U2 Songs of Innocence - Thank You

I'm just now listening to it and so far so good. I'll say this about albums that don't just knock your socks off, many times the songs grow on you and they end up becoming favorites. For me that was exactly the way Led Zep Zoso was for me.
 
Reade said:
I'll say this about albums that don't just knock your socks off, many times the songs grow on you and they end up becoming favorites. For me that was exactly the way Led Zep Zoso was for me.
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when i first heard meshuggah's Koloss album, i did not like it at all. i was like wtf is this crap?! revisited a month later and it's now my favorite album of theirs!
 
The fact that world known bands/players are using the same guitar preamp I am, makes me smile a bit more thats for sure :mrgreen
 
I downloaded IOS 8 last night for my iPhone and this album automatically downloaded to my music. By the time iPhone 6's roll out and everyone updates their older devices to IOS 8 that is some serious distribution and advertising for FAS.
 
I hesitated to mention this, but apparently U2 got paid $100m for the album by Apple. This is (so far) unsubstantiated, so I don't know how true it is.

The second thing that I haven't seen anyone mention on here (although I could be wrong) is that this release has set a precedent for artists giving their recorded music away for free. This in turn could lead to an even bigger decline in the recorded music industry and I fail to see how that's a good thing.
 
I've never bought a U2 album in my life. Of course I've heard them. On a TV show or on the background music from the ceiling in a Lowes store. But for the first time I've actually started listening to one of their albums. If they give this album for free and pick up a 100 thousand or a million new fans that will buy more albums or go to concerts then their $$$ averages for that free album are over the top. I think it's genius :)
 
I gave the album a brief once through on the way to work, and there are many great tunes on there. It's definitely pop, but you can still hear the old U2, and this is coming from someone who bought The Unforgettable Fire on release day and saw them on that tour (still my favorite era). Since Achtung Baby, it seems to me they usually have one great album followed by a less than stellar one. I loved All You Can't Leave Behind, but never really embraced the last two, although they both had some good tunes. This new one sounds really good after the first listen. I'm not a huge fan of the whole iBand context of U2, Coldplay, etc. that Apple has decided to associate with their brand, but there is some good music sprinkled in there.
 
Not to derail; because the real news here is as stated by the op. But, I think the days of making money on albums is mostly over thanks to p2p networking and such. At least in the way that it used to be. But, I have noticed pretty substantial increases in ticket prices. Let me echo; The Axe Fx is indeed the future.
 
I disagree. There's a difference between making millions and making money. The days of making millions are over, and I'm thankful for that. That a group can make one album and be set up for life is ludicrous in my mind.

However, I do know quite a few artists (not know of, but personally know) who need album sales to augment their touring revenue to literally feed their families. Two such examples are an Irish artist who writes very good (IMHO) Bruce Springsteen style songs with a modern flair, and another artist who has had the number one classical guitar album topspot in Ireland with his first album, and also now for his recently released second album, and who writes, composes and records for contemporary classical guitar styles. Both of these artists are small enough not to appear on P2P sites and are not big enough on the international scene to raise the ticket price. Both have a valid and significant contribution to make to guitar music as a whole..... and I can't help but think how U2 have just managed to contribute to the perception that getting paid for recorded music is irrelevant.
 
There is a reason behind all this. Hopefully it turns the industry around!
Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr believe so strongly that artists should be compensated for their work that they have embarked on a secret project with Apple to try to make that happen, no easy task when free-to-access music is everywhere (no) thanks to piracy and legitimate websites such as YouTube. Bono tells TIME he hopes that a new digital music format in the works will prove so irresistibly exciting to music fans that it will tempt them again into buying music—whole albums as well as individual tracks. The point isn’t just to help U2 but less well known artists and others in the industry who can’t make money, as U2 does, from live performance. “Songwriters aren’t touring people,” says Bono. “Cole Porter wouldn’t have sold T-shirts. Cole Porter wasn’t coming to a stadium near you.”

A digital format that "can't be pirated" is perhaps the main selling point, as both illegal downloading, legal streaming and sites like YouTube have all chipped away the music industry from a sales perspective

Read more: U2 and Apple Plot New 'Interactive' Digital Music Format | Rolling Stone
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
 
I see it as a gift from U2. Maybe in appreciation for the blessings they have recieved or maybe as the publicity stunt that it was. We all participate in streaming media. Anyone willing to give that up so that conventional album sales we killed can survive? Anyone willing to delete our semi-professional DAW systems (that rival mega-buck recording studios of a few years ago) so that mom & pop studios don't go under?

The music industry, like others, is a lead, follow or get out of the way industry. I see U2 actions as leadership. Perhaps opening another venue for corporate involvment in the arts that ultimately your friends could benefit from. I don't see 'the small guy' as threatened by this action. If someone wants to hear Irish Classical they will have to purchase it from your friend because U2 doesn't offer it. I paid over 6 bucks for 1 digital song last night because it offered something I needed.
 
Knuckles said:
There is a reason behind all this. Hopefully it turns the industry around!
Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr believe so strongly that artists should be compensated for their work that they have embarked on a secret project with Apple to try to make that happen, no easy task when free-to-access music is everywhere (no) thanks to piracy and legitimate websites such as YouTube. Bono tells TIME he hopes that a new digital music format in the works will prove so irresistibly exciting to music fans that it will tempt them again into buying music—whole albums as well as individual tracks. The point isn’t just to help U2 but less well known artists and others in the industry who can’t make money, as U2 does, from live performance. “Songwriters aren’t touring people,” says Bono. “Cole Porter wouldn’t have sold T-shirts. Cole Porter wasn’t coming to a stadium near you.”

A digital format that "can't be pirated" is perhaps the main selling point, as both illegal downloading, legal streaming and sites like YouTube have all chipped away the music industry from a sales perspective

Read more: U2 and Apple Plot New 'Interactive' Digital Music Format | Rolling Stone
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
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The reason (as I see it) is to increase their foot print within an industry that has started to regard their new albums as musically irrelevant, rather than the milestones they used to be. The knock on effect is the increase in sales of their past albums and in the increase in their media profile, and has been quite successful, as the current thread is evidence of. I seriously doubt that there is a primary motive to help less well known artists and if it exists it's way down on the list. They are business people primarily, and this is a very successful and savvy business move, just as taking their financial operations out of Ireland in the depths of the recession and moving it to the Netherlands was.

I'm hopeful about the new format but it has to be something that is at least audiovisual to tempt the masses. Lossless formats are pirated left right and centre and most people on the street won't care about PONO or any other format if they can get a passable music format for free, even if it is illegal. I'm also interested as to how any digital format can ever be pirate proof.

It's true that songwriters aren't touring people, but songwriting is one of the most potentially lucrative aspects of the music business to be in. The Cole Porter analogy is ridiculous. AFAIK George and Ira Gershwin didn't tour, had their songs basically stolen in fake books from the get go, and they still made quite a living and a name for themselves.

I'm with mwd above. The industry is in a state of change and while we have the record companies thrashing about looking for people to blame, Apple have quite neatly taken the initiative and been proactive. It's surreal that the number one provider of digital music sales is now a computer company. We've all contributed to this via streaming services, Youtube, etc. even if we have never downloaded a track illegally in the more traditional sense of the phrase. I'm afraid of being paid for your recorded output becoming seen as a luxury rather than a right. I'm afraid of Apple designing a format under the iTunes behemoth that requires an artist to sell the rights to their recorded works before it will appear in the iTunes store. Both are not only possible but probable in this day and age.

EDIT: I think I've derailed the thread enough, so will bow out. I'm available for self help clinics, clown parties and anyone who needs a joke told to cheer them up. ;) :)
 
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