A few months back, sometime in early July, one of Bill Kelliher’s statements caught the eye of rock and metal fans. First reported by Ultimate Guitar, Mastodon guitarist explained that if the current streaming model persists that bands just won’t be able to continue with their work. Besides admitting he was one of the rare people to agree with Lars Ulrich for standing up to Napster, he reflected on the situation and streaming services, calling the likes of Spotify, Pandora, and Apple “great” and “amazing” but adding:
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“The problem is that there hasn’t been any legislature to compensate the artist since 1972. That’s why myself and Brann Dailor, our drummer, being members of The Recording Academy and The Grammy Academy – we were asked to Capitol Hill and lobby for the MMA, which is the Music Modernization Act. We just did that a couple of months ago and it passed unanimously.”
Right around that time, the same issue was addressed by Megadeth’s David Ellefson when he said:
“Well, fortunately, the way that we get paid off of those digital streams is changing.
“It’s interesting now that we’re part of the Grammys. The Grammys have a big initiative on Capitol Hill in Washington DC to change those laws. In America, those laws haven’t been updated since the ’70s, so they can almost just discount what they pay us.
“And that’s gonna change very quickly, which is awesome, because it starts to set a precedent around the world.
“As great as the digital streaming is as a promotional thing, it’s extremely unfair to us. They’ve built entire massive fortunes on the backs of our music that we don’t get paid for.
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“And that, fortunately, is gonna change. And thank God for the Grammys. It’s kind of good to be in a cool club with them, because they have the muscle to do it. So that’s great.”