Even though U2 have been flying the white flag, musicians continue to slag them about their free album giveaway on iTunes, this time it is Pink Floyd’s drummer Nick Mason sticking the knife in.
It has nearly been two months since Songs of Innocence was offered to 500 million Apple customers for free and fellow artists, industry experts and music critics haven’t stopped slating U2 for the experiment.
Bono has backtracked a little bit on the group’s LP giveaway, after initially defending the venture. Bono recently told Rolling Stone: “It’s like we put a bottle of milk in people’s fridge that they weren’t asking for. It is a gross invasion! But it was kind of an accident. The milk was supposed to be in the cloud. It was supposed to be on the front doorstep.”
Mason told Rolling Stone: “It was so unexpected, I thought, and interesting that people took such umbrage at being given something. That does devalue things. Music has been horribly devalued by being given away. It’s funny they didn’t sense some of that. It’s been the big story of the 21st century, music being de-valued.”
Previously Iggy Pop slammed the Irish band, as well as Sharon Osbourne, who wrote on twitter: “U2 you are business moguls not musicians anymore. No wonder you have to give your mediocre music away for free cause no one wants to buy it.” Rapper Tyler The Creator described waking up to Songs of Innocence on his iPhone to “waking up with Herpes.”
Mason added that U2 “did it the wrong way around and I’m fond of saying that what we did is a very old fashioned musical concept”.
Talking about Floyd’s upcoming release of The Endless River, the drummer said: “We’re hoping people might actually buy this record.” Low-blow Mason.
Mason has also been having a war of words with Roger Waters, comparing his former band-mate to Joesph Stalin.
