Meeting House, Euston, London, doors open 18:30. (free)

Background reading:

The Christmas Miracle Press release

Share International magazine

“Ponder on This” A compilation of extracts from the books on Esoteric Philosophy by Alice A. Bailey.

We need more journalists like Mick Brown

It was good see journalist and author Mick Brown write in the Daily Telegraph’s blog about the expected “Christmas Miracle” (Bright star shines for Second Coming. Possibly)

He has also covered the Maitreya/Creme story in his book “The Spiritual Tourist” and once made a revealing documentary for BBC Radio 4 in which Crème not only spoke about his life’s mission to bring Maitreya to the public’s attention but also revealed what is was like to work with a “Master of Wisdom”.

But even though a writer of his standing is bringing this story to people’s attention you are left wishing that there were other journalists of Mick Brown calibre prepared to stick their neck out and create more awareness of Maitreya and the possibible benefits his emergency would make around the planet.

However "the sit back and wait approach" is apparently the way forward as Maitreya (under another name) will be interviewed on American TV a week or so after the “Christmas Miracle”.

Yet here we are, two days into the New Year and still no sign of any bright lights in the sky.

However I still haven’t stopped looking up at every opportunity hoping to catch that first glimpse of this new celestial object.

I’m usually looking to the north as logic dictates that if you are going to cause people to look up in awe, day and night, then away from the sun would be a sensible idea.

And we’ve had some lovely clear days and nights in England, almost perfect conditions since Christmas but still nothing.

Although remember this: Christmas is twelve days long and the last day, Epiphany, is on January 6th

I only recently found out that Epiphany in Greek means "to manifest" or "to show". So there is always hope of impeccable timing.

Yet the disturbing situation in the middle-east could prove a hindrance. With the Israelis attacking the Palestinians in Gaza I’m wondering if a cease-fire is needed before any light comes from above. Or would a new star in the sky cause people to stop their war?