U2 manager critiques free music methods

According to U2's manager Paul McGuinness, the revolutionary and landmark method English band Radiohead used last fall to release the album In Rainbows was a failure and "backfired." Talking to the BBC, McGuinness critiqued the band and the "pay-what-you-like" method because it still resulted in over 60%-70% of listeners acquiring the album through illegal channels. He told the BBC that U2's forthcoming new album, due this fall, would not be released in a similar method at all.

The primary reason U2's album will not be released like Radiohead's In Rainbows, is probably because the Irish quartet is still contracted with Universal Music Group for album releases. Radiohead released In Rainbows without the assistance of a record label or any firm of the music industry. Their management and the band's website was utilized to oversee the release of the album. Perhaps McGuinness realized how much would be required for him if U2 chose that method? The new U2 album is due near the end of October, regardless.

McGuinness also told the BBC that physical sales "are still an enormous part of [U2's] business and [the band] still sell a lot of actual CDs." Although Radiohead did not release In Rainbows on CD in the beginning, when the CD appeared in January it went straight to number one in various countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. The band has still not revealed exact figures from the experimental method, but that has not kept other groups and critics from analyzing it, including McGuinness. The U2 album will likely sell well, but that shouldn't mean that a download-only method initially was a failure.