Kirk Hammett has claimed that his band Metallica had warned people that streaming services “wouldn’t work” as a new form of business.
Speaking to Classic Rock, the guitarist claimed that the band had warned that most musicians would lose “80 per cent of its net worth, power and influence”, following the rise of streaming services.
“We warned everyone that this was gonna happen”, Hammett insisted.
“We warned everyone that the music industry was gonna lose 80 percent of its net worth, power and influence. When these monumental shifts come you just either fucking rattle the cage and get nothing done or you move forward”.
Hammett Says “we’re stuck with it”
Elsewhere in the interview, Kirk Hammett also claimed that the current methods for downloading and accessing music are not as “effective as the music industry pre Napster”.
“There’s definitely a new way for getting music out there, but it isn’t as effective as the music industry pre-Napster”, he stated.
“But we’re stuck with it. There needs to be some sort of midway point where the two come together, or another completely new model comes in”.
“Rock is dead”
Along with Hammett, KISS co founder Gene Simmons once again insisted that “Rock is dead”, blaiming streaming services for depriving us of the next “Bob Dylan” or the “next creator”.
Simmons also added, “But from 1988 until today, who is the new Beatles? BTS? There’s no denying BTS are world famous. But am I going to form a garage band to do those songs? No. I think they’re well-crafted and professional, but One Direction and NSYNC and all the boy bands don’t change the world. It just makes little girls hearts flutter and then they’re gone”.
Such streaming services that have come under fire include Spotify.
Along with Hammett and Simmons, the site has received strong criticism from artists such as David Crosby, David Byrne, and producer Tony Visconti, who branded Spotify “disgusting”.
“Spotify is disgusting, the money they make out of [artists],” he said. “If you had 12 million streams, you could barely afford lunch for two people. It’s ridiculous, I don’t know why it’s allowed. Spotify does nothing to support the culture of music”.
