BREAKING: DAVID DRAIMAN'S NEW SPOTIFY RANT IS NOT IN CAPS LOCK

Yesterday, David Draiman tweeted his disdain towards Rolling Stone magazine over the Boston Bomber cover, and we covered the story making a remark about how I would've taken his point more seriously if he chose not to type in all caps. David, naturally responded to the Metal Injection account via Twitter explaining why he chooses to write like that.

I accidentally posted his name as "David Drainman" which he pointed out while also explaining why he writes in all caps:

I don't see how saying Dave should consider not typing in caps a "smart ass remark" but I digress.

Anyway, the whole point here is that there is another hot-button issue which Draiman chimed in on, and that's the debate over Spotify royalties. My brotha from anotha motha, Vince Neilstein of Metalsucks has a good write up on the topic What was most shocking about Draiman's rant was that he chose to not type it in caps lock making his point much easier to read:

@Spotify HERES A PIECE I WROTE IN RESPONSE TO THOM YORKE AND NIGEL GODRICH'S PULLING THEIR "ATOMS FOR PIECE" PROJECT FROM THE PLATFORM. BRACE YOURSELVES…ITS NOT IN CAPS (YES I AM ACTUALLY CAPABLE OF TYPING NORMALLY, BUT CHOOSE NOT TO…MOST OF THE TIME…LOL.)

In response to the recent hubub over Nigel Godrich and Thom Yorke pulling their new Atoms for Peace record from Spotify, I have the following to say.

Gentlemen,

The days of the hard copy product have been over for quite some time. All artists these days are dealing with a frustrating situation when it comes to generating revenue and awareness of our respective projects, wether they be new ones, or established.
Make no mistake that the reason for the current state of reduced revenues for new artists is piracy, and NOT Spotify.

All artists who actually write their own songs have publishing royalties. Those royalties, unless your songs become hits, are minute, compared to the profit generated from mp3 sales or hard record (cd/vinyl) sales. We've known that and dealt with that all of our careers. Would any songwriter out there be looking to divest themselves from the publishing infrastructure and risk loosing the potential revenue that can come from the spins a hit song generates? Of course not. Spotify is simply an alternate form of potential revenue stream much in the same way publishing royalties can be. It was never meant to be a replacement for the old retail infrastructure, it was meant to make Piracy obsolete by providing an amazing online service, at a reasonable cost to the user/music fan. You cut off Spotify, and you are cutting off your nose to spite your face.

If you really want to take issue with someone, take issue with the license holders of your songs and the rate you've contractually negotiated with them, not Spotify. Unlike streaming entities like Pandora for example, Spotify has never attempted to try to further limit license holders royalties in favor of a larger profit margin.
The level of awareness generated by Spotify for new artists, having the engine searching your existing playlists and tastes, with the right Spotify applications such as Spotify radio, can bring your music to the ears of millions of new potential fans that just random placement on some bittorent site would never do.

You can't fight the future or the advancement of technology, it is pointless. There are those who have tried to cling to an antiquated retail infrastructure, that have quickly become extinct before they ever even had a chance to thrive. Do not try to coerce a new generation of fledgling artists into a stance which would be incredibly counter-productive for them, and their development of their respective brands/music.

In closing, Spotify has given us a platform to finally combat piracy on a real level, created an entirely new and separate revenue stream, and brings us closer to the potential fans out there that are truly thirsting for what we have created in an efficient and economic manner.

Would you rather the world simply steal your music?

Sincerely,

David Draiman

Disturbed
Device
Intoxication Records
Ambassador of Rock at Spotify

That wasn't so hard, was it Dave? And again, I completely agree with you!