Tool‘s decades long reluctance to have their music available on digital service providers in any official capacity was a longtime thorn in the side of fans of the progressive alternative metal stars. The fact that the group not putting their music up to stream/download in any traditional form outside of music videos, cost them both millions of potential fans — and potentially millions of dollars in revenue — also isn’t lost on the outfit.
While Tool‘s reliance on physical formats still saw them rack up multi-platinum certifications throughout their career, the sharp change in music consumption habits perhaps wasn’t as immediately felt by them. After all, the shift to downloads, and eventually streaming, took place amid a 13-year drought of new music from the band.
It wasn’t until the summer of 2019 that the highly acclaimed quartet finally managed to get past their internal hurdles and put their catalog out in digital formats. Given their rabid fanbase, the arrival of those albums was met with much fanfare. Roughly a week after landing online in August of 2019, Tool managed to post up the following numbers on the Billboard charts:
- “Ænima“:
#10 Billboard 200 / #1 Top Rock Albums
(33,000 album equivalent units, 18,000 of which are album sales) - “Lateralus“:
#16 Billboard 200 / #2 Top Rock Albums
(27,000 album equivalent units) - “10,000 Days“:
#18 Billboard 200 / #4 Top Rock Albums
(24,000 album equivalent units) - “Undertow”
#19 Billboard 200 / #5 Top Rock Albums
(23,000 album equivalent units) - “Opiate“:
#59 Billboard 200 / #12 Top Rock Albums
Given that several of these albums dated back to the early to mid 1990s, these numbers were a wholly impressive feat. Of course, by the time the outfit did eventually put their catalog online, it was pretty much a necessity.
The move preceded the August 30th, 2019 release of “Fear Inoculum” — their first studio album since 2006. Had they opted to release that new opus without a digital option, it would have likely decimated its performance on the charts, while also encouraging rampant piracy. Somewhat ironically, that since gold-certified album entered the Billboard 200 at #1, shifting 270,000 units in its first week on the charts, of which roughly 22,000 units were digital.
Vocalist Maynard James Keenan was among the longtime proponents among the Tool camp pushing for the group to fully embrace digital formats. He recently spoke of that in an interview conducted by Allison Hagendorf. It was Hagendorf who actively championed for the band to make that move as well at the time, having previously served as Global head Of Rock at streaming giant Spotify.
In the below newly shared conversation, Keenan was asked his thoughts about their then infamous absence from digital service providers. Hagendorf first relayed how she fought for the band to make the jump to digital, not only to have easy access to their music as a fan, but also to make it more widely available to younger generations. Keenan replied, “I agree. And I agreed for 20 years. They finally caved.”
When asked how he feels about being absent from digital formats for so long, he offered [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“I feel like we missed the boat. Like it started with downloads, you know, 24 years ago. And then by the time we actually came out, downloads are done. We missed 20 years of reaching two generations of people to understand what it is that we do, in a format that, you know… I don’t like listening to the mp3 version. I listen to CDs and vinyl.
But that’s the gateway to get them into the vinyl and the CDs. And I feel like we made a mistake not being on those on those mediums for 20 years. Me every year, saying ‘we should do this.'”
When Hagendorf pointed out how much of an event the band’s music hitting streaming became and how many fans were celebrating it, he replied:
“Well fans that knew about it. There’s an entire two generations that didn’t. That’s why [there was] the big surprise when we ended up bumping Taylor Swift off the chart for her second week. They didn’t know who [we are]. I mean ‘Who is this?’ ‘I don’t know who the f*ck this.’ But, I mean, that’s just, that’s the reality, that people didn’t know who we were because we weren’t around.
My son just went finished law school, and his peers have no idea who we are. They weren’t exposed to it. It’s not on your phone.”
The same conversation also saw the topic of new music from Tool broached. There have been some signs of activity in that regard, though not much has been said lately about any concrete progress.
When Hagendorf mentioned that the band’s drummer Danny Carey has spoken about leftover songs ideas from the “Fear Inoculum” sessions potentially giving them a leg up in the studio going forward, Keenan replied:
“He talks a lot. He’s on tour now with ‘hereThe Beat Tour‘, with Adrian Belew, Steve Vai, and, you know, it’s an amazing, amazing lineup. It’s really impressive. But he’s out there. So, if he’s out there, they’re not in there, and I can’t do what I need to do till they get in there and do the thing.”
