U2 and the Internet

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/8c1788d2-e059-11de-8494-00144feab49a.html

The FT has lunch with U2's manager, Paul McGuinness, which gives me the opportunity to attack his arrogant, selfish position on the Internet and the music industry. McGuiness thinks that ISPs should be forced to charge all of their customers a monthly fee, which would then be handed over to the music industry to dole out to musicians (and probably record companies). This is a completely self-serving solution to a problem that is not the ISPs responsibility to solve.

Let's say 20% of ISP customers download music illegally - he is effectively asking the 80% who either pay for it or don't use it all to subsidize the 20% who do. Why should the 80% who don't use or care about his products have to pay anything? What makes them so important that everyone should subsidize their lifestyle? The music industry never cared about the cost of shoplifting records and CDs, because it was borne by shopowners, and the publishers and musicians actually profited from it (the retailers paid for those stolen CDs) - where was the cry for a tax on all retail sales to reimburse the retailers for stolen CDs?

And if there was a fund designed to collect money from Internet users, how would it be distributed to artists? By a politicially motivated, inherently corrupt, unavoidably inefficient bureaucracy, which would be as fair as any totalitarian state ever was.

And since we're talking about McGuinness and U2, let's stop the pretension about him managing a rock band. U2 isn't a rock band, they're a rock brand, and he is their marketing manager. He is surprised by the lackluster sales of their latest release, but he doesn't realize that U2's music is mainly bought by loyal fans who liked them when they were a rock band, and continue to buy their music, but there are less of them left who can afford to do so. They haven't been attracting new fans, because the younger fans recognize their pretentiousness and basically ignore them.

If you want to tax people for music, tax those who "pay an average of $100 per ticket to see U2 in concert". Tax them $10, and give them a CD for it. That would generate more revenue than they would get from sales lost due to piracy, without burdening the majority of people who actually don't care about U2 (or any specific rock band).

Like all brands, U2 doesn't create products that people want, they create whatever is easiest for them to make, and then try to sell it. They use their brand name recognition to get attention, and then they sell mostly to people who buy their stuff out of habit. Ultimately, the internet and technology will render brand names irrelevant, and then companies will be forced to sell their products based on their merits, not on their reputations.

McGuinness is just like any other corporate manager, whose goal is to use whatever tools they have to maximize their earnings. He criticizes the EU, because a small country like the Czech Republich was able to table a motion to extend copyright terms. Good for the Czechs! They're obviously not as selfish and greedy as McGuinness. Go ahead, Paul, keep selling those tickets, lining up corporate sponsors, and making films, because that's what rock and roll is all about, right? Just keep your paws off my internet.