Paul McGuinness stumbled into the find of a lifetime in discovering U2 and becoming the megastar band’s manager. He now he’s raging about the commoditization of music and blaming Internet service providers for it. We chuckle after the jump.
The music industry spent years digging a nice, deep grave for itself, with egregious CD pricing, onerous artist contracts, and a fixation on one-trick ponies rather than artist development. Now that they are feeling the dirt being shoveled into their faces, the industry rants in denial of its demise.
Give a hat tip to McGuinness for being the latest to eschew his past and hand out the tired music industry line about the Internet ruining the music industry. From Variety‘s coverage of the Music Matters conference in Hong Kong:
“The recorded music industry is in a crisis, and there is crucial help available but not being provided by companies who should be providing that help — not just because it is morally right, but because it is in their commercial interest,” McGuinness said.
McGuinness’ call for morality to help the music industry (Morality?! Can you believe it?) means ISPs as censors and filters, protecting the planet from illicit copies of whatever single is being promoted by the labels today.
Where was the music industry’s morality when it signed artists up to lengthy contracts that left them with few rights? Ever hear of a music industry executive dying in poverty? Doesn’t happen.
Where was this morality when the industry kept CD prices pegged in the consumer market in the $18.99 range long after the format became the default for delivering music? I suppose I missed the bit where I could get a refund when it turned out the CD only had one or two good tunes and a load of crap spread among the rest.
Oh, and the music industry was putting it to artists with clauses claiming a need to reclaim costs from the “experimental” CD format, long after it knocked out the vinyl and cassette markets. Any performers get a refund on that, please say so in the comments.
And where was this morality hiding during the persistent payola to the radio industry that got a few select artists heavy rotation and left everyone else in the dustbin? We could spend some time on the consolidation of radio as a contributing influence on music sharing
McGuinness sounds like he’s spent too much time flitting by private jet between Ritz-Carltons to have any idea of what music fans want. We’re not even sure if the man’s listened to the lads since Achtung Baby came out 17 years ago.
The music industry feels it has to pump out the hits, and move on to the next one as fast as possible. Being owned as a publicly traded company means twitchy shareholders, and no one at the top of the heap at the music labels wants to slow things down long enough to develop a promising artist.
But eliminating file sharing will fix this. We’re not listening to that dirge, Paul my lad. The talented, hard-working, touring musician with a decent deal on t-shirt printing and a place on MySpace or Bebo will make money on performances, merchandising, and get this, selling music online. Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Prince, and others are showing how to make money on the Net in spite of file sharing. Others will do this too.
