Billy Bragg used our EconMusic conference in London to urge the emerging wave of web services to pay artists fairly for using their songs. “Everyone’s making a shitload of money, it seems, except the content providers,” said the singer-songwriter, who has previously criticised MySpace and MTV on artists’ rights and…

Just one outtake out of many from the energetic discussion about social media and music taking place now at EconMusic. Billy Bragg: “That’s my income stream you’re pissing with.”        

Did we mention that Billy Bragg is speaking at EconMusic, our London conference examining the digital music business on September 23? Billy has previously taken on MySpace for its policy on artist royalties and Bebo for building a fortune off musicians’ work. At EconMusic, Billy joins Last.fm, Mog.com and others…

Songwriter Billy Bragg has reprised his recent New York Times op-ed, in which he criticised social media sites like Bebo for making money that they don’t pass on to artists, with a new interview. After claiming a few years back MySpace was harvesting rights from unsigned musicians, Bragg, in the…