Buckcherry guitarist Keith Nelson says U2’s deal with Apple has devalued music and made it harder for bands who still rely on record sales.
The group’s Songs Of Innocence was automatically downloaded free to over 500 million iTunes accounts last week, reputedly costing the technology giant $100m – but Nelson says it sends out the wrong message.
He tells Northwest Music Scene, “I think music has been devalued in the eyes of the consumer, to the point where a band like U2 decides to just give its music away and basically tell people their music isn’t worth anything. That’s a bummer because I know what it takes to write a meaningful record and get it into consumers’ hands. They’ve sent a message to everyone that music is free, and that’s disturbing. It’s easy to do that when you’re a multi-millionaire and money isn’t something you worry about. But, when you’re a working band and you count on every dollar, it’s disappointing to see someone do that.”
Meanwhile, the UK Entertainment Retailers Association has slammed the U2 giveaway, saying it’s as damaging as piracy and called the promotion a “failure” after fewer than 7000 CDs from the group’s back catalogue sold after the stunt.
ERA Chairman Paul Quirk said, “This promotion is a failure on so many levels. It devalues music, it alienates the majority of people who don’t use iTunes and it disappoints those who prefer to shop in stores. Giving away music is as damaging to the value of music as piracy and those who will suffer most are the artists of tomorrow. If one of the biggest rock bands in the world are prepared to give away their new album for free, how can we expect the public to spend £10 ($16.25 U.S. dollars) on an album by a newcomer?”
Last month, Buckcherry released their Fuck EP on August 19th.
additional source: classicrockmagazine
44 Responses
I agree with Keith & Paul Quirk 100%! U2 made a BIG mistake, and so did the music business. Hopefully they learn a “valuable” lesson from this, if there’s no money to be made, then there’s no music to be made! WAKE UP!
I was offended that they dropped it in without my permission. I don’t want any U2 man!!!
Madonna is ramping up her ’15 release the same way. All the 500+ million net-worthers are gonna go for it.
How much do you think U2 would make selling each cd or digital download for 12.99 or more? Their record company and/or them made a huge profit selling the cd to apple. No printing cost for the CDs or the booklets. No having to pay an advertising cost to promote the album. To me this is brilliant and no matter if anyone gets it from the cloud they still have made money.
Plus you know that a vast majority of fans would download it from a file-sharing site to which neither the record company or U2 would make money. All they did was make money doing something a lot of people already do. Also look how we are talking about them so they have free advertising