Talking ‘Bout A Revolution – Bono On Spotify

A man who’s always known how to play to his audience, Bono gets a massive cheer when he enthuses: “One of the things I love about being at the summit is all these people remind me of being in a band. The same kind of people that would be in bands are now forming start-ups. I get off on that excitement, that thrill.”

Returning to the RDS for the second year in row, Mr. H is sharing the Music Summit stage with House Of Cards producer Dana Brunetti, SoundCloud founder Eric Wahlforss, venture capitalist Bill McGlashan and David Carr, the New York Times journalist who is chairing the future of music/future of content panel. The hall is not surprisingly fit to burst, with a scrum of snappers down-front hoping to bag a photo for tomorrow’s front-page.
“The real enemy is not between digital downloads or streaming, the real enemy, the real fight is between opacity and transparency,” Bono asserts, when the talk switches to Spotify. “The music business has historically involved itself in quite considerable deceit, but if we change that bit, and people can actually see how many times they’re being played, where they’re being played, get access to information on the people who are listening to them, get paid direct debit... I think those payments will add up to something.
“When people pick on Spotify – they’re giving up 70% of their revenues to rights owners. It’s just that people don’t know where the money is, because the record labels haven’t been transparent. That’s the thing to look for. For this new model to be successful and to take root, there has to be some kind of fairness... fair models of distribution. When that happens, the music business will be a rising tide that lifts all boats.”
Talking recently on Facebook, he seemed somewhat apologetic about how Songs Of Innocence was released – but not today.
“We got a lot of people who were uninterested in U2 to be mad with U2, and I would call that an improvement in the relationship!” he smiles. “And we were paid. No one values music more than the members of U2. To us, music is a sacrament, it’s a sacred thing. I think artists should be paid way more than they are, but the greatest way you serve your songs is to get them heard.
“About 100 million people checked us out, one or two or three tracks, but about 30 million people liked the whole album. That took us 30 years with The Joshua Tree. So we did in three weeks, with Songs Of Innocence, what took us 30 years with The Joshua Tree.”
While many have been sounding the music industry’s death knell, Bono reckons it’s still a great place to be – especially if you’re young and hungry.
“I’m already paid too much, I’m a spoiled rock star!” the singer concludes. “I’m the wrong spokesperson for this, but I have to tell you, if I were starting a band now, aged 17 or 18, I would be very excited. Though it’s clear that there are some traumas as we move from physical to digital and 20th century to 21st century, and the people paying the highest price for those traumas are songwriters rather than performers, I still think forming a band is so exciting.”