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U2’s “free” music…

Ok, so I am a HUGE U2 fan, and have been since the early 80’s. Through the years they have made some great records and some not so great records, but that’s what great artists do, they re-invent themselves. I would not want to hear October or Unforgettable Fire over and over again, that’s boring and safe. BUT, this last promo stunt a.k.a. money grab by the band is really really lame! When my friend G Money told me they had given the new album away free via iTunes, I was like yes!! That is freaking awesome!! A band really giving back and even sticking it to all the pirated, file sharing peeps out there. Now again I’m not claiming to be 100% innocent in that category. I have used WinMX and LimeWire in the past to get songs to learn for cover bands or keep for myself. But I eventually buy the CDs, and now I just learn songs from YouTube for gigs that I have. I don’t believe in “free” music. Support the bands you like! Buy the album or pay to download it, buy some merch, go see them live, spread the word! As King’s X says, GO TELL SOMEBODY! But I digress…
Back to U2, and their “free” album. First off it’s so lame to automatically put it on someones computer. I mean it’s really spam when you think about it. But the bigger problem to me is saying or hinting that it’s free when you really got $100 million dollars from Apple to do it!! What about all little guys out there? Bands like King’s X, Midlake, Living Colour, Kyng, Stryper, etc.. All those types of bands, either older or somewhat newer, they could never do that. They are out there, touring, selling merch, pushing social media, recording on smaller budgets because they just can’t really make a living from it! Will this be the new norm? Will The Killers, Lady Gaga, Muse or Coldplay do that now too? What message does that send to the consumers/fans out there. “Hey we don’t value our music/art/product, so just take it for free while we bust our ass and put all our time, money, heart and soul into it. So lame…
You want to be cool U2? You want to do something awesome for the fans that have supported you and gone to your shows and helped you do what you love to do for a living? A good living!! Give the album away for a donation to a charity!! Hunger, homeless, cancer, sick kids, animals, Africa, you name it!! Don’t you think that $100 million could do some good, and then maybe that action of one of the biggest bands in the world might set other artists to do the same? Do you think you would still sell out stadiums and what not? Of course you would! You would be heroes, the coolest band that really stepped up and put their money where their music is! So as much as I love U2, I deleted my “free” copy and will not listen to it. Maybe a small, kind of silent protest so to speak. It won’t change the world and I’m sure no one will even care, but just what I feel is the right thing to do..