Defining and Demanding a Musician’s Fair Shake in the Internet Age

It has been 13 years since Metallica’s drummer, Lars Ulrich, identified the screen names of more than 300,000 Napster users in a copyright infringement lawsuit. The tarring he received in response — being derided as greedy and insensitive to fans — still makes musicians think twice before complaining about the problems with digital music. But it hasn’t stopped David Lowery. As the leader of the bands Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, Lowery had a modicum of fame in the 1980s and ’90s. But recently, he has become a celebrity among musicians for speaking out about artists’ shrinking paychecks and the influence of Silicon Valley over copyright, economics and public discourse. In public appearances and no-holds-barred blog posts, Lowery, 53, has come to represent the anger of musicians in the digital age.