Paul McCartney’s let slip a few choice words on the topic of illegal downloads, telling a packed press conference that he doesn’t particularly mind music piracy.

The ex-Beatle was launching his latest The Fireman album, recorded with Youth, and admitted that while downloading seems “weird” to him, he’s laid back about it.

He added: “I’m not from that. I’m from going into a shop and buying a 45. We’ve come through vinyl, tapes and CDs – it’s all the same, except people don’t pay for it. I don’t mind. It works out.”

That’s sure to go down badly with EMI, which continues to wrangle over the release of The Beatles back catalogue through iTunes. McCartney says the talks between Apple Corps, EMI and iTunes have “stalled.”

Meanwhile, Rock Band creator Harmonix has confirmed it’s working on a Beatles-branded video game.

TBC | £TBC | EMI (via Distorted Loop)

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  • http://www.we7.com We7Steve

    It is great that massive artists like McCartney accept the free-download era, but advocating artists not being paid is something different.

    The truth is that The Beatles continue to sell singnificant volumes of their physical albums, whether or not people fileshare, so the impact of music piracy for them and their rights owners is not massive.

    For up and coming bands, not getting paid for their music simply isn’t an option – therefore piracy threatens the continuation of the UK’s extremely talented music industry.

    While you can’t force those who have never paid for music to have a conscience over filesharing, you can offer them a legal, safe and easier to use alternative like the ad-funded services which are emerging eg. We7.

    Steve Purdham
    CEO – We7
    http://www.we7.com

  • anonymous

    McCartney says “I don’t mind.” on music piracy. SO EVERYONE PIR8 his crap.

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