Avenged Sevenfold vocalist M. Shadows mentioned that streaming saved the music industry during a recent conversation with The Bob Lefsetz Podcast.
The musicians have discussed the benefits and disadvantages of online platforms for the entire scene. Some advocate that digital innovations have caused the death of music, while others think it is beneficial to reach the whole world.
Previously, Gene Simmons stated that the audience could easily download the music they wanted to listen to via online platforms, which caused the death of rock. On the other hand, musicians like Alice Cooper, Dee Snider, and Tony Iommi advocated that rock music was still alive thanks to the coming generation that loved and produced this genre.
As the usage of streaming platforms has increased, musicians have mentioned their views about this issue. In his previous tweets, Disturbed vocalist David Draiman talked about the benefits of streaming by saying it brought opportunities to the musicians. Draiman recalled when people downloaded the musicians’ works via pirate sites. According to him, streaming platforms removed piracy on the internet by providing profits to musicians and labels.
In a recent podcast, M. Shadows remembered how they got negative responses when releasing ‘The Stage’ without warning. According to him, some musicians stay away from today’s innovations and complain that music does not bring money to them.
The vocalist stated that it is beneficial for rock music to be among the other genres on streaming platforms as it could be listened to by everyone at any time. M. Shadows advocated that streaming saved both the music industry and the users. The rocker mentioned that musicians had a chance to attract the audience’s attention thanks to streaming platforms.
M. Shadows explained in his words:
“We did that surprise release with 2016’s ‘The Stage,’ we had the pushback, and it kind of shocked us. Every time you bring upstreaming to people, you get all these old bands that are bitter about it, and it’s very weird.
They’re still in 2022 talking about how music doesn’t make any money; no one’s buying our CDs. Maybe you’re not relevant? Let’s be relevant; let’s put our hat in the ring so when they’re listening to Justin Bieber or The Weeknd, they can jump over to Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold. We’re playing in the same park here.
You still get these people that are, ‘Streaming’s killed industry, and now we got to do this, and we got to do that.’ No, streaming kind of saved the industry. It saved the user; I call them the Web 2.0 user. The fan gets to listen to you at any point, so how are you going to get their attention? How are you going to be the best thing that’s going to be going through their earholes that day?”
You can listen to the entire podcast below.
