Photo Credit: Marv Watson

The drummer for the band Anthrax, Charlie Benante, recently spoke his mind when it comes to music streaming, describing Spotify as “where music goes to die”. NME explains how Benate spoke to The Irish Times, which asked him about changes in the music industry over the last 40 years. Benante responded to The Irish Times’ question with “There is no music industry. That’s what has changed. There is nothing any more. There are people listening to music, but they are not listening to music the way music was once listened to.”

He also specifically spoke on the role streaming plays in the music industry by stating, “The industry of music was one of things hit the worst and nobody did anything about it. They just let it happen. There was no protection, no nothing. Subconsciously this may be the reason why we don’t make records every three years or whatever because I don’t want to give it away for free.”

He describes the streaming industry as “stealing” by saying, “It is stealing from the artist – the people who run music streaming sites like Spotify. I don’t subscribe to Spotify. I think it is where music goes to die.” Benante stated that the only reason Anthrax’s music is still on Spotify is because they “have to play along with the fucking game” but Benante is sick of the streaming game!

He seems to also be upset with his label and contracts when he states “We get taken advantage of the most out of any industry. As artists, we have no health coverage, we have nothing. They fucked us so bad, I don’t know how we come out of it. You’d probably make more money selling lemonade on the corner.”

Charlie Benante says he fully supports Metallica in suing Napster in the early 2000s. He claimed that Metallica was just “protecting their art.”

While crusading the war against streaming, Anthrax has had quite the year! In a monumental performance, the band reunited with their original bassist, Dan Lilker and played their song “Deathrider” for the first time in 10 years!