Home Taping Is Killing Music

"Home Taping Is Killing Music" was the slogan of a 1980s anti-copyright infringement campaign by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), a British music industry trade group. With the rise in cassette recorder popularity, the BPI feared that the ability of private citizens to record music from the radio onto cassettes would cause a decline in record sales. The logo, consisting of a Jolly Roger formed from the silhouette of a Compact Cassette, also included the words "And It's Illegal".

In the 2000s the campaign experienced a revival, as the Norwegian branch of IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) launched a new campaign named Piracy Kills Music. The campaign has exactly the same message, same name and similar logos. The campaign won the Norwegian 2008 Gulltaggen award for "Best Internet Strategy" with much controversy.

An early proponent of home taping was Malcolm McLaren, who was at the time managing the British band Bow Wow Wow. In 1980 the band released their Cassette single "C·30 C·60 C·90 Go" on a cassette that featured a blank B side on which the buyer could record their own music. The band's record label, EMI, dropped the group shortly afterwards because the single allegedly promoted home taping.

The slogan was often parodied, one example being the addendum and it's about time too!, used by Dutch anarcho-punk band The Ex. Some fanzines changed the words to Home taping is killing the music industry and added the words ...so be sure to do your part! below the logo. Another example was the early 1980s counter-slogan Home Taping is Skill in Music, referring to early mixtapes, a precursor to sampling and remixes. The cassette & crossbones image was displayed briefly as a backdrop in the "Time Out For Fun" video by the band Devo from their 1982 album, Oh, No! It's Devo. Venom's 1982 album Black Metal used the logo with the words Home Taping Is Killing Music; So Are Venom. The phrase Home-Taping Is Making Music appears on the back cover of Peter Principle's self-produced 1988 album Tone Poems. The American punk band Rocket from the Crypt sold T-shirts with the tape and bones and the words "Home Taping Is Killing the Music Industry: Killing Ain't Wrong." Sonic Youth has T-shirts with the cassette and "Sonic Youth" written under it. The cover of Billy Bragg's album Workers Playtime featured a notice reading "Capitalism is killing music - pay no more than £4.99 for this record".Mitch Benn also comments "Home taping isn't killing music, music's dying of natural causes" in the song "Steal This Song" on the album Radioface. In Poland during the mid-1980s, some (PRONIT label) vinyl pressings of certain albums contained a parody stamp labeled "Home taping... is much fun".

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