The Black Keys’s Patrick Carney is the next musician to criticise U2’s decision to give their album Songs of Innocence away on iTunes for free, saying that it “devalues their music completely” and sends a negative message to up and coming bands.
Speaking to the Seattle Times, the drummer said: “My whole thing about music is: if somebody’s making money then the artist should be getting a fair cut of it. The owner of Spotify is worth something like three billion dollars…he’s richer than Paul McCartney and he’s 30 and he’s never written a song.”
He continued: “[It] sends a huge mixed message to bands… that are just struggling to get by. I think that they were thinking it’s super generous of them to do something like that.” The Black Keys have refused to release both Turn Blue and El Camino on Spotify due to their criticisms of the service.
Related: Bono Apologizes for Forcing You to Listen to the New U2 Album
U2 frontman Bono recently apologised to iTunes users who were angered by Songs of Innocence automatically appearing in their libraries, after the band cut a deal with Apple to bring the LP to literally everyone with an iTunes account. Bono stated that the band were guilty of a “drop of megalomania” when it came to the promotion during a Facebook Q & A session with their fans.
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