Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett says he believes the band warned people that streaming services “wouldn’t work” as a new form of business.
- READ MORE: Streaming â what happens next? Artists demand âa shift in the way business is doneâ
âWe warned everyone that this was gonna happen,â Hammett told Classic Rock in a new interview. âWe 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.
âThereâs definitely a new way for getting music out there, but it isnât as effective as the music industry pre-Napster,â Hammett added. âBut weâre stuck with it. There needs to be some sort of midway point where the two come together, or another completely new model comes in.â
Earlier this year, the UK governmentâs Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) formally launched a new study to examine the music streaming market.
The announcement followed on from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committeeâs âEconomics Of Music Streamingâ report, which was published last summer and led to the government calling on the CMA to start an investigation into the matter.
Spotify has come under fire previously for its low artist payments, with the likes of David Byrne, producer Tony Visconti and David Crosby all criticising the platform recently.
Visconti described the streaming service as âdisgustingâ over its low payments to artists. âSpotify is disgusting, the money they make out of [artists],â he said. âIf you had 12 million streams, you could barely afford lunch for two people. Itâs ridiculous, I donât know why itâs allowed. Spotify does nothing to support the culture of music.â
In 2013 Byrne criticised the âpittanceâ artists are paid while David Crosby said recently: âI donât like any of the streamers, because they donât pay us properly. Their proportion is wrong. Theyâre making billions with a âbâ and theyâre paying out pennies with a âp.ââ
Back in December, Kevin Brennan MPâs bill on reforming musiciansâ remuneration â dubbed the âBrennan Billâ â failed to make it through the House of Commons.