Yesterday, Music Canada President Graham Henderson appeared on CBC Metro Morning to discuss the recent shutdown of The Pirate Bay, and how to restore respect for creators’ work.

When asked why the Pirate Bay remained in operation despite legal threats for so long, Henderson replied, “I think it’s one of the realities of our digital environment, that if you are persistent, and you want to operate outside the law, there are ways to do it. And very clearly that’s what the Pirate Bay has been doing for these past years. But it also reflects an almost insatiable demand for music.”

“The site was popular, because music is popular,” said Henderson. “What we’ve seen for the past 14 years is an entirely avoidable, inappropriate loss of value for creators. I think it’s fair to say that musicians and creators in general today are worse off than they were in 1999 – was that the plan? I don’t think that was the plan, and in fact, I would suggest to you that there was an implicit promise that came from the intermediaries, that came from everybody, that creators were going to be okay – and they’re not, and I think we can thank The Pirate Bay for a lot of the reason for that.”

Host Matt Galloway asked why, with the emergence of licensed digital music options, “what still drives some people to a site like the Pirate Bay?”

“It’s not even a really good experience, we have to remember that,” said Henderson. “It’s free, but the contrast would be a service like Spotify, which is $10 a month. I think people are gradually migrating to legal – I think once they experience legal services, for example, there was a brand new high-def service named TIDAL launched here last week – once they experience these services, they realize there is a phenomenal customer experience there.”

“Intellectually, people understand that illegally downloading is like stealing,” said Galloway. “And yet they still do it – how do you convince them to make that intellectual leap, that downloading is no different than going and taking something from a store?”

“I think that a lot of people have lost the connection with the recording artist; I think we have to restore that respect for the creative process, restore the respect for the creator,” said Henderson. “I also think we need to acknowledge the elephant in the room: creators are not doing as well as it was suggested they’re doing – in fact, they’re worse off. I think when people realize that the direct consequence of their actions is to impoverish the musicians they love, then maybe we’ll move in the right direction.”

“Do you think people care if Taylor Swift doesn’t get more money because they are getting it for free?”, asked Galloway.

“I don’t think everyone does, because I think people can be quite selfish in terms of the way they behave – but it’s not about Taylor Swift – that’s an easy thing to say, but what’s happening is we’re seeing an unprecedented shift of wealth,” said Henderson. “It’s moving from creators to the hands of billionaires and trillionaires – that’s where it’s going, into the hands of intermediaries. Lost in this – Taylor Swift is doing fine. It’s like the 1% problem – more and more wealth, concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and the middle-class in the music environment: wiped out. We have more hobbyists than professional musicians. And I think it’s been very convenient in the past to think, ‘I’m doing this because rich artists are fine anyway.’”

The full interview is available on Metro Morning’s website, and is embedded below: