How Iron Maiden found its worst music pirates -- then went and played for them

[LTR]

28. The music industry needs to learn to work with technology

Because technology cannot be stopped.

I can think of a couple examples. Radiohead's 2001 album "Kid A" was leaked long before it's release date, and was downloaded heavily prior to release. They embraced it, and it became their first #1 album. They even gave away "In Rainbows" online (actually, it was pay what you want). When it was released on CD a few months later, it also hit #1.

The next example is an odd one. Janis Ian was a singer/songwriter who had a few hits in the 70s, then faded. Roughly a decade ago, she noticed a significant spike in her royalty payments.She did some research aand noticed a few of her songs were being traded online.The younger fans who suddenly discovered songs like "At Seventeen" went out and bought hher CDs. After this, she embraced file sharing rather than try to put the genie back in the bottle.

Moral is, the artists that think outside the box and figure out how to embrace technology will find ways to thrive in the future.