Metallica Changes Its Tune, Finally Decides Web is Good

Metallica, yes that Metallica, has said that it is looking at online distribution methods for delivering digital content, and to be honest, I don't blame them.

Despite Metallica being one of the driving forces behind the Napster shutdown, I'm okay with the band taking cues from Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails by further exploring the online distribution options. In its short lifespan, Napster did a lot for the music industry and Metallica was just trying to protect its assets. If someone were breaking into your home, wouldn't you wield a bat trying to protect your property? Metallica was doing the same thing, but replace the bats with lawyers.

Let's get the facts straight here: Metallica is still a pretty damn good band. And while the shutdown of Napster was horrible, it did lead to bigger and better file distribution methods like Bittorrent.

With that being known I think it's time to forgive Metallica, eight years later. And if you want to take anything away from this, at least note that Metallica is ready to man-up and accept the fate of the music industry rather than continuing to point fingers, like other bands.

Comments

As soon as we were able to convert music into a binary format, we opened the doors to downloading music. And no matter how hard people try to crush it, all they can do is help this illegal industry to evolve.
I'm an artist and I recognize all the problem about the internet. But we should learn how to take advantage of this. Music CD are just too expensive for something as needed as music. I think we should start thinking about playing more concerts than selling cd's.

The more people download yout tune, the more people like you!

My 0.02$

knocz

May 03, 2008

3:54 AM PT