Taylor Swift has caused a bit of a stir this fall by removing her catalogue from Spotify and then scoring a massive hit with her album 1989. Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl has now weighed in on the debate, making it clear that he won't be removing his own music from streaming services anytime soon.
When discussing Swift's split with Spotify with Digital Spy, Grohl said, "Me personally? I don't fucking care. That's just me, because I'm playing two nights at Wembley next summer. I want people to hear our music, I don't care if you pay $1 or fucking $20 for it, just listen to the fucking song. But I can understand how other people would object to that."
Grohl went on to say that he is more concerned about playing shows than selling albums. He argued, "You want people to fucking listen to your music? Give them your music. And then go play a show. They like hearing your music? They'll go see a show. To me it's that simple, and I think it used to work that way. When we were young and in really noisy, crappy punk rock bands there was no career opportunity and we loved doing it and people loved fucking watching it and the delivery was completely face to face personal. That's what got people really excited about shit. Nowadays there's so much focus on technology that it doesn't really matter."
Of course, reminiscing about the old days, before modern technology changed music distribution, doesn't help when it comes to a debate about Spotify. Nevertheless, Grohl's hardline stance is good news for music fans: it means that we can stream the Foos' new album, Sonic Highways, on Spotify should we want to.
Then again, maybe you don't want to, since Sonic Highways isn't exactly getting rave reviews.
When discussing Swift's split with Spotify with Digital Spy, Grohl said, "Me personally? I don't fucking care. That's just me, because I'm playing two nights at Wembley next summer. I want people to hear our music, I don't care if you pay $1 or fucking $20 for it, just listen to the fucking song. But I can understand how other people would object to that."
Grohl went on to say that he is more concerned about playing shows than selling albums. He argued, "You want people to fucking listen to your music? Give them your music. And then go play a show. They like hearing your music? They'll go see a show. To me it's that simple, and I think it used to work that way. When we were young and in really noisy, crappy punk rock bands there was no career opportunity and we loved doing it and people loved fucking watching it and the delivery was completely face to face personal. That's what got people really excited about shit. Nowadays there's so much focus on technology that it doesn't really matter."
Of course, reminiscing about the old days, before modern technology changed music distribution, doesn't help when it comes to a debate about Spotify. Nevertheless, Grohl's hardline stance is good news for music fans: it means that we can stream the Foos' new album, Sonic Highways, on Spotify should we want to.
Then again, maybe you don't want to, since Sonic Highways isn't exactly getting rave reviews.
