Along with preparing for his 46th birthday this coming Friday, July 19th; Machine Head vocalist/guitarist Robb Flynn touched upon the recent Spotify controversy in the latest installment of his ongoing series of Journals.
In particular he referred to a recent decision made by Radiohead, etc. founder Thom Yorke‘s to pull some of his material from the streaming service—a move made amid complaints that Spotify shareholders were seeing more profits than the actual artists whose music is being streamed.
In regards to that Flynn stated:
“Thom Yorke from Radiohead went on a big rant about the evils of Spotify the other day. It was so random and out of the blue it was a total WTF? It’s funny how Spotify has come to represent the bad thing for (it seems) older people… er uh, people my age *ahem*.
In fact I was talking to a buddy out here on Mayhem the other day, and he was telling me about a bands new record I should check out, and I was like “oh yeah, thanks for the reminder, I’ll have to Spotify that,” and he gave me a little shit like “oh man, you gotta go and ‘buy’ that shit,” and I was like, ” I AM buying it, I got Spotify Premium, they’re getting money off my stream and if I love it, I’ll most likely buy it on iTunes, but dude, I’m on tour, at an amphitheater in the middle of nowhere, when am I going to buy that shit at a store? That most likely doesn’t even carry said record?”
That’s the beauty of Spotify. I can get music in an instant, no waiting, no trips to the store, literally within 30 seconds! For 10 bucks a month!! Shit, I spend 5 times that on fucking coffee which doesn’t do jack shit for me!!
See what getting old does?
It makes you scared of the future. It makes you scared of what other people may think of you, it makes you scared to adapt, when really, the only thing that will allow us to survive is adapting. When you’re young, you just don’t care, you’re gonna rebel, you’re gonna do your own thing, you want to find about the “newest thing”, you’re willing to give things a shot, and if it sucks, you’re quick to ditch it, but if it’s great, you tell everyone you know.
Do I ever miss being 22? Hell no! I was a cranked-out, tweaked-out, heavy drinking, gun-toting, idiot without a car! I don’t need to be young again! I’m better now than I’ve ever been but most importantly I don’t “feel” old. I don’t want to be like Thom Yorke thinking Spotify is a scary thing. The world changed, and that’s a good thing.”
Flynn‘s acceptance of digital media has been well documented in the past with him at one point stating he would “never buy another physical CD again.”
