







In a new interview with the Irish Times, SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor discussed the current state of the music industry, taking aim at streaming services and the way they “rip off the artist.”

When asked if he could survive just on your royalties from streaming sales, Corey replied: “You could if the streaming system wasn’t set up the way it is. You are being paid less than pennies. In the United States, they have passed the legislation [the Music Modernization Act 2018] but it is being appealed. I am hoping that it will be struck down.

“If the streaming systems paid more online with how publishing in radio pays – people could make a living,” he continued. “I have had friends of mine who have had to retire and they are popular bands because they can’t make a living.

“Mid-card bands and lower, it is hard for them. It almost pays better to play the local pub and do the door deal. You make more money doing that than making an album. Labels don’t take the same chances but they are taking the lion’s share of the money because of the way it is set up.

“Until the artist is paid fairly, it is going to be a constant f*cking battle. I saw this coming years ago,” Corey added. “I haven’t got a problem with streaming. I have got a problem with how these streaming services rip off the artist and I’ll say that until the day I die.

When asked if he could give example of how much money band earns for 1 millions streams, he said: “The lowest rate is YouTube. A million streams on YouTube is 0.04 percent of a penny. On a million streams you get $400 and that’s just me doing sh*tty math in my head. People can’t live on that and there’s not a lot of people who get these numbers.

He continued: “The majority of this goes to the record label anyway. The streaming services are not willing to pay the talents who write the songs and make the music and yet they are sitting on billions of dollars.

“They are buying whole blocks of buildings and then taking over floors in there and yet they don’t want to pay the people who made the money for them. It’s insane. It’s tough all over in a lot of ways. Something has to change. I don’t know what that will be.”

SLIPKNOT released their sixth studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, on August 9 via Roadrunner Records. Album was once again recorded at a Los Angeles studio with producer Greg Fidelman, who engineered and mixed SLIPKNOT‘s 2004 album Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) and helmed 2014’s .5: The Gray Chapter.