“Noel Gallagher has waded back into the streaming debate, accusing Apple Music of being ‘arrogant’ and ‘Orwellian,'” The Guardian reports.
The Guardian reports, “The former Oasis man, who has been critical of streaming services such as Tidal in the past, told the Varvet International podcast: ‘Apple Music, world radio: is that some sort of George Orwell shit going on? How can you be so arrogant that you can say, ‘We now fucking own world radio.””
MacDailyNews Take: Apple calls Beats 1 “The world’s local station.” Nowhere on their website or in any of their marketing materials does Apple make the claim, “We now fucking own world radio.”
The Guardian reports, “Gallagher went on to express dismay at the way music is consumed today, with fans streaming individual tracks rather than investing in full albums.”
MacDailyNews Take: Another has-been lamenting the passing of the forced bundle (“album”), an artificial construct that the music industry foisted on people as “art,” but was really a scheme to get paid 10X more per each decent track. The music industry began with singles, not forced bundles deceptively called “albums,” and it’ll end that way, too, thanks to Steve Jobs*.
*Standard disclaimer: Yes, some music albums are art. The vast majority are not. Apple continues to sell music in album form for those who desire to buy full albums.
The Guardian reports, “Of this sea change in consumer behaviour, he said: ‘If you tell me now that the record-buying era is over, that makes me sad. That the culture of buying and believing in a record, that era is over, and the belief is that music is for hire and for rent, the money that you pay lets you access everybody’s music but own none of it: I think that’s a sad day.'”
MacDailyNews Take: We bet you do. $1.29 for every hit song you write – in Noel’s case, make that wrote – as opposed to $15+ for plastic discs laden with filler. No, people don’t “believe” in forced bundling anymore, Noel. The free ride is over. No wonder you’re sad.
The Guardian reports, “Talking about Apple Music’s ‘Connect’ feature, which aims to allow users more access to artists and their schedules, Gallagher said: ‘Who cares what fucking Thom Yorke is up to? Seriously, who gives a shit? I’d find it creepy if everyone wanted to know what I was up to.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Now there’s a guy who understands marketing through and through. No wonder Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds couldn’t fill the first row at Wembley much less fill it up like Ed Sheeran can today or like Oasis could back when Noel had others who understood things like basic music promotion helping him along.
No wonder Noel’s last album sold a massive 115,000 copies total (or about as many copies of 1989 that Taylor Swift just sold while you read this).
No wonder Noel now toils in near-total obscurity and the only press he can get is for sputtering clueless expletives.
Perhaps if Noel wasn’t a bitter, confused, loudmouth asshole, people would know that he can still create compelling and gorgeous music? After all, we should know, we own every single song he’s ever offered up for sale, including being one of those rare 115,000 owners of his latest “album,” Chasing Yesterday (ironically-titled, given his rant over the demise of forced bundles).