Dani Filth: Spotify Is The World's Largest Criminal

Dani Filth (Instagram @cradleoffilth)

JAKARTA - In an interview with Sakis Fragos of Rock Hard Greece, Cradle Of Filth frontman Dani Filth spoke about the decline in the music industry.

"It's been deteriorating since... I think 2006 is the year that things change from comfort for musicians - well, it's not necessarily comfortable; it's never comfortable. But it's become much more difficult with the beginning of the digital era, the beginning of a music streaming platform that doesn't pay for anyone," he said.

"Like Spotify is the biggest criminal in the world. I think we had 25, 26 million playback last year, and I think personally I got about 20, which is less than an hourly working rate."

"For example, yesterday my girlfriend... He has a cat that is sick; the cat is very sick and requires live or dead surgery," he continued.

"He's a famous tattoo expert, and he posts something online about... GoFundMe for his cat, and he's going to do the lottery and people can win tattoos, etc., etc. The point is a lot of people like, 'Why do we have to pay for your cat? You're dating multimillioners?' And he's, like, 'Sorry, I don't think you understand how the music industry is working right now. One, he's not multimillier at all. Two, I'm myself, and this has nothing to do with him'."

"I think people have the incredible ability to [trust] that when you have stuff out there, like physical products, you make a lot of money from it," added Filth.

"They don't realize you have so many people taking part - record companies, management, accountants, bla bla bla; no problem. If you didn't get money from the start, there wasn't much money to share. And right now, the reason why people put out blacklists and limited edition items, it's for collectors. they're the only people who buy it; other people only stream at no cost.

"That's why you find a lot of bands, since the pandemic, don't tour. Gasoline goes up. Tourist bus rental goes up. The cost of living goes up. Yes, it's very difficult for a band right now. But that doesn't help when people just have the idea of getting music is not a privilege, that music is something that should be given free of charge. I mean, I don't go into someone's shop and just take a one pack of bananas' and say, 'Well, it grows in a tree. They should be free. I'll go out with this.' I'll be arrested because of my clothes.

But it's okay for people to download... Even before the album comes out, you find fans, like, 'Oh, I have a link there,' and they put it up and then just go ahead with the sales you're going to get from the people who bought it for the surprise out of the window because they already heard it and then they turn to the next thing.

"Yes, the music industry is on its knees right now," concluded Dani. "I'm still enjoying making music - don't get me wrong; I like it - but, yes, musicians are currently finding a million things against them. It's a difficult time."