U2 Manager Paul McGuinness Speech about the current state of the Music Business.... by RedRobin on The Pipeline at IndieMusicPeople

U2 Manager Paul McGuinness Speech about the current state of the Music Business....
The full _script of the speech everyone is talking about in Cannes, as made by U2 manager Paul McGuinness at Midem.

[With Thanx to FujiMinx Greta for publicising it] It's long but important in my opinion - And realistic!!

McGuinness: "Good afternoon and thank you for giving me this opportunity. I don't make many speeches and this is an important and imposing occasion for me. What I'm trying do here today is identify a course of action that will benefit all: artists, labels, writers and publishers.

I have been managing the best-known of my clients, U2, for exactly 30 years. Sure we've made mistakes along the way but the lineup hasn't changed in 31 years. They are as ambitious and hardworking as ever, and each time they make a record and tour, it's better than the last time. They are doing their best work now. During that time the music business has been through many changes.

At the beginning U2's live appearances were loss-making and tour support from our record label was essential for us to tour and that paid off for the label as U2's records went to No.1 in nearly every international territory starting in the mid '80s and I'm happy to say that continues to the present day. They have sold about 150 million records to date and the last album went to No.1 in 27 territories.

U2 own all their masters but these are licensed long-term to Universal, with whom we enjoy an excellent relationship. With a couple of minor exceptions they also own all their copyrights, which are also licensed to Universal. U2 always understood that it would be pathetic to be good at the music and bad at the business, and have always been prepared to invest in their own future. We were never interested in joining that long, humiliating list of miserable artists who made lousy deals, got exploited and ended up broke and with no control over how their life's work was used, and no say in how their names and likenesses were bought and sold.

What U2 and I also understood instinctively from the start was that they had 2 parallel careers first as recording and songwriting artists, and second as live performers. They've been phenomenally successful at both. The Vertigo Tour in 2005/2006 grossed $355m and played to 4.6m people in 26 countries.

But I'm not here to brag. I'm here to ask some serious questions and to point the finger at the forces at work that are destroying the recorded music industry.

People all over the world are going to more gigs than ever. The experience for the audience is better than ever. This is proved by the upward trend in ticket prices, generally un-resisted. The live business is, for the most part, healthy and profitable. Bands can gig without subsidy. Live Nation, previously a concert and venue company is moving into position with merchandising, ticketing, online, music distribution as one of the powerful new centres of the music industry.

So what has gone wrong with the recorded music business?

More people are listening to music than ever before through many more media than ever before. Part of the problem is that the record companies, through lack of foresight and poor planning, allowed an entire collection of digital industries to arise that enabled the consumer to steal with impunity the very recorded music that had previously been paid for. I think that's been a cultural problem for the record industry -- it has generally been inclined to rely for staff on poorly paid enthusiasts rather than developing the kind of enterprise culture of Silicon Valley where nearly every employee is a shareholder.

There are other reasons for the record business's slow response to digital. The SDMI (Secure Digital Music Initiative) of the '90s pan-industry, was a grand but ill-fated plan to try and agree rules between the content and technology industries. It went nowhere. SDMI, and similar attempts at cooperation by record companies, have partly been thwarted by competition rules. The US government

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Chris Hance

5/3/2008 11:13:14 PM

http://iacmusic.com/play2.aspx?songID=61336
Its all about freedom and music omds

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satch

5/4/2008 3:46:32 AM

"There's more exciting music being made and more listened to than at any time in history."

Imagine what he will say when he discovers IAC Music!!! :)

I think he makes some valid points - free downloads are killing the livelihoods of many talented people.

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Hugh Hamilton

5/4/2008 7:37:25 AM

Interesting - thanks for posting.

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JOHN FRY

5/4/2008 8:33:18 AM

RR Thanks for posting this.
Back in March I posted my thoughts on the Paul Mcguinness speech -

3/3/2008 5:51:00 PM
The most important topic on Earth. For Musicians.

But I should have posted it this way -

3/3/2008 5:51:00 PM
The most important topic on Earth. For Professional Musicians, and Songwriters.

I got criticized for placing money before music. I felt some people missed the point of what McGuinness's speech was saying,and why I thought it was important. There is a saying, "Those who use the word sellout have never been asked to."
But on the other hand, if your not making music for a living, then I guess this is not your issue.
I'm not going to go into this all over again (to late) but in a nutshell McGuinness is saying, "ISP, if your not going to stop,but provide, allow, then charge a monthly fee to the thiefs that sell illegal downloads, then profit sharing with the people that made the music, in the first place, should get a piece of the pie.

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RedRobin

5/4/2008 1:16:57 PM

Hi John - I had a feeling this might have been posted before on IAC but without a proper Search option it's far too difficult to find.

You've summed it up very concisely. I think that whether you are a 'professional' or 'amateur' or indeed any kind of musician, there's information in Paul McG's speech which is important to appreciate.

I like the fact that he's coming up with positive suggestions rather than just negatively whinging about the music biz.

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No Rhythm

5/5/2008 7:01:58 AM

Very interesting Read, I hope they can come up with a fair solution for all concerned parties. Seems a solution already exists just needs to be implemented

Cheers Mark

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Bruce Boyd

5/16/2008 6:20:44 AM

An interesting debate on this topic between Chuck D of Public Enemy and Lars Ulrich of Metallica at : www.rapstation.com/promo/lars_vs_chuckd.html

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maggie council

5/17/2008 6:20:47 PM

tl;dr
guy's seeing the handwriting on the wall.

he pretty much admit's U2's success is because they take the business side as seriously as the musical side. he even talks about companies like Live Nation taking a bigger chunk of live performance.

so, in this wonderful new age of thinking outside the box about music distribution, who needs a manager?

and how much of the money the RIAA is suing their customers for using their product actually going to the musicians?

my music still belongs to me and i can give it away or not if i want to. when will that change?

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Phlegm

5/18/2008 1:29:34 AM

Thank you Red Robin, Bruce Boyd, et. al.

It's ALWAYS good to be somewhat aware of what the MAINSTREAM of this music thing, AND what the "Successful" artists are saying/doing/learning about the NEW directions of Music distribution & touring.

Especially for LITTLE ole me, who is JUST now, after about 8 years of fairly HARD, concentrated work, getting the chance to be a part of the NEW order & an INDIE record label Contract (with Kenny Colgate from ROMULUS X Records, whom I'm sure many of you have communicated with before).

ANY -HOO -- aside form more of my stupid-assed shameless self-promotion. I'm basically saying THANKS for very relevant info.

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