Corey Taylor Says Lars Ulrich Was ‘Right on So Many Levels’ About Napster
In today’s music industry, streaming is king, so many musicians feel like they can’t criticize the pay structure of giants like Spotify and YouTube. However, Corey Taylor has used his position to speak out on behalf of smaller artists while declaring that Metallica’s Lars Ulrich was “right on so many levels” about Napster.
Back in 2000, Lars Ulrich was heavily criticized for delivering the user IDs of over 335,000 people who illegally downloaded Metallica music to Napster HQ. The publicity stunt gave Ulrich the reputation of a snitch, overriding the many legitimate points the drummer had made about stealing music.
"I remember everyone giving him so much shit 'cause of that, and he was so right on so many fucking levels, dude," Taylor said to Steve-O on his Wild Ride podcast. "It's scary. And I wonder how many people look back and eat a little crow because of that. 'Cause he knew, he knew that this was the direction we were going."
The Slipknot vocalist continued, “In this day and age, it's really hard to know which ones of the fucking streaming services actually compensate the artists that they're ripping off. It's more important for me that people listen to the music. At this point, I've kind of made peace with the fact that there are various services who are just kind of screwing us, and until the legislation [Music Modernization Act / Protecting Lawful Streaming Act] is actually enforced, which they passed under Trump — which I couldn't fucking believe — they'll keep charging us at that rate. But they've appealed that legislation. I don't think the appeals will actually go through. They will raise the rates, and musicians will be able to make a living off their recordings again." [via Blabbermouth]
Corey Taylor - Steve-O's Wild Ride! Ep #53
It’s become well known that among streaming platforms, YouTube, Pandora and Spotify pay out smaller amounts to artists compared to Tidal, Rhapsody and Xbox Music.
“There's a reason that Tool waited as long as they did to put the stuff up on streaming services. Because they knew they weren't gonna be compensated for something that they worked their asses off for,” Taylor said in 2019.