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 actually like U2, well some of it. That being said, you have millionaire musicians teaming with billion dollar companies to give away art that cost something to make. Not just the time, the equipment, the production, but the actual creation of art. That’s what music is. People seem to forget that. You put a part of yourself, physically and mentally, into writing music…sometimes they come in 5 minutes, sometimes they take months or years. If an artist wants to give away their art, fine, that’s U2’s decision. Many bands and artists do give away their music, but you can’t get past the production and emotional cost that comes with making it. That is worth something to me.
Now, I don’t know how U2 was compensated, or will be, but I’m sure they’ll be fine. It’s the people who scrape together every last penny to buy gear to record, or perform who are hurt the most. Talented bands and artists who are out there slogging it out, doing it because they love it, but also because they’d like to make a living at it.
You could even tie in the “Is rock dead” argument. Is U2 even rock anymore? They seem to be more of a fashion/political statement, than a band anymore, which is unfortunate. They wrote some great songs.
Just another reason the industry is what it is and another commentary on the “rock being dead” thing. Fat cats like U2 that have made more money than they will ever have time to spend, can afford to give away their music at this point in their careers. It’s another obstacle for up and coming artists to have to compete with what U2 has started. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next Kiss album isn’t presented this way. It’s a great method for these huge, multi-million dollar bands to snag up a generation of new fans and turn them on to their music, while recouping the sales with even bigger tours to follow. It’s no different than the small businesses dying due to the corporate giants that make it nearly impossible for them to compete with their practices. All you can do is support your favorite bands and businesses with your wallet and hope there are more people like you willing to do the same.
It’s not the giving away of the album that bothers me. It’s the continued shitty effort by U2 that bothers me. C’mon guys, when is the last time you listened to your efforts before the POP album?
I hope U2 gets major backlash from this…not only did they make a s–tload of money from Apple, but it saves them the embarrassment of their album not selling…I’m trying to shop my bands music and it is nearly impossible to find who to send music to for consideration nowadays for them to even tell you your music sucks, so thanks U2 for killing off anyone’s desire to make an album in today’s climate, unless your a mega superstar who can afford to not make money on an album…
They didn’t “drop it in without your permission”. It was in the Cloud, which is not “yours”. If it was downloaded to your device automatically, then at some point – whether you realized it or not – you authorized them to do so.
If this was anyone other than U2, working with anyone other than Apple, we wouldn’t be hearing boo about this. This isn’t piracy, any more than making a cassette copy of your vinyl for your own personal use (a legal use, I might add) is piracy. Ed Sheeran got it right on Howard Stern the other day when he said that it isn’t downloading that is killing (changing?) the industry. It’s that the market is different. We are SATURATED by so many releases (certainly more, on a weekly basis, than was the case in 1985) and now we have so many competing products – CD Deluxe editions, DVD box sets, Blu-ray upgrades, video console games that now cost $65 a pop new… and yet there are only so many dollars to go around. The big names are STILL selling CDs (as Ed Sheeran also pointed out, his first album, in 2011, sold more than the breakthrough Oasis album, and that is considered one of the bigger selling albums of the era).