METALLICA Manager PETER MENSCH - “YouTube, They’re The Devil”
April 18, 2016, 8 years ago
Peter Mensch, the manager of bands including Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Muse, says YouTube is killing the record industry, reports BBC News.
"YouTube, they're the devil," he told a BBC Radio 4 documentary on the music business. "We don't get paid at all."
He said the site's business model, in which artists make money by placing ads around their music, was unsustainable.
"If someone doesn't do something about YouTube, we're screwed," he said. "It's over. Someone turn off the lights."
Mensch's arguments echo concerns raised in the annual report of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which was released last week.
It said there was widening "value gap" between the volume of music consumed on free, "user-upload" services - including YouTube, Daily Motion and Soundcloud - and the amount of revenue they generate for the industry.
An estimated 900 million consumers on these sites resulted in revenue of $634m (£447m) in 2015. By contrast the world's 68 million paying music subscribers generated about $2bn (£1.4bn).
Read the full story at BBC News.
On August 20th, Metallica will headline the first rock concert at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, the new home of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings. They are currently in the studio working on a new album.
