Disturbed Frontman Takes Aim At Pirates

(Metal Hammer) Disturbed frontman David Draiman has defended streaming services and he says that the real villains are fans who think it's okay to illegally download music.

Spotify, Apple and YouTube have come under fire from various rock stars in recent months, some of whom claim the streaming services do not pay artists a fair share.

Nikki Sixx and his band Sixx AM took a particularly strong stance against YouTube and launched a campaign to pressure the Google-owned company into paying musicians more for the right to host their music.

And earlier this year, it was claimed that a songwriter would need 288 million Spotify streams of their work to earn the average salary of a Spotify employee.

But Draiman believes the anger is being directed at the wrong targets and that piracy is the root of the entire problem.

Draiman tells The Jasta Show: "The industry is creeping slowly, slowly towards finally making this whole digital concept a little bit more transparent.

"I applaud Nikki Sixx and the guys from Sixx AM for taking a strong stance on the YouTube issue. There are a number of people out there who are doing it right.

"But people are very quick to demonise streaming services. Spotify and entities like it were created to directly combat piracy.

"Piracy is the issue, and that's what people are forgetting. It's almost like the media is putting so much hype on these paltry royalty rates, when, in truth, at least there is a royalty rate." Read more and listen to the full interview here.

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