They work hard for every nickel they make off us. They deserve to be paid. It's a no-brainer. More importantly, Rose says if fans are downloading Sevendust records instead of buying them in stores where their tallies are calculated by SoundScan, the band won't be making records much longer. If it's not scanned, then the label at the end of the year says so long, and all of a sudden our careers are over, and I'm back at McDonald's.
Artists are already at war with corporate mentality at record labels.
They piss on us on a daily basis. But to add Napster's blatant music piracy to the battle is unbelievable. Three or four years ago I looked at the Internet as a viable alternative to the major label plantation system, where artists would end up owning masters at the end of your careers. But if the price you pay is to never make any money, well, that's a sad twist. Napster's no better than the record companies.