U2 Manager Says ‘Time To Stand Up’, Qtrax CEO Says ‘We Are Not Idiots’, and New Music….
Posted January 28, 2008 — in Music News
Keynote Speech: U2 manager, Paul McGuinness wants to end illegal music downloads and urges internet service providers and governments to toughen up their policies.
In a keynote speech spoken at the MIDEM music conference McGuinness said it was time for artists to stand up against what he called the “shoddy, careless and downright dishonest way they have been treated in the digital age.”
“There’s a lot of money in the music business, but it has stopped coming to the artists,” McGuinness said, though he agreed that U2 long ago determined that it “would be pathetic to be great artists but not be great at business.”
Read the rest of his passionate speech where he blames record labels that “through lack of foresight and planning allowed a range of industries to arise that let people steal music”…..
“We Are Not Idiots”: The new digital start up, Qtrax offers a free 25 million song catalogue and claimed to have deals in place with all four major labels. Wired Mag says the Time Online UK tracked down the CEO of Qtrax where he offered a response to the recent press.
“We are not idiots,” he said. “We wouldn’t have launched the service in front of the whole music industry unless we had secured its backing. We feel we have been unfairly crucified because a competitor tried to damage us. Everyone is very upset.”
Read more here….
The Signs of a New Era: We urge you to read the WSJ column entitled
‘Beyond The Album‘ that urges musicians to experiment on their own.
Digital Christian Music: EMI who is the leading distributor of Christian music and DVDs, is hoping for some divine intervention for the struggling genre’s sales according The NY Post. EMI plans to develop 500 new digital Christian music storefronts.
New Music and Recommended Listening:
The Midnight Academy - Sacramento, California. Think Queens of the Stone Age and My Bloody Valentine. The first track on their myspace, ‘The Epidemic‘ lays down an opening riff reminiscent of Interpol. (contact the band)
Next Show Dates:
Jan 28, The Old Ironsides-Sacramento, California
Feb 1st,The Upstairs - Inside Country Club Lanes, Citrus Heights, CA
I posted some Qtrax screen shots on my blog. Check it out.
Comment by PositionMakers — January 28, 2008 @ 11:03 pm
“There’s a lot of money in the music business, but it has stopped coming to the artists,”
It stopped coming to the artist LOOOOOOONG before the digital age. U2 need to ditch their label — they don’t need them anymore — and this guy needs to direct his vemon at the industry that got fat and lazy on the backs of inflated CD prices, taking 80%+ of artist sales (and owning the rights to their work) and manufacturing ‘artists’ who can’t muster hit without an army of truly talented songwriters and producers.
Comment by jalan — January 29, 2008 @ 6:09 am
Stop with the cliches and deflecting the blame to labels. Paul McGuinness is absolutely correct, artists have been getting raped in the digital age. Hopefully these are signs of a new era and things begin to change.
Comment by liz — January 29, 2008 @ 7:07 am
so, apparently the money has stopped coming in to the artists and is now going to the tribute bands? nice photo of Paul McGuinness with a Bono impersonator!
Comment by Javier Buchananeversonia — January 29, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
Always good to hear the industry folk chime in…
CDs cost a consumer about $8 to $15. Artists get paid roughly $1 for every album they sell. So who’s taking the other $7 - $14 out of the artist’s pocket?
I still buy CDs because I want to support the artist, but I’ll be a lot more sympathetic when the labels start giving artists a fair cut of their sales. Yes, illegal downloading is wrong and it hurts artists, but it hurts labels a helluva lot more.
In the meantime, I’m more interested in supporting a band by going to their shows and buying their merch — areas where labels don’t “rape” them quite as badly (yet).
Comment by jalan — January 30, 2008 @ 6:44 am
Lets stop with the circular reasoning. If you believe labels have raped artists, then you have seen nothing yet. I think the word rape is insufficient what the digital age will do. If you sincerely care about artists then you will want them to receive rewards for their creation.
The government and internet service providers need to step in, toughen up policies, and regulate the net. Make ISP’s responsible and prosecute owners of illegal sites to the FULLEST extent of the law. Thankfully, its already being done, we just need to make it happen on a universal level.
We can change this. This year, lets stand behind the rights of artists and make the WELL NEEDED CHANGE!
Comment by koar — January 30, 2008 @ 1:13 pm
It would be nice if the industry churned out some artists we could care about. Top 40 hasn’t floated my boat for a long time now. Everyone I know feels the same.
People aren’t going to stop downloading. And the federal government has bigger things on it’s mind than chasing a rat deeper & deeper into uncharted crevices (namely a looming big time recession & the clusterfuck in Iraq). The recorded music business just isn’t big enough to matter right now & technology develops too quickly for policing to be guaranteed effective. It can actually be guaranteed ineffective. Oink got shut down & 2 popped up to take it’s place. Shut them down & you’re guaranteed 4 more, ad infinitum. If ISPs start snooping into file transfers, encrypted transfers will just become the norm. And that channel, I would guess, is going to be open as long as we have any want for general e-commerce. The pirates will always be two steps ahead. Get used to it.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that the music was dead long before the industry. If Rhianna doesn’t get some fat royalty check, well… sucks for her, I guess. You’re right in that most people really don’t care. Because… what’s there to care about? The WELL NEEDED CHANGE is for another 1967… another Nirvana… another band that matters… that people CAN care about. But it might even be too late for that.
Comment by Jon Cole — January 30, 2008 @ 5:06 pm