U2 manager brands Spiral Frog "an awful idea"

This puts him at odds with U2’s record company, Universal Music, who’ve already signed an agreement making their catalogue available to Spiral Frog.
“I’m not enthralled by the prospect and I’m not sure it’ll be a success,” McGuinness tells Hot Press in an exclusive interview. “I think the iTunes model is the one that will succeed – well, it has succeeded. But in terms of the future of the record industry, the real question for the record business is, ‘Who has got our money?’ And I think we all know who has got the money. The money is in the hands of the phone companies and the ISPs. And the reason why somebody buys Broadband at $20 a month or whatever is not particularly to chat with their friends or read the Irish Times. It’s got a lot to do with getting free downloads of movies and music. So that’s where the money is.”
Drawing a comparison between the two, McGuinness says that, “The pornography industry has been far more efficient, I suspect, at collecting the money than the music business. The music business spent many years kind of doing nothing as this digital age dawned – and they’re now playing catch up.”
Although the precise mechanics of the service have yet to be announced, Spiral Frog say that before free downloading commences consumers will have to view a selection of paid adverts, a pre-agreed percentage of which will go to the participating record companies.
Click here buy a copy of the magazine online, where McGuinness also talks candidly about his relationship with U2 and hteir controversial decision to move part of their business empire to the Netherlands to lower their tax burden.