Midge Ure, the former Ultravox singer and Live Aid organiser, has launched a new website called Tunited, which aims to merge social networking and downloads. It also ultimately aims to assist struggling musicians by giving them a fairer share of streaming and downloading revenue. The site also self-filters via music recommendations, provides artists with tools to market their music, as well as their own ‘personalised shops’.
Ure says “I’ve accrued information over 35 years in the music industry, yet the music industry seems uninterested in tapping into that information,” says Ure. “If I was a car designer I’d be headhunted.” There’s also the opportunity for artists to meet and collaborate on music via swapping files.
Ure says that the industry has been fundamentally changed by the internet, by removing the filters record companies applied.”You had to be the right age, the right demographic, have the right hair, the right look – and if you were over 21, you were too old.” However, he says that the changes created by the internet mean that artists need to be able to market themselves. It’s a cold hard fact that you can’t just be a Pete Doherty and stagger about saying: ‘I’m a brilliant artist. Everyone should get me, but nobody understands me.’ It doesn’t work anymore,” he says.
