Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante says Metallica were right to wage war on Napster, adding that Spotify is “where music goes to die.”
Benante, who has also been Pantera‘s touring drummer since their revival in 2022, says the the music business has been stripped to the bare bones by greed, leaving the artists with little reward for their work.
He tells the Irish Times: “I don’t subscribe to Spotify. I think it is where music goes to die. We have the music on there because we have to play along with the fucking game, but I’m tired of playing the game.
“We get taken advantage of the most out of any industry. As artists, we have no health coverage, we have nothing. They fucked us so bad, I don’t know how we come out of it. You’d probably make more money selling lemonade on the corner.”
Asked about Metallica’s public battle with Napster in 2000, Benante hails the thrash icons for taking the stance they did.
He adds: “They were absolutely right about it. You see where it went. All those people who said, ‘Fuck Metallica. They are rich bastards’. They were protecting their art, their intellectual property so that some asshole does not come along and take your art.
“They make the money while you just make the art and you just give it away. People don’t know anything about this. Until you have lived the way we live and do what we have done, then you can comment on it.
“The industry of music was one of things hit the worst and nobody did anything about it. They just let it happen. There was no protection, no nothing. Subconsciously this may be the reason why we don’t make records every three years or whatever because I don’t want to give it away for free.
“I take music very seriously and what I do and what I write is very personal and, for someone to take it is not right. It is like I pay Amazon $12.99 a month and I can just go on Amazon and I can get whatever I want.
“It is basically stealing. It is stealing from the artist – the people who run music streaming sites like Spotify.”
