Dave Grohl Not Concerned About Spotify, Wants Fans to Listen to Music

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl just wants people to listen to his band’s music and attend concerts, and isn’t too worried about Spotify or other online services. Money issues aside, the end goal is to have listeners enjoy music and serve as a reminder that new music is still being created, which is important ahead of public appearances, such as concerts and live performances on daytime TV or late night shows.

Taylor Swift decided to pull her music catalog from Spotify, an extremely popular online streaming music service, believing her music shouldn’t be given away for free. Spotify executives fired back by saying Swift – and other popular music artists – could make upwards of $6 million 2014 alone, with that figure estimated to double in 2015.

As the war of words only intensified, Scott Borchetta, CEO of Big Machine Records said Swift received less than $500,000 in the past 12 months, based on revenue sharing due to US Spotify listener habits. Borchetta seemed careful not to release figures from international users, but she could have pulled in upwards of $2 million from Spotify listeners alone.

Here is what Grohl recently said regarding the public war of words between Swift and Spotify:

“Me personally? I don’t f—king care. That’s just me, because I’m playing two nights at Wembley [in London] next summer. I want people to hear our music. I don’t care if you pay $1 or f—king $20 for it; just listen to the f—king song. But I can understand how other people would object to that.

You want people to f—king listen to your music? Give them your music. And then go play a show. They like hearing your music? They’ll go see a show. To me it’s that simple, and I think it used to work that way. Nowadays there’s so much focus on technology that it really doesn’t matter.”

It would seem telling that major record labels – which generate millions of dollars from Pandora, Spotify, and other online services – are willing to let music from their artists be played online. In addition to appeasing music fans and generating more interest, music listeners are more likely to engage with artists that allow their music online.

The music industry has been forced into a hellish revolution since the public launch of Napster 1999, helping propel an unprepared industry into the Internet age.

Image courtesy of LoudWire