In early November, a headline asked this question:
Was New U2 Album Hitting P-2-P Networks on Purpose?
Tuesday, November 9, 2004
Audio/Video News
U2's soon-to-be-released album, How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, has found its way to the peer-to-peer networks. CNN reports that a London spokesperson for the band was aware that the songs are now widely available to steal from the internet.
U2 made news during the recording of How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb when a copy was "stolen" from a recording studio in Nice, France.
Critics suggest that the theft of How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and its subsequent pre-release to the peer-to-peer sites might have been done for promotional purposes. If this is true, it is one of the first truly brilliant marketing moves to promote a big-release record in years. The RIAA, with the support of the major labels, have been fighting file downloading in all forms while ignoring the media of the internet and PTP networks as a vastly powerful marketing tool.
A couple of weeks ago, another headline suggested the answer:
U2's 'Bomb' Explodes At No. 1
Wednesday, December 1, 2004
Billboard
U2 earns its sixth No. 1 on The Billboard 200 this week with "How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." The Interscope set nearly doubled the band's previous best SoundScan era sales week (1991-present), moving 840,000 U.S. copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Some background reading:
The Future of Music Manifesto
June 1, 2000
Future of Music Coalition
The Recording Industry Association of America is a special interest group that claims from time to time to lobby on behalf of musicians, but it is funded by, and represents the interests of, the major record companies - the same corporations traditionally known to be the primary exploiters of the musicians that the RIAA claims to represent. The RIAA simply cannot be trusted to serve two distinct masters - the record companies and the artists.
If we didn't already have P2P, the artists would need to invent it.
Steve
This message reflects the opinions of the author, and not necessarily those of EDUCAUSE or its members.
