Last Friday, the Irish Times published an interesting article about the transforming role of music management. Writer John Collins centers the story around two managers: U2's Paul McGuinnes and Radiohead's Brian Message, who provides plenty of interesting fodder.
Prior to recording In Rainbows and coming up with the whole pay-what-you-want-internet-download idea, "Message says he and two of his partners had actually advised the band to split up. Two years after leaving EMI, Radiohead were still no closer to recording an album. The songs were written but the band couldn’t achieve the sound they were looking for in the studio. Courtyard felt maybe it was time to call it a day. Surely professional managers shouldn’t encourage their most profitable act to split up?"
"'I’ve been lucky to work with some great artists and Radiohead are a once in a generation act,' says Message. 'But you have to be honest if it’s not working. You have to have passion about what you do. I’m an accountant but I love music and I’m passionate about the artists I work with.'”
Sort of sounds like a dummy after that, right? Maybe not. Message has agreed to appear on behalf of graduate student Joel Tenenbaum, who is being sued for allegedly sharing 7 tracks on Kazaa. Message will testify that file-sharing can help the music industry, according to Tenenbaum's lawyer, Charles Nesson of Harvard Law School. Read more here.