Iron Maiden Frontman Says Music Industry Exploited Fans

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson lays the blame of the downfall of the music industry squarely on the shoulders of record companies for their shortsightedness in resisting the explosion of the internet.

Dickinson spoke to GloboNews in Brazil while he was in the country to give the keynote address at the VTEX Day 2018 in Sao Paulo. He said, "The music industry exploited its customers.

"The record companies were making a lot of money for not doing very much. They believed the downloading would just disappear. But it didn't, and they didn't do anything about it. They didn't see downloading as being a great way to access their fans, their customers, if you like. But bands did - the bands were way ahead of the record companies.

"Brazil, for example, had one of the youngest audiences of any country in the world. And consequently, they had a huge uptake on Internet activity. So, for a band like Iron Maiden, who, we embraced the Internet very early on, we were making contact with people in Brazil directly. And that was great for us. But the record companies failed to understand that because they were too arrogant, they were too old, they were too slow."

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