Garth Brooks Says YouTube Is the Devil
Garth Brooks may have finally joined social media, but that doesn't mean he's all-in with the digital revolution. In a new interview, the country icon blasts digital music providers and what he sees as their negative impact on the music business.
Brooks released his first new studio album in more than 13 years, 'Man Against Machine,' last week, and while the project is projected to open strong compared to most other contemporary albums, the numbers are still likely to equal just a fraction of Brooks' sales in his heyday, which took place prior to iTunes and the dominance of the internet.
In an appearance on 'Access Hollywood' on Monday (Nov. 17), Brooks applauded younger stars like Taylor Swift and Jason Aldean for their recent decision to pull some or all of their music from Spotify over concerns about what many see as paltry revenues for artists, producers and songwriters.
"I think a lot of people are going to start following. When music starts standing up for itself, it's going to get a lot better," the country icon says, adding, "And there are some big friends of ours in music we need to stand up to, too ... If iTunes is gonna tell you how to sell your stuff and it's only going to go this way -- don't forget who created the music and who should be doing this stuff."
When Brooks was unable to make a suitable deal with iTunes, he finally made his music available digitally via his own newly-launched service, GhostTunes. But one place fans still won't find his music is on YouTube.
"And I'm telling you, the devil -- nice people, but YouTube," he says. "Oh my gosh ... they claim they pay people. They're not paying anything either and people are getting millions and millions and millions of views and they don't get squat. Trust me."
Brooks has often said that the people who get hurt the worst in the digital model are the songwriters, and he believes artists have a responsibility to stick together to make sure the business model adequately compensates those who create the music in the first place.
"It's totally backward right now," he states. "If the artists will just keep hammering away, unify, stick together, then music will become the king again, which is what it should be. Music should always be first."
YouTube had no comment on Brooks' claims to 'Access Hollywood.'
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