More than two decades on from their infamous legal dispute with Napster, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has claimed that his band warned the world about the state of music under a streaming model.
During a new interview with Classic Rock, Hammett reflected on Metallica’s 2000 court case, noting that while the group had initially allied against peer-to-peer file services, they had the foresight to predict what would become of the music industry under the ubiquitous streaming model of today.
“We warned everyone that this was gonna happen,” Hammett explained. “We warned everyone that the music industry was gonna lose eighty percent of its net worth, power and influence. When these monumental shifts come you just either fucking rattle the cage and get nothing done or you move forward.
“There’s definitely a new way for getting music out there, but it isn’t as effective as the music industry pre-Napster. But we’re stuck with it,” he added. “There needs to be some sort of midway point where the two come together, or another completely new model comes in.”
Described as the first case to fight peer-to-peer file sharing, Metallica’s landmark legal fight against Napster was founded following the group’s discovery of an as-yet unreleased song on the service. Ultimately, Metallica emerged victorious from the battle, with Napster eventually ceasing operations in 2001, and filing for bankruptcy the following year.
In a 2010 interview with Wired, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek admitted that his main inspiration in creating the now-iconic streaming service was to create a legal platform that performed the same duties as Napster once did.
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