Metallica’s Manager Calls YouTube Their Newest Internet Enemy And ‘The Devil’

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Metallica’s manager is not happy with how YouTube steers revenue to artists. Peter Mensch, who’s also the band manger for other iconic bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Muse, spoke out against the site’s advertising practices. As anybody who follows the music industry even slightly knows, Metallica was also the first band to combat the rise of free music or subscription services with their lawsuit against Napster at the turn of the millennium. So, this isn’t their first rodeo with regards to disagreeing with music royalty practices. Mensch is onto this whole “no one is making any money” thing and made comments about the issue to the BBC. As reported by Rolling Stone, Mensch said this:

“We don’t get paid at all. If someone doesn’t do something about YouTube, we’re screwed. It’s over. Someone turn off the lights … It’s hard to make people pay for what they’ve been getting for free. That’s consumer behavior 101.”

While he is definitely correct about the gap between what artists should be getting paid and what they are getting paid, there is always the argument to be made that without YouTube or other services with ad-based or subscription revenue, some artists would never even get noticed at all. Of course, that doesn’t make sense in regards to the bands Mensch represents, but it’s at least an argument that could be made.

YouTube’s Chief Business Officer fired back at the accusations with his own comments, countering that there are artists who make money with YouTube, and they are usually ones who don’t bow to their record labels’ demands for revenue sharing:

“There are middle-men — whether it’s collection societies, publishers or labels — and what they do is they give advances and they want those recouped. So it’s really hard when there’s no transparency for the artist.”

So there’s two sides of the argument for sure, but Metallica has shown they can accomplish change in the face of dropping artist revenues before. YouTube might want to watch their backs.

(via Rolling Stone)

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