Dónal Donohoe

The world has become a smaller place and although many people including myself tried to avoid it as long as they could, in the end it is impossible to ignore it. Yes I am talking about the internet, the place where lovers meet, deals are done, contacts are made and information is exchanged. I still find it fascinating that I can sit here at home on a hillside in Wicklow on the east coast of Ireland and communicate with people in Boston USA, Cumbria England, Copenhagen Denmark or Chile in South America sending messages with the click of a button and often getting a reply within minutes.

Recently I re-established contact with some old friends and acquaintances from my time living in Copenhagen, many of whom had changed address and telephone numbers since I had last seen or spoken to them. All of this happened by surfing the internet and very often coming across them in cyberspace by chance. Also there are the people you meet on the internet that you have never met in real life and probably never will, virtual friends so to speak. Of course there is a downside, spam and the people who send it, but like everything in life there are people who will use a thing like the internet for creative purposes or for just doing their daily business and there are people who will use it to cheat, steal or just to disrupt other people’s lives.

Whatever the disadvantages with the internet may be the opportunities it opens up for independent musicians to get their music across to a wider audience without having to sign away the copyright and control of their music to a major record company make it look like the more attractive option. So here’s to the small businessmen, entrepreneurs and independent musicians of this world, may the new technologies serve them well as they try to survive against the onslaught of the multinationals and big corporations.