The hot-button music issue of the moment is a controversy over how Spotify and other online streaming services might be ripping off artists.
Naturally, Bono has already sounded off on the situation. The U2 star was in Dublin on Nov. 6 to speak at a Web Summit conference, and he brought up some interesting points.
"The real enemy is not between digital downloads or streaming, the real enemy, the real fight is between opacity and transparency," he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
"The music business has historically involved itself in quite considerable deceit. But if we change that bit, and people can actually see how many times they're being played, where they're being played, get access to information on the people who are listening to them, get paid direct debit... I think those payments will add up to something."
What about Spotify, which Taylor Swift decided to ditch earlier this week?
"Spotify [is] giving up 70 percent of all [its] revenues to rights owners. It's just that people don't know where the money is because the record labels haven't been transparent," Bono said.
The Irish rocker also believes that streaming services are good for up-and-coming artists.
"I'm already paid too much, I'm a spoiled rock star," he said. "I'm the wrong spokesperson for this, but I have to tell you if I were starting a band now, aged 17 or 18, I would be very excited."
Still... "It is clear that there are some traumas as we move from physical to digital and 20th century to 21st century, and the people paying the highest price for those traumas are songwriters rather than performers."
U2 stirred up controversy in September when they released a new album, Songs of Innocence, for free to all Apple users.
"We got a lot of people who were uninterested in U2 to be mad with U2," Bono said. "I would call that an improvement in the relationship."
He clarified that the band was paid handsomely for the endeavor, and that it's important for artists to get their due.
"No one values music more than the members of U2. To us music is a sacrament, it's a sacred thing," he said. "I think artists should be paid way more than they are."
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