Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters has slammed the 'rogues and thieves' who run free streaming sites, saying they make it impossible for young musicians to earn a living

Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters has slammed the 'rogues and thieves' who run free streaming sites, saying they make it impossible for young musicians to earn a living.

The songwriter and guitarist said the power of the digital music providers in Silicon Valley makes him 'angry' as they 'steal' from musicians and use the money to buy mega-yachts and planes.

'These... thieves! It's just stealing! And that they're allowed to get away with it is just incredible,' he said in an interview for The Times Saturday Review.

'I'm angry — even though it doesn't change my life in any way.'

He said he was relieved to have grown up in a time when an artist's talent and hard work was rewarded financially — unlike nowadays.

'Most of all I feel enormously privileged to have been born in 1943 and not 1983, to have been around when there was a music business and the takeover of Silicon Valley hadn't happened and, in consequence, you could still make a living writing and recording songs and playing them to people,' he said.

'When this gallery of rogues and thieves had not yet interjected themselves between the people who aspire to be creative and their potential audience and steal every f***ing cent anybody ever made and put it in their pockets to buy f***ing huge mega-yachts and Gulfstream Fives with.'

Pink Floyd is one of the most influential and commercially successful bands ever with record sales of more than 250 million.

Waters founded the band in 1965 along with fellow students by Syd Barrett, Nick Mason and Richard Wright and they achieved acclaim with their progressive and psychedelic style.

David Gilmour became the fifth member in 1967. As their main songwriter, Waters devised concept albums such as Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall.

Waters said music lovers must take some responsibility for the situation with free music streaming sites.

Pink Floyd is one of the most influential and commercially successful bands ever with record sales of more than 250 million, pictured (l-r) Rick Wright, Roger Waters, Syd Barrett and Nick Mason

'I blame the punters as well to some extent, a whole generation that's grown up who believe that music should be free,' he said.

'I mean why not make everything free? Then you could walk into a shop and say 'I like that television' and you walk out with it. No! Somebody made that and you have to buy it! 'Oh, I''ll just pick up few apples.' No! Some farmer grew those and brought them here to be sold!'

Pink Floyd's music is available on Apple's iTunes, the leading digital music store, and Spotify, a music streaming site.

The band sued their label EMI in March 2010 after claiming the company did not have the rights to sell individual songs from the band online.

The dispute was resolved in 2011, when Pink Floyd signed a five-year agreement with EMI Music to market and distribute their music. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Speaking at the time, drummer Nick Mason said: 'I look back with considerable fondness to the days when it was the entrepreneurs and individuals who actually ran these companies and created something that was about the music.'