Iron Maiden‘s company Iron Maiden LLP has been named as one of the fastest-growing music firms in the UK, according to a London Stock Exchange report that named ‘1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain‘, with the NWBHM band’s company sitting amid the likes of Shazam and others.
Iron Maiden LLP, the legendary heavy metal group’s holding company, is one of six music companies beating out other businesses in the sector, and is estimated to be making UK £10-20 million a year, largely as a result of their rigorous touring schedule and their huge online fan base.
According to Musicmetric, as reported by The Guardian, in the 12 months ending 31st May 2012, the band attracted over 3.1 million social media fans. During the tenure of their year-long ‘Maiden England’ world tour, their fan base grew by 5 million online fans, with a spike in South America.
“Iron Maiden’s BitTorrent data suggests Brazil is a huge driver of fans – and given Brazil is one of the biggest file sharing nations on the planet, this is a strong indicator of popularity,” said Musicmetric CEO and co-founder Greg Mead. He continued:
“With their constant touring, [the] report suggests Maiden have been rather successful in turning free file-sharing into fee-paying fans. This is clear proof that taking a global approach to live touring can pay off, and that having the data to track where your fan bases lie will become ever more vital.”
Earlier this year, Maiden’s frontman Bruce Dickinson denied accepting a $500 million contract from the US military to manufacture drones. The claim surfaced as a result of a post on the blog Dorset Eye titled, ‘Bruce Dickinson: Rock’n’Roll Warmonger’, sourced from a South African website.
“This is a totally inaccurate and malicious piece of writing that seems to have stemmed from an unfortunate mistake in terminology on a South African website that the writer of said blog has since used as a starting point…to go off on a flight of sheer fantasy,” a band spokesperson later told NME.
(Via The Guardian)
