I've been on the brink of writing something similar for a few days now...bravo to you for clearing the path a bit.
It's not so much that U2 remains tied to a record company that bothers me, it's how freaking outdated the overall model is. Way back in the day, it took significant time to physically take the master tapes from the studio to the manufacturing plant, press the vinyl, package it all up, and send it out to stores...all done with no computers, no internet, no fax machines, and a phone system that still required a bit of thought to use. And so record companies, knowing the timeline, built their promotional plans around it to take advantage of it. A single pressed early and given to radio stations--the only way that anyone heard new music, or music news, back then--with suitable hype building while the damn discs were being made and shipped.
But that's not the world we live in anymore.
Things that don't bug me about the process:
- The band wanting to make some money
- The label wanting to make some money
- How cool an actual CD is, especially the deluxe version that I've already pre-ordered
- Properly promoting the album prior to its release so it sells big and everyone loves U2
Things that do bug me:
- The album is done. Like, right now. It's finished. And the distribution system exists that, if U2/Universal wanted to,
we could all be listening to the album within 1 hour from this very second. Millions of people could be listening to the finished product right freaking now if the label (and, by their silence and unwillingness to push for a change in the process, U2) weren't tied to a model of distribution that's over half a century old.
The current model of promotion and distribution was created when "Duck and cover" was a leading meme.
I don't want the album to "leak" because I don't want to pay for it; it's already pre-ordered ($80US), I'll buy all the singles ($40-ish US), and see them multiple times on tour ($waytoofuckingmuchbutworthit-ish).
I don't want the album to "leak" because I'm a kid who likes free stuff and sticking it to the man/RIAA/etc.
I don't actually want the album to "leak" at all, really...I just want to listen to it. I want my favorite--supposedly progressive/technologically-minded--band to pay at least a little attention to how the world works now, how it will be working in the next 5-10 years, and try to get a bit ahead of the curve.
I don't want my favorite band to act like they have the same level of technological understanding as my freaking grandmother.
I wouldn't expect this sort of thinking from a label...I just was expecting U2 to be pushing a bit more, and not acting like just another 4-piece ho in the label's pimphouse, willing to go along with whatever the boss says.
Though, Sebastian's been in charge of u2.com since the beginning, on their call, so it's not like I don't know that all their "new media" talk has been 90% hot air from the start, but it's never been so front and center for me like it is now.