New album out by October??

[phommel]

I agree that we haven't come close yet. And indeed U2's albums are still very relevant. But it's that greediness of the Stoones that I don't wanna see with my favourite band U2. And with their manager I am not sure that this will not happen. The plan of ticket auctions did not help to get rid of this feeling and I will not be surprised if ticket prices will increase a lot next time...

I don't think we've come close to that bridge yet. Trust me. U2 fans won't put up with:

-Crappy records (ATYCLB & HTDAAB are masterpieces compared to the last 4-6 Stone records, though Voodoo Lounge is pretty good)

-Touring and playing 1-2 songs from the new album, with the rest of the set being the typical warhorses they've been playing for 30 years.

-Charging $400 (Face value) for 1 ticket.

-Charging over $100 to be in a fan club.

-Canceling shows due to "sickness" and not making them up (Remind you these shows are stadium gigs)

-What else, oh yeah, adding 4-5 band members to add nothing to your live set.

I like the Stones, but their image of being greedy has gotten pretty transparent.

 

[phommel]

the stones still put on a hell of a show, and if u2 is still touring every 4-5 years when they're in their 60's, with the type of energy that mick jagger has, then i'll be a happy man.

well I didn't mean the musical side of the Rolling Stones. But more the commercial side. I wouldn't like if U2 becomes a cash machine like teh Rolling Stones.

apart from this, yes they still put a nice show, but fresh new relevant music and the Stones? This connection was lost in the 80s already.....

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

saint of me and out of control came out in the late 90's and are two of my favorite stones songs, and probably would be held in the same esteem of many other stones classics if they had come out 30 years ago, but because they came out when they did, they're not "fresh" and "relevant."

relevancy is in the eyes and ears of the beholder.

 

[Popmartijn]

Hey Headache!

With all this album talk, is the Office Of U2 Security still in place? What is the warning level?

 

[kingofsorrow]

to be fair to the stones, they have to grab as much money as they can to pay for all those young girls mick keeps knocking up.

 

[BrownEyedBoy]

I love how he mentions kind of off-handedly how he met Bono and Edge. Are you kidding? I would be just a tad more excited about it...

...and it needs to be said that A Bigger Bang has several great songs (Rough Justic, This Place is Empty, Biggest Mistake, Laugh I Nearly Died, Infamy).

 

[Roland of Gilead]

Hey Headache!

With all this album talk, is the Office Of U2 Security still in place? What is the warning level?

Yeah! Some of us want to know what colour we are at. The threat/release level must be rising!

 

[Iskra]

not for nothing, but when i started downloading music for free i was paying 20 bucks to fill the tank of my maroon brown 1988 dodge aires.

gas prices have nothing to do with people not buying music... it's been an issue since long before the gas prices increased.

Well put!
A lot of so-called fans complained that there was no legitimate way to get music online.
"If the labels would just get with the times, I'd be happy to pay for it." was a common remark in the days of Napster.
Then all the labels got onboard and people still took all they could for free.
Radiohead puts out an album and asks people to pay what they think it was worth and look at what happened.
They didn't go broke by any means but come on, what if that was you?
What if you didn't get a salary but people just left money for you in a jar at your desk or workplace?
What if at the end of a 40 hr week, you had $11 bc hey, why should people have to pay you for your service when they can get it for free?

 

[Salome]

people want the band to make album that doesn't appeal to many people, put it out for free and then do a 5 year tour in small venues for 5 dollar tickets, playing rarities while recording another album during the tour

I don't think that a sense of "the real world" troubles them

 

[JCOSTER]

Paul McGuinness reveals U2 release date



Hot Press, June 12, 2008




U2 manager Paul McGuinness has been dropping hints about the release of the new U2 album, which is provisionally planned for October.

Paul McGuinness has told the BBC that the release date for the new U2 album is "not clear yet but I would think towards the end of October. We will obviously work with whatever technology is available to make the release as interesting as possible. But for U2, physical sales are still an enormous part of our business and we still sell a lot of actual CDs."

Asked what he thought of the "pay what you like" online release Radiohead gave In Rainbows, McGuinness profered that it "to some extent backfired. 60 to 70% of the people who downloaded the record stole it anyway, even though it was available for free."

Which actually means....November!

 

[phillyfan26]

Nowhere in this article does McGuinness reveal the release date.

 

[david]

yeah, what the deuce man

 

[Rob33]

Hot Press, June 12, 2008




U2 manager Paul McGuinness has been dropping hints about the release of the new U2 album, which is provisionally planned for October.

Paul McGuinness has told the BBC that the release date for the new U2 album is "not clear yet but I would think towards the end of October. We will obviously work with whatever technology is available to make the release as interesting as possible. But for U2, physical sales are still an enormous part of our business and we still sell a lot of actual CDs."

Asked what he thought of the "pay what you like" online release Radiohead gave In Rainbows, McGuinness profered that it "to some extent backfired. 60 to 70% of the people who downloaded the record stole it anyway, even though it was available for free."

Which actually means....November!

wtf

 

[phanan]

Nowhere in this article does McGuinness reveal the release date.

Just your average misleading post.

 

[phillyfan26]

Just your average misleading post.

"Most likely October/November 2008" isn't specific enough for you?

 

[MrPryck2U]

"Most likely October/November 2008" isn't specific enough for you?

Funny shit!

 

[gibbo]

It will be interesting to see how Coldplay does. Viva La Vida is as close to a U2 album as anything can be, and it is debuting in a tough market. I think it was a brilliant move for them to give away a track and put another track up for sale weeks ahead of the release. U2 ought to pay close attention.

The day U2 pay close attention to anything that coldplay release is a sad day all round!

 

[buzzkill27]

I don't think we've come close to that bridge yet. Trust me. U2 fans won't put up with:

-Crappy records (ATYCLB & HTDAAB are masterpieces compared to the last 4-6 Stone records, though Voodoo Lounge is pretty good)

-Touring and playing 1-2 songs from the new album, with the rest of the set being the typical warhorses they've been playing for 30 years.

-Charging $400 (Face value) for 1 ticket.

-Charging over $100 to be in a fan club.

-Canceling shows due to "sickness" and not making them up (Remind you these shows are stadium gig

-What else, oh yeah, adding 4-5 band members to add nothing to your live set.

I like the Stones, but their image of being greedy has gotten pretty transparent.

I couldn't agree more...the Stones sound as bad as they look ...and that's pretty bad...they should have hung it up years ago,now they're a joke.

 

[blueeyedgirl]

Obviously you've not seen Shine a Light then?

 

[sony]

Obviously you've not seen Shine a Light then?

Agree

 

[A stor]

I was at HQ thursday and Friday.

Waited outside thursday from 11 am till about 3 30 pm when Sam came out.

He said about the band being very busy and that they wouldn't be coming out as they have a very tight schedule for the album release.

It has to be ready for October were his exact words.

So whether thats the release or when the record company get's it who knows?

Oh and I went back later and met bono and edge so I'm glad I persisted.

Friday we could hear some of a 'song' being played it was mostly typical edge jangly guitar but sounded good even through the HQ door!

I shall post a thread later in the band sightings thread once I have my pics uploaded.

Thanks so much for the info! I am glad that your persistence payed off. Meeting Bono and the Edge, must have been a thrill!

 

[BrownEyedBoy]

Hot Press, June 12, 2008




U2 manager Paul McGuinness has been dropping hints about the release of the new U2 album, which is provisionally planned for October.

Paul McGuinness has told the BBC that the release date for the new U2 album is "not clear yet but I would think towards the end of October. We will obviously work with whatever technology is available to make the release as interesting as possible. But for U2, physical sales are still an enormous part of our business and we still sell a lot of actual CDs."

Asked what he thought of the "pay what you like" online release Radiohead gave In Rainbows, McGuinness profered that it "to some extent backfired. 60 to 70% of the people who downloaded the record stole it anyway, even though it was available for free."

Which actually means....November!

Well, what do you know Mr. McGuinnes, who would have thought that in an unprecedented turn of events times have changed?

 

[veber]

Well, what do you know Mr. McGuinnes, who would have thought that in an unprecedented turn of events times have changed?

Exactly.

And in such wonderous times, when music is free for the taking, artists are giving away music left and right.

Offer your album in a lossless format for $5, and less than 1 in 5 will pay for it.

The consumer has all control, and the consumer has decided that music simply isn't worth spending one hard earned, wait, check that, borrowed dollar on.

It's worthless.

 

[U2girl]

See that Reznor article. He had FLAC files at 5 dollars and I think 20% if not less payed.

People say music industry should adapt and compete but you can't compete with free files. Yes, some will pay and some will go to their favourite artists' site and download but most go to torrents and/or don't pay when given that option.

 

[rihannsu]

Before recording became commonplace musicians made their living (just barely) by performing live. The best of those live performers were the first to be recorded and sold. Unfortunately for the artists, who often did not have a good sense of the value of their work, most of the profits went to the recording industry. Many of the great artists who created rock and roll saw very little money despite their hard work and endless touring. People like Fats Domino, Jimmy Rodgers, Bo Didley, and B.B. King had very little to show for their efforts after having been ripped off by everyone from their own managers to the entire record industry. It took many years for the artist's contribution to be valued enough to give them the leverage to get even close to their fair share on royalties. Along the way recording became more profitable than live performing and the only way to make it big was to have a recording contract. Live performing pay may have gotten somewhat better but mostly for artist who were able to land recording deals and there was a shift from live performers becoming recording artist to the more recent model of starting off recording and performing live to support or boost record sales. Even though royalties had gotten better when the transition to CD's came along many artist got screwed over again because their contracts were written so that they only got half royalties on "new media". Again the artists got screwed, and this time the consumers got screwed too because after the initial phase when manufacturing costs dropped the price of cd's to the consumer stayed high and the record industry raked in profits like crazy. The problem now is that the consumers fought back by embracing the opportunity to easily bootleg provided by the internet and the record industry gets screwed which most people think is well deserved but most don't considered that once again the artist gets screwed too. It's easy for most of us to rationalize that U2 has made a fortune and so it's ok to rip them off but this also hurts the new artists. The only silver lining is that pay for really good live performers is actually good now and if they are smart and hang on to good percentages of their merchandising a good live act can make a good living even with the declining record sales. But they have to get over that ridiculous idea that an artist shouldn't care about business at least enough to not get ripped off. I've noticed that another shift is occuring which is bringing live performance back into the primary income slot with recording being a support to that much like the merchandising. The losers here are the record industry unless they change their model of artist promotion and those recording artist who either don't perform live or don't do it well. Today's artists have to be smart business people as well as artists to make sure they don't end up with the short end of the stick again. The trend with the newer generations seems to be toward no or little value to intellectual property. Hence the popularity of open source software in computing or sampling in recording. Just as the the notion of privacy is totally different for teenagers coming up now to what it was for their parents. The days of the one hit wonders may thankfully be coming to an end and sustainability may be the only path to getting rich as an artist. The blessing is that technology has truly made it possible for every one to compete because the average Joe with a computer is capable of putting out product of as high a quality as the record industry. We are entering a new era in music as with all transitions the growing pains are rough and the older generations will resist but change is inevitable. It's real easy to paint McGuiness as a greedy old bastard but when you look at the whole of U2's career that is not really a fair portrait. In all of these speeches what he is railing at most is that the artist's are once again at risk of losing out. Yes, he may not be right in his solutions but at least he is still primarily on the side of the artist first and has always remained loyal to U2. It would have been very easy at many points during U2's career for him to sell them down the river so to speak and go for what was best for him but he hasn't. He has done an admirable job of looking out for his client's best interests commercially but still defending their artistic integrity and that is not an easy balancing act. I for one am grateful that he has always protected the lads, after all he could easily have been a Col. Parker type and destroyed them creatively even while making money with them.

Dana

 

[powerhour24]

I don't care if they don't give away their new material for free online, just that McGuinness still thinks they can't release anything outside of the fall, for touring to begin the following spring, and the the single and album will cross two Grammy seasons. There's no spontaneity or anything to excite fans this way, the way releasing Achtung Baby/Zooropa did. And while ATYCLB and Bomb are both highly successful albums, their sales don't come anywhere near U2's top albums, because those were sold because of the impact the music had, not by trying to engineer the best way to get U2 fans to buy an album and subsequently tickets.

 

[LemonMelon]

And while ATYCLB and Bomb are both highly successful albums, their sales don't come anywhere near U2's top albums, because those were sold because of the impact the music had, not by trying to engineer the best way to get U2 fans to buy an album and subsequently tickets.

That and they were released in an era when people actually bought albums...

 

[powerhour24]

True, but there are still albums that go more than 3 or 4 times platinum in the US today. Even if they are mostly forgettable pop.

 

[Salome]

People say music industry should adapt and compete but you can't compete with free files.

yeah, i think this is where the problem lies

you can't really call McGuiness greedy because he wants to make some money instead of the work only being stolen

 

[U2girl]

But McGuine$$ has such a nice ring to it.