But then I spotted Bono peeking out from a pile of paper-wrapped CDs in the pop section. The shop sold How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, the band’s most recent release. In travels around China I’ve tried to figure out who’s the most popular western artists in locals music stores. From Urumqi in the country’s west, to Xiamen in the south and Harbin in the north and Shanghai in the east, I’ve come to the conclusion that U2 and Christina Aguilera are listened to more than any other artist.
Of course neither artist gets much from being in several million music stores around China: 90 percent of the CDs and DVDs of western artists which I’ve seen are pirated versions. Much depends on the region - it's a lot harder in Shanghai to get a fake than it is in Beijing or Guangzhou, unless you go down the back streets. But until CD and book brands take their prices down to compete with the fakes they'll have the bulk of the market here. After all who’s going to pay RMB50 (a special China price for some of U2’s earlier albums in Beijing department stores) for genuine U2 product in Linxia, where the average monthly wage hovers at around RMB800?
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1999 - 'The eMusic Market', written by Gordon McConnell it focuses on how the internet could change the music industry. Boy was he on the money, years before any of us had heard of an iPod or of Napster.