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Piracy Offers Heavy Metal a New Business Model
hessian writes "Despite being extensively pirated worldwide, Iron Maiden have managed to put themselves in the £10-20m for 2012. This means that despite the growing popularity of the band on social media, and the extensive and pervasive torrent downloading of the band's music, books and movies, the band is turning a profit. This is in defiance of the past business model, and the idea that piracy is killing music. In fact, piracy seems to be saving music in Iron Maiden's case. One reason for this may be metal itself. It has a fiercely loyal fanbase and a clear brand and identity. The audience identifies with the genre, which stands in contrast to genericized genres. It doggedly maintains its own identity and shuns outsiders. As a result, fans tend to identify more with their music, and place a higher value on purchasing it."
Two names...Cliff Burton and Lars Ulrich. Cliff was the one that bitchslapped the rest of the guys in line and while they were able to stay true to the band for a few albums after that once Lars became band leader over Hetfield (who was having a well publicized battle with the bottle) things went to shit. Lars has always been a greedy little shit, you watch the early interviews and you can practically see dollar signs in his eyes when he talks about making it big.
Frankly I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for the "new direction" meetings as I really wouldn't be surprised if Lars broke out charts and focus groups. That is why I really wasn't surprised when Newsted bailed, what amazed me was he lasted as long as he did as he went from being in Cliff's shoes to backing something that would sound at home on the van tours, bleech.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.