Paul McCartney isn’t quite as laissez-faire about illegal filesharing as he was last year. Speaking to BBC Newsbeat before his brilliant headlining set at Coachella, McCartney reacted to the conviction of the four founders of The Pirate Bay. “If you get on a bus you’ve got to pay,” he said. “And I think it’s fair, you should pay your ticket.” His main concern with the issue is that newer bands sometimes have huge success that they can’t sustain and he feels they should be able to support their families on their royalties regardless of their future in music.
Only four months ago, however, McCartney seemed a little blissfully uninformed on the subject. “It’s weird for me,” he said at a press conference (via Skope). “I’m not from that. I’m from going into a shop and buying a 45. We’ve come through vinyl, tapes and CDs – it’s all the same, except people don’t pay for it [now]. I don’t mind. It works out.”
It’s nice to see that McCartney is humble enough to understand the plight of struggling bands, considering he’s been one of the biggest stars in the world for over forty years, but it’s clear we have yet to find a new working model for said bands. I think we may have a shortage of huge new rock stars for a while, but good music isn’t going anywhere.