I recently enjoyed a wonderful concert by David Sylvian and friends at London’s Royal Festival Hall. I would have enjoyed it even more were it not for the intrusive attempts to prevent the performance being recorded by members of the audience.

Before the band came on stage, the tannoy announced that photography would not be permitted because it would “endanger the performers on stage”. Everybody laughed out loud at this transparent lie. The edict was, of course, about copyright control. Even if Mr Sylvian were momentarily blinded by a flash, it’s hard to see how this might endanger him, since he gave the performance sitting down, and the rest of the musical ensemble was about as mobile as a waxwork. As any fan knows, Sylvian is all about emotion, not motion.

I happened to be sitting next to two fans who clearly wanted to record as much as possible for posterity. One sat with a video camera perched surreptitiously on his knee, capturing the on-stage lack of movement at 50 frames per second, while the other had a bulky digital SLR camera hidden under his jacket. The long lens emerged snakelike at regular intervals to take a snap.

Maybe these two were hardened bootlegging felons - I don’t know and I don’t care. What I do know is that I spent what seemed like a quarter of the concert with a burly, sweaty security guy leaning in front of me trying to give the bootleggers an earful. It wasn't effective at preventing copyright theft and as ambient background it wasn’t exactly adding to the experience.

It’s a shame on levels beyond my spoiled enjoyment. Sylvian is a smart, experimental artist in more ways than one. He set up his own record label in 2003 to allow him to do entirely his own thing and I suspect he does the bulk of his business online. He has a lovely web site, offers downloadable track samples and podcasts and generally seems to “get” what the post-iTunes music business needs to be all about.

So he really ought to be open to the needs of people who want to have a record of his performances.

Today we’re in a transitional phase. As digital recording devices become smaller, more unobtrusive, and higher in fidelity, it will become harder and harder for the sweaty, burly guards to tell who is bootlegging and who is simply wearing a pair of thick-framed spectacles. My advice is that performers and venues should give up policing piracy now.

What performers ought to do is go with the unstoppable flow rather than resisting it. It’s cheap and simple to record every concert, and make the official recordings available for download. Filming doesn’t have to be broadcast quality - it just has to beat the fidelity of a knee-held camcorder or waving cameraphone. Then charge a reasonable sum and almost everyone who wants a copy will buy one. Or why not give a download voucher to ticket holders and charge everyone else a nominal sum? This would not only boost takings but also remove most of the market for pirates and bootleggers.

And it might even mean that, in the future, I might be able to see the stage, rather than an armpit.