Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has shared that he is glad that fans still listen to Metallica music, no matter how they get their hands on it.
Back in the early ’00s, Ulrich became the face of the anti-Internet music piracy movement after he spoke out about the disadvantages of people sharing MP3 files of the band’s music via P2P file-sharing platforms such as Napster.
While appearing as a guest on the SmartLess podcast, hosted by actors Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett, the drummer shared that he is happy that people are still listening to Metallica’s music, regardless of how they get it.
“Well, obviously it’s changed a lot,” he said. “And in your industry, some of the same things are happening that we were dealing with 20 years ago. In the grand scheme of things, and I know this might sound like a bit of a cop-out, I’m just happy that fucking everybody cares about what we’re doing and shows up to see us play and still streams or buys or steals our records or whatever.”
Ulrich continued: “The commitment itself, I think, is the triumph and the victory. Obviously it’s much, much harder for a lot of the younger bands these days because they don’t get the support from the record companies for basic things like equipment and tour support. So itŽs very different.
Metallica filed a lawsuit against Napster alleging copyright infringement on April 13, 2000. Ulrich read testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee explaining how the band’s demo of “I Disappear,” a track that was to be released on the Mission Impossible II soundtrack, was leaked on Napster and argued that the site allowed users to share copyrighted MP3 files.
The lawsuit was eventually settled in July 2001. The settlement required the site to block any music shared by artists who did not want their music shared.
