Lily Allen Says She’s Made Her Last Album

Here’s what the British pop star had to say about her exit from the industry:

“Just so you know, I have not renegotiated my record contract and have no plans to make another record (applause). I do however remain a fan of new music, so this is not some selfish crusade,” Allen wrote.

“The days of me making money from recording music has been and gone as far as I’m concerned … Slagging me, my music and my so-called ‘family connections’ off, and calling me a government puppet is not going to get anyone anywhere, so stop it. I think people assume we artists are a lot richer than you think we are, please bear in mind this doesn’t have anything to do with me or my wealth.”

Allen might have had a change of heart though because yesterday she deleted the post and the blog, explaining on Twitter “and i’ve shut down the blog, the abuse was getting too much.” The “abuse” comment is assumedly a reference to critics who disagreed with her position that snagging music online through illegal file sharing is not cool because it’s detrimental to new artists trying to make it in the biz.

The Guardian points out that we can’t exactly trust Allen’s word because this isn’t the first time she’s threatened to say goodbye to the music world. The U.K. paper wrote that, “In 2007, Allen said she wanted to quit music after her second album so she could ‘lead a normal life.’” In February the pop star told MTV.com that she couldn’t promise fans another album, explaining “As far as the future goes, there’s only a vague plan of getting married and having kids. I couldn’t tell you if I’m going to make another record, because I don’t know if I’m going to enjoy this in six months’ time.”

 Allen’s representative told NME.com that the singer “is not quitting pop music. She is not thinking about her next album right now because she is still in the middle of promoting her current record.”

Yesterday she told her Twitter followers that she was also distancing herself from the file-sharing debate.

She tweeted, “there is a meeting today in london where artists are meeting to discuss Piracy” but explained “i wont be attending the meeting because it’s going to be a press frenzy and i don’t want to detract from the issues.” She added, “i’m proud of the fact that that i’ve been involved with this debate but i’m passing the baton on to other artists.”

Turns out that she wasn’t ready to pass the baton because BBC News reported that Allen showed up to the meeting at Air Studio in north London along with almost 100 other British musicians.

A hot topic among British musicians is a U.K. government proposal which would punish repeat illegal downloading offenders by suspending their internet connection. Members of the Featured Artists Coalition, a British musicians advocacy group, disagreed with the proposal as they didn’t believe it was the way to combat file sharing.

Allen, and other artists she published quotes from on her “It’s Not Alright” blog, expressed their support of the U.K. proposal and disagreed with the FAC.

The FAC has now released a statement in support of Allen, writing, “We the undersigned wish to express our support for Lily Allen in her campaign to alert music lovers to the threat that illegal downloading presents to our industry and to condemn the vitriol that has been directed at her in recent days.”

The statement also explained that the organization has changed its position on the government proposal. But rather than agreeing with the government that repeat offenders should have their internet cut off completely, the FAC says repeat offenders’ bandwidth should be reduced so they could no longer have access to file sharing but still have basic email and web access.

The statement was signed by Allen, in addition to FAC members such as Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, Blur‘s Dave Rowntree, Keane‘s Tim Rice-Oxley, Patrick Wolf, Cornershop‘s Tjinder Singh, Billy Bragg, Annie Lennox and George Michael.

If Allen is actually seriously about quitting music, she has a few small things to take care of – including a U.K. and European tour, which includes shows lined up from Oct. 22 at Zenith Paris in Paris through a Dec. 15 show at London’s O2 Academy Brixton.

Click here for the Featured Artists Coalition Web site.

Click here for Lily Allen’s Twitter account.

Click here for the MTV.com story.

Click here for the Guardian story.

Click here for the NME.com story.