| Paul McGuinness | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Paul McGuinness |
| Born | 17 June 1951 (age 60) |
| Origin | Rinteln, Germany |
| Occupations | Music Manager |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Associated acts | U2, PJ Harvey, The Rapture |
Paul McGuinness is the main shareholder and founder of Principle Management Limited: an artist management company based in Dublin, Ireland, which has managed U2 from the start of their successful career. He is the manager of U2, PJ Harvey and The Rapture.
McGuinnes was born in June 1951 in Rinteln near Hanover, Germany, in a British Army hospital; his father was serving there with the RAF. Paul then was sent to boarding school in Ireland in 1961: Clongowes Wood College, run by the Jesuits. He then went on to Trinity College in Dublin where he directed plays and edited the magazine T.C.D. Miscellany, but left without completing his degree.
Before becoming involved with U2, he worked as a film technician on productions such as John Boorman's Zardoz. For a time, he also managed the band Spud.
He was a founding partner of TV3 in Ireland and is a director of Ardmore Studios.[1] He is also a member of the Phantom FM consortium that in November 2004 secured a broadcasting licence for alternative rock music radio station in the Dublin area.
He has previously been a member of the Arts Council of Ireland, serving on three successive Arts Councils, from 1989 until 2000.
On January 28, 2008, in a speech at the Midem music industry convention in Cannes, McGuinness called on governments to compel ISPs to introduce mandatory "three strike" service disconnections to end unauthorized downloading, and specifically accused companies such as Apple, Google, Yahoo!, Oracle, and Facebook of building "multi billion dollar industries on the back of our content without paying for it", and of being "makers of burglary kits" who have made "a thieves' charter" to steal money from the music industry.[2]