You just don’t understand what happened if this is your opinion. Metallica had the pull to fight for legal protections against illegal downloading. They were doing it for the small artists who didn’t have a voices. Obviously it was also for themselves but I don’t think it’s awful to not want to have your hard work stolen from you.
Get mad at Lars for never practicing, not for protecting the rights of musicians to not have their music stolen
Totally gotta protect Johnny Nobody and the Garage band that everyone was using Napster to rip off, right? You know those bands with a scant few thousand fans in the city of Springfield that were totally being robbed by the 3 kids in a neighboring town that maybe uploaded a song or two.
Those were the songs that people were downloading, totally not the top 100 that got dozens of hours of radio play daily, multiple music video repeats on MTV, and already signed with a label.
Who wants to download the popular big name bands lol
The little guy is the band who’s going to sell a couple thousand copies of their album and maybe recoup the cost for recording. If you were going to sell 3000 copies and now you’re selling 1000 because illegal downloading is the standard you might not be able to afford recording your next album, going on that next tour, paying for advertising that will push you to the next level where you’re selling 50,000 copies etc.
It was the timing of it that bugged me the most. Whining about Napster cutting into their album sales just didn't carry any weight for me when the albums in question were Load and Reload. Those albums enacted a huge shift in their audience, and I don't think the fans that generated the sales numbers of their previous albums were contributing at all to Load and Reload's numbers. I haven't met anyone for whom those albums aren't either they're favorite or most hated.
This isn't really true. Metallica went after napster for facilitating the distribution of an unfinished version of i disappear that was unreleased at the time. They did give the court a list of users that shared their music but they never sued any fans, only napster. Everyone who felt entitled for whatever reason to download their music for free was pissed.
I disappear was definitely the catalyst. I don’t think the whole Napster thing was entirely altruistic or anything. Metallica is their business, they support their families and a bunch of employees and wanted to continue to do so. If it was selfish they probably would have gotten their music barred from the site but they were trying to get the whole site taken down so Napster wouldn’t steal from any artist. Hard to say from the outside what their true intentions were but the goal to take down Napster was definitely good for all recording musicians
Burning a CD repeatedly in a factory somewhere in southeast asia using a machine operated by someone being paid several cents per hour wasn't by any means "hard work" for Metallica. From their perspective, recording an album involved playing the same song a few times (maybe more than a few, but still...) and making a few cut decisions. The reason they don't earn as much for album sales post-Napster is that technology has moved on. Furthermore, downloading a song from the internet should be no more illegal than humming it to yourself. Intellectual property rights were invented as a tool of oppression by a few greedy people.
Don’t believe me? Ask any musician how much money they make off of Spotify.
Weird Al, a man with a catalog that spans decades, made $40k in a year. Sure weird Al isn’t struggling but basically any other mid tier or lower musician definitely is.
He was completely right. He saw the writing on the wall. It’s great for the listeners and everyone else but the top .1% of musicians get royally screwed.
Yup. History has pretty clearly vindicated them at this point.
But they were also right that the Genie was out of the bottle, and their attempt to fight the future not only failed but also cost them a lot of goodwill. I don't hold it against them that they threw in the towel on that topic.
Does your job keep paying you for work you did 20 years ago? Musicians should get out there and tour to make money. The rest of us have to go to work. They should have to as well.
The artist worked create the tunes that made you want to listen to them in the first place. They worked to put those creations down on some form of media. They paid to get that done. Not to mention the touring and other related activities they performed to get money to do that. Why are artists not due this revenue stream? Why do the public deserve it for nothing? Ruger created the 10/22 in 1964. They still get paid for every one that they sell.
Did he not tour, sell merch, or have paid meet and greets? I’m sorry he was sad he couldn’t buy a new yacht that year. Fuck out of here with it was steal someone brought the album to upload it and not everyone had access to a computer then either.
Hey, since you don't seem to think people should get paid for work they do, can you come paint my kitchen and get absafuckinglutly nothing back in return? You gotta buy the paint too.
Wasn’t Napster and lime wire where you got: songs that weren’t the song you downloaded, songs that were really pictures of a trans pornstar with tits and dick out, or only half the song
As a drummer myself, he doesn't suck... Not at all.
Is he the most technical drummer? No, not even close...
But is he the best drummer to go along with James playing rythem guitar? Hell yes, there is a reason they have been the biggest rock drum band for decades.
Calling him a bad drummer is just a really really stupid take. You don't have to be complex and technically advanced to be good.
Yeah but the world is full of idiots who parrot this stupid thing and don’t know anything about drumming themselves. It’s just an easy hateful thing to say… I have stopped getting angry over it being said. Assholes will be assholes
James Hetfield was supportive of Metallica being used to torture Iraqi prisoners back in 2008. "If the Iraqis aren't used to freedom, I'm glad to be part of their exposure". Lars had to walk that back for the band later because James refused to.
Don't worry dude this guy gets to cheer on his heros protecting his freedoms when the other side just wants him stop paying his tax dollars to destabilizing a foreign nation so they can loot the oil.
Weird. When do your countries leaders get tortured. I can't imagine blowing up schools full of children as anything other than American and Israeli terrorism?
Well, maybe you should tell Hamas to stop hiding their troops under schools and hospitals? Or maybe to stop using child armies? Or maybe for the irgc to NOT BUILD A LITERAL FUCKING COMPOUND directly adjacent a school. Was our intelligence off? Yep. Did we screw up? Yep. But if you think for one second that they don't do this shit on purpose to try and use their own people as a meat shield you're delusional.
They are coward who are simply running the band as a business. Real rockers are so anti establishment they would've taken the opportunity to speak put against the heinous atrocities happening. If they don't want to be political while being political then they can deal with the consequences. It's not their job to educate me politically? It's not my job to support their music. Sounds like a fair trade to me :)
This. Just say “We’re a business. We play music for money. The message of our music is ‘Give us more money.’” I can live with a band like that. I won’t listen to them, in fact I’ve always thought Metallica was shit (with a couple minor exceptional songs), but I get the hype. It’s classic metal flavored easy listening. Easily digestible and it sells lots of michelob ultras or whatever at the tour.
At what point did I recognize that they were Muzak for Metalheads? A headbanger boy band? The type of band that checked on ticket numbers and food and beverage profit margins after a show instead of being actual fucking rock stars?
Right around 1989. They’ve been preening pinkies up pop performers for nigh 40 years and I wish we still had Lester Bangs to fucking unleash unholy shit on their corporate tired ass road act. Brought to you by BUDWEISER.
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u/Block444Universe 15h ago
Written in their songs and their actions. They have had a ton of charity efforts, supporting schools and educational programs and catastrophe relief.
Learnt from the Napster failure and were among the first big bands to release their entire back catalogue to Spotify