Iron Maiden visit their non-paying fans

The headline on this citeworld story is a little alarming:

How Iron Maiden found its worst music pirates -- then went and played for them

It suggests that they turned up at the house of a bloke who had downloaded all their albums and then played a gig in his kitchen - which would be scary, and almost certainly lead to being issued with noise violation tickets.

The idea that the stuff you download will be enacted in your living room would probably kill torrent traffic off - especially as far as bukake videos go.

Instead, it's actually a story about how Iron Maiden discovered that their music was being downloaded enthusiastically in South America. Not bought, but downloaded. Rather than follow the usual route of traipsing over to the lawyer's offices, the band (or rather the legally-incorporated company that the band now is) booked flights to South America, and toured the arse out of the continent:

And in a positive cycle, Maiden's online fanbase grew. According to Musicmetric, in the 12 months ending May 31, 2012, the band attracted more than 3.1 million social media fans. After its Maiden England world tour, which ran from June 2012 to October 2013, Maiden's fan base grew by five million online fans, with a significant increase in popularity in South America.

When life gives you lemons, in other words, you should get the data underlying those lemons, and work out how to use them to sell more lemons back to the... oh, you get the point.

[Thanks to Michael M for the tip]