Alice In Chains Drummer Calls Spotify and Pandora “A F–king Ripoff for Musicians”

…From a recent interview with Alice In Chains drummer Sean Kinney on classic rock station 96.5 The Fox…
Interviewer: How does it make you feel that people can go cherry-pick songs? I mean you spend all this time crafting and writing and recording this album of songs, then people can go, ‘Well I dig this one tune, I’m going to buy this and that’s it.”

Sean Kinney:  Well that’s just the way it is, so I don’t want to put any energy into that.  That’s just how it is, and you can do anything about that.

But then you have these Spotifys and Pandoras where you get access to almost every piece of recorded music on the planet.
And then that’s great for the consumer, but for every person who’s ever recorded music it’s a f–king ripoff (oops I swore on the radio).

Because, you know, people are starting to post their checks; you get 10 million plays of your song and you get a check for $111.  It’s a weird time we live in, it’s a real balancing act.  And, so basically, you’d hope that you have an audience and you can tour, and try to break even or maybe make a little bit to make a living on tour.
But  it costs a lot: gas prices aren’t lower and instruments aren’t lower, those things don’t cost less.

So, I really don’t know how to deal with that, it is what it is.  We just go about it doing what we want and playing music, and if it comes to a time when we can’t afford to go to places — and we invest to go to places, and we’re not leaving with a briefcase of dough.  And when we can’t do that, then we just won’t be able to do it.

Source: Digital Music News