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22 May 2011

Metal Band Criticizes U2 Band Manager’s View on P2P

Philly Byrne, the frontman of Gama Bomb is astonished that U2 Band Manager Paul McGuinness thinks introducing a “three-strikes” system to punish unauthorized file-sharer is better than bringing them to court, because both of the ways are a prosecution of the people musicians rely on. In addition he approves the idea of free content as a way to gain profit, and believes that the freely distributed albums help to get record tour profits.
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Recently, Paul McGuinness, the U2 band manager, again criticized peer-to-peer networks in his article, and also offered there the solutions to the ailing music business. After the article came to Philly Byrne’s hand, who is Gama Bomb frontman, he was apparently astonished, saying that McGuinness was extremely short-sighted on the actions needed to be taken. The article, in his opinion, is filled with logical blind-spots, considering the current state of the industry. Although McGuinness has got the numbers right, the headspace went all wrong.
The first thing that Byrne criticizes is that while McGuinness admits that suing individual users is ineffective, he still advocates a “three-strikes” system which is “better” alternative. However, Byrne believes that disconnecting file-sharers from the web is just a persecution to the people performers rely on.

      The next issue in question is the McGuinness’ claim that the record business can only have very little success in its attempts to “fight free with free,” trying to get revenues from merchandising and similar things, other than the listener’s wallet. Byrne pointed out that record labels even used to buy up merchandising companies to get a bigger cut of the action.
As for the inability of the music industry to “fight free with free,” Gama Bomb succeeded in this kind of promotion, providing a bright example of the opposite. The band understands that the only way to live out in our days is to stop perceiving the P2P as theft and look for the ways how to profit from it. Byrne can prove that free albums can be the key to success, because they can generate record tour profits by expanding the fanbase. The band recently distributed free copies of its 3rd album, and it was still selling no worse than their 2nd album. They also get paid more for gigs and manage to sell more merchandise. As you can see, the money is still made from music fans, but in the other way.