As you may have heard, music industry tycoons, CEOs, artists, and managers descended upon Cannes, France recently to discuss the future of music, brag about their respective ventures, and get pumped for another year of music biz guerrilla warfare. The event is called MIDEM (you know, that place where Radiohead’s manager revealed that he once advised them to split?).
Gorillaz/Blur manager Chris Morrison took part in a panel discussion only a few days after the first single from his client’s new LP Plastic Beach, “Stylo,” leaked onto the internets and spread like wildfire (as leaks are wont do). Not a good day to ask Mr. Morrison about piracy: “I was ambivalent about illegal downloading until someone stuck our record up illegally,” he said (via ZeroPaid). “They don’t have any interest in it, they don’t even make money off it but they undo all that work.” He went on to concede that the hype surrounding the “Stylo” leak “might work to [their] advantage.” You think?
Morrison also took on comments made by Pharrell Williams at an earlier discussion in which the producer likened music leaks to “taste-testing.” Here’s Morrison:
“It’s not [like taste-testing]. It’s like giving them the whole bloody meal!” he declared (via Music Ally), adding later: “Piracy could be stopped and I think we should take the gloves off and say it has to be stopped.”