Iggy Pop has taken a shot at U2 over their partnership with Apple, and has praised Thom Yorke for distributing his latest album using BitTorrent.
The frontman delivered the fourth annual John Peel Lecture at Salford’s Radio Festival, and used his time to discuss his problems with music distribution. Iggy gave his thoughts on “free music in a capitalist society”, discussing both the perils of pirating music and the problems raised by promotions such as U2’s Songs of Innocence being planted in users’ iTunes libraries free of charge.
Also See: 5% of iTunes Users Chose to Download U2′s Songs of Innocence of Their Own Free Will
“The people who don’t want the free U2 download are trying to say, don’t try to force me. And they’ve got a point”, the 67-year-old said. “Part of the process when you buy something from an artist, it’s a kind of anointing, you are giving people love. It’s your choice to give or withhold.”
He continued: “You are giving a lot of yourself, besides the money. But in this particular case, without the convention, maybe some people felt like they were robbed of that chance, and they have a point.”
Speaking on the subject of illegal downloading, Iggy called pirates “computer Putins” who “just wanna get rich and powerful”.
“We are exchanging the corporate rip-off for the public one. Aided by power nerds”, he said, adding: “And now the biggest bands are charging insane ticket prices or giving away music before it can flop, in an effort to stay huge. And there’s something in this huge thing that kind of sucks.”
However, he conceded that there is a further issue with charging those who download pirated material as criminals, saying: “I think that prosecuting some college kid because she shared a file is a lot like sending somebody to Australia 200 years ago for poaching his lordship’s rabbit. That’s how it must seem to poor people who just want to watch a crappy movie for free after they’ve been working themselves to death all day at Tesco.”
Related: Listen to and Download to Thom Yorke’s Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes
Thom Yorke recently distributed his new solo album Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes exclusively through peer-to-peer file-sharing service BitTorrent, a move which Iggy praised. “It’s good in this case that Thom Yorke is encouraging a positive change. The music is good. It’s being offered at a low price direct to people who care.”
Apple was forced to add a feature that allowed users to delete U2’s Songs for Innocence from their iTunes libraries after a number of users complained about it. Bono would later go on to say that forcing people to listen to his new album was like a “punk rock invasion”.
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