News > Metallica
Per Sundin Succeeds Lars Ulrich As King Douche
By Skwerl
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Every single day I check the music news, and seriously every single fucking day, there’s something new about Metallica. We mocked Mission: Metallica and their overblown, over-hyped marketing bullshit, and I for one am pretty sick of hearing about them. But I have to admit, they’re getting it right for a change. They’re staying on the radar by serving substance, not just ads. They’re keeping it coming, giving it all away. They’re engaging the fans head-on.
The new album leaked, and Lars “King Douche” enemy of downloading Ulrich himself came out and said hey, that’s the way it goes, it’s 2008, we’re not tripping. Apparently having learned the hard way how stupid it is to fight your fans, they then started streaming the album, in its entirety, on their website, prior to the physical release.
Finally, someone in the Metallica camp grew a brain. The backlash from their battle with Napster has put a big shit-smear on their image for years- and has surely caused many an on-the-fence critic to go south- but I have to hand it to them; despite still being on a major label, they’re connecting. They’ve climbed down off of their pedestal. They’re giving us daily updates from the studio. They’re acting like we deserve it. Maybe we do, maybe we don’t, but you get the impression that they appreciate their fans. It’s a complete 180° from walking into court with a list of names of people who downloaded some MP3s, and it’s exactly what you need to do to win in this new music game.
On one side of the field, you have the fans. They only care about one thing: the Music. They have no bottom line to mind, they just want to hear good music, and it’s impossible to distract them from that hunt. As individuals, they generally understand that the artists deserve creative control, that they deserve compensation for their efforts, and that they have no real obligation to the fans. But as a whole, they don’t really care. If it’s out there, they’ll find it. They’ll pay for it if they can, but they’ll steal it if they can’t. And if it isn’t there, it doesn’t matter how big the billboard is, they’re going to move on as quickly as they came.
Are the fans busting into record label headquarters and stealing CDs? No. They’re not criminals for fuck’s sake. But when one Google search leads them to a ‘play’ button, you can’t expect them not to click it. When the prey is in their sights, when the tools are at their fingertips, you can’t expect them not to take advantage.
On the other end of the field, you have the record labels. They say they care about the music, and as individuals, maybe they do. But as a whole, they don’t give a shit about the music. As a whole, they only care about the money. The money they’re getting, the money they’re not getting, the money they could be getting. There are some exceptions in the indie world, but they’re few and far between.
And right smack dab in the middle, you have the artists. Without them, there is no game. The fans know this, and even the labels know this. The thing about artists though, is they’re much harder to pin down. Some understand the game they’re in. Some don’t. Some don’t give a shit about the fans, some do. Some don’t give a shit about the labels, some do. The artists always have the least to lose though. They can make music without the fans, and they can make money without the labels.
There are three (and only three) simple truths, beyond which things get complicated: Fans consume art ruthlessly. Corporations make money ruthlessly. Artists make art ruthlessly.
Everything beyond these three truths can be picked apart and debated as the game evolves. But anyone who forgets any of these three truths is a fool, and anyone who fights them is asking for a Darwinian lightning bolt to wipe their useless genes off the planet. Today’s Metallica news brought one such waste of DNA to my attention: Per Sundin, President of Universal Music Sweden.
Here’s the story: A Metallica fan named Hench liked the new Metallica album, but thought he could make it better by cutting out, and I quote, “some lame lyrics” here and there, and some “ploddy riffs that go nowhere for three minutes before turning into something cool.” His motivation, as a fan, of course, was just to have some better music. As he stated, he just wanted a new Metallica album that he “could listen to without getting irritated.” If you ask me, I say no harm, no foul. That’s better for Metallica than Hench not listening at all. But don’t ask me for my opinion. Just take this activity for granted, guaranteed by the first truth.
This alternate mix of Hench’s found a fan in Jonn Jeppsson, writing for Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan, who downloaded the mix, and talked about it- and apparently where it could be found- in a three-star review of Death Magnetic. He praised the leaner versions of the songs, calling them more than “glaringly precise and intense.” If the story ended right here, there’d be no story. Have you ever rearranged the track order of an artist’s album to make it more listenable? Remove tracks or parts of tracks altogether from mixtapes? Shit, have you ever downloaded an album?
Of course you have. If you’re a music fan, you’ve done all of those things. As surely as you’ve supported the same artists and countless others with an unfathomable number of financial investments. Technically, what you’ve done is illegal, and disrespectful to the artists’ right to creative control. But you don’t feel bad, do you? Maybe you’re just hardcore; a remorseless music addict, and you can’t control yourself. Or maybe it’s because you still feel the sting of that concert ticket, and you’d need at least two hands to count the number of friends and internet buddies you turned onto that artist- many of which forked over hard earned cash for product, all of which at least told all of their friends. You know you’ve done a lot more good than harm.
A savvy artist understands this. A genius artist embraces this and uses it to their advantage. Trent Reznor provides the multi-track source files for his songs and encourages fans to hack them apart. He sees the album purchase as the beginning of the relationship with the fan, rather than the end. He sees a fan remixing his album as the most ultimate show of devotion.
Only a fool wouldn’t.
When Universal Music Sweden caught wind of Jeppsson’s controversial review, supporting an illegal, fan-made perversion of their artist’s product, they canceled an interview the band had scheduled with Sydsvenskan. Throwing customer relations out the window, Per Sundin blasted everyone within screaming range:
“The reviewer is referring to a torrent where someone has altered the original songs. The reviewer explains exactly where one should go in order to download the file that is totally infringing copyright. It’s not only an illegal file, but an altered file. The reviewer also writes that this is how the album should have sounded… File-sharing of music is illegal. Period. There’s nothing to discuss. That fact that Sydsvenskan has a writer that has downloaded this music illegally and then makes mention of an illegal site in his review is totally unacceptable to us.”
What’s totally unacceptable to us, is any notion that would even vaguely suggest that how a fan listens to music could or should be controlled by anyone other than that fan. It’d be no less absurd than telling the record labels they don’t need the money, and no less absurd than telling artists how or when to make their music.
And what each artist needs to do is decide which team they’re playing for.
[...] ganze Geschichte gibt es in einer absolut lesenwerten Zusammenfassung hier. Tags: Metallica, P2P [...]
Sick of all the Metallica news, so you wrote ANOTHER article about them.
=P
I reeeeeeeeeeeally want to align with you on this article, Skwerl. I really do. But your arguments are just too ridiculous here.
First, I find it unfortunate that people *still* like to crucify Ulrich/Metallica for taking a protective stance about their own creations. If you check your facts (it’s amazing how this “enemy of downloading” fable has replaced the original story), they were never against downloading. Rather, they were for an artist’s right to chose whether or not their work *could* be downloaded for free. Granted, picking “the digital revolution” as their battle was pretty foolish, but the principle is not.
I have to wonder how the fans and press would have reacted if a struggling, independent artist would have had the means to take such a stance instead of the largest metal band in the world. My hunch is that they would have been heralded as some sort of David against the evil Goliaths who illegally trade copyrighted material.
And I’m so tired of this “just let everyone copy and distribute everything” argument. I would be lying if I said I’ve never downloaded a song without paying for it. However, I can honestly say that, if I like what I hear, I *will* buy it. I will support the artist by purchasing their work.
Look: putting aside that most labels are just greedy, artists ally with labels so that they can get their music out to the masses. Artists leverage labels to help sell their works. Artists are trying to make a living by doing this. The fact that an artist has been lucky enough to make an obscene amount of money by doing so is besides the point. So don’t give me this “they’re not criminals” crap wrt people who rip a CD and then distribute the files to anyone in the world. Technically, they *are*. I’m just sayin’…
Wrt the Swede’s remix of “Death Magnetic”: if Metallica would have wanted their fans to be able to remix their creations a zillion different ways, then they would have shared multi-track source files a la NiN. They haven’t. Does that make them foolish? Anyone who is a *true* fan of Metallica knows that they have always been protective of their craft.They have that right.
Ulrich may be a douchebag (hell, there are many reasons besides his Napster stance), but stop beating up Metallica for defending their products just because they’ve become multi-millionaires from them.
i’m going to break one of my own rules and respond with some things i thought i made clear the first time around:
1) agreed, it’s time to stop crucifying lars ulrich and metallica.
2) i’m not challenging that “protective stance” or an artist’s right to decide how their work will be consumed. but as i said in the article, my opinion doesn’t matter. fans will always find a way to do whatever they want. an artist is not obligated to make that easy for them, but the point is that it’s going to happen regardless.
3) nowhere in this article did i make the “let everyone copy everything” argument. nowhere. that so wasn’t the point.
4) no, metallica is not ‘foolish’ for not distributing the source files. that’s their decision. i’m not saying they should. i’m just saying that a fan remixing your album is a cool thing, a significant show of interest and devotion. some artists encourage it, and make it easy, but i’m not saying every artist should. but regardless, if a fan has the tools to make your music more listenable or digestible, you can’t expect them not to, and you’d be stupid to try and stop it. it would be like 3m trying to tell people that duct tape was only intended for taping ducts together, and any other use is disrespectful to the engineers’ creative vision.
you’ve surely downloaded music by an artist that didn’t want their music downloaded. and as you’ve said, you buy it too. you’re breaking the law, but you’re justified because you know you’ve helped the artist.
how does it feel to be a criminal?
pretty good, thanks
Yeah, but I’m only a minor criminal, so that’s ok… ;)
Um, I would say that a NiN remixing some tracks and making something from it is a cool thing, absolutely. Someone taking an album and cutting it up because he doesn’t like the original is not, IMHO.
… let’s see if I can make a complete jerkette out of myself again.
The argument that “fans will always find a way to do whatever they want … the point is that it’s going to happen regardless.” isn’t a reason to change something. For example, people are always going to commit murder because it’s a large part of human nature, but let’s keep it illegal for now (that’s the only reason I’m still breathing, I’m sure). People will always do things you tell them not to (you just broke your own rule, even) but that doesn’t make it right.
With regard to changing someone’s work, that is the length of a piece of string. Some people would relish the idea of having a collaborative piece created by the world, and supply the means to do so freely, openmindedly looking forward to the variety of outcomes that will be generated. Others don’t have that sort of vision.
Metallica strike me as a particularly perfectionist sort of group that take their creations extremely seriously, and release an almost tangible product: this is the song, full stop. All rights reserved, strictly not negotiable. You can’t make it another colour, don’t add any tape, this is how we want the product to look/feel/smell/sound. No exceptions. And that’s their choice as the creator of the product. If you want lemonade with a twist of lime, go buy some lemons and squish yourself some lemonade that you can add all the lime in the world to, knock yourself out, but this is our lemonade and we don’t want any lime in it, no matter how much you think it would improve the taste. We don’t like lime and there will be no adding of lime to our version of lemonade.
Your 3M version did make me LOL. I might take that and blog it, is that cool with you?
Everyone is different (and no two people are not on fire). I’ve recently starting drawing things. I did a black and white image and someone asked me if they could colour it in. Not wanting to be pretentious about it I said sure, but it didn’t make me happy and I didn’t like the end result. It was cool they wanted to do something with the image, but at the same time pretty insulting that they thought it needed changing to be ‘improved’.
At the end of the day I think you’ve got to take the piece of work with the artists wishes for it. If you like lime in your lemonade then.. change brands?
well you understand my argument, and i fully respect your counter-points. fair enough. that is getting into the stuff beyond the so-called three truths that can be debated endlessly. i’m an artist too, and my point of view is different; creatively, i’m a bit of an anarchist and i consider my art property of the world as soon as i’m done with it. but to each their own, and i can totally understand you or metallica not wanting their vision to be fucked with.
with all that said, i have a real hard time finding fault with what hench and jeppsson did; one could argue that they were misguided maybe, but at the end of the day they set out to support metallica in their own way, and i think per sundin would be wiser to view them as customers than as saboteurs. they invested their time and energy into metallica’s product, only to get slapped in the face- by the direct beneficiaries of said investment- for how they did it.
i’m not saying it should be “allowed,” or even legal necessarily. just that it’s a bit silly to get your panties in a twist about it. even if you’re morally right, you end up with egg on your face. lars learned this the hard way.
and yeah, you can use my duct tape analogy. infringe my copyrights to your heart’s content.
Babe I’m not gonna infringe, I’m gonna slap your name all over it. In the biggest font my blog with produce. Okay not the biggest coz that would be unreadable, but I shall give you credit for the words, of course.
You and I both create stuff (I’m by no means an artist by anyones definition). Me, I’d get upset if someone took it and did something with it, you on the other hand couldn’t give a rats. I suppose that’s why copyright is on an ‘ask first’ basis.
You’re feeling sympathetic to the ’saboteurs’, which I empathise with, but if you take someone’s porsche and at your own expense paint it the hottest red in existence and put the meanest set of rims on it, and made it the most stunning car you’ve ever seen in your life, yet the owner takes your ass and spanks it til it’s that same hottest red colour, that’s your own damn fault for not asking first. Sure you did it with the best and kindest intentions… but … they liked it how it was. Even if someone approaches that owner and says “man your car is the meanest car out there, I’m gonna give you 5 times the price you paid simply because I can”… you’ve still got a bright red ass and they’re walking away with a handful of travellers cheques. Is that fair? No. Did anyone promise you that life would be?
From my perspective, I can’t do anything creative but really really wish I could. I guess that makes me more protective of people’s creativity, because I don’t have any. You on the other hand can probably create masterpieces in your sleep while you’re drooling on your pillow. It comes so easy to you that you don’t give it much thought about how important it could be to someone who can’t. Maybe.
(That whole last sentence is my brain dumping directly to the fingers without the editor being involved – it sounds kinda pointed at you personally but it’s not a personal attack by any means, just me talking out loud. Hopefully you get my gist).
i like your droorings felyne.
well if you steal my porsche, i’ll beat your ass. if you build one just like mine, you’re kinda a biter, but it doesn’t take anything away from me.
if you copy my art and sell it, that’s a whole different ballgame. i think plagiarizing for profit is dead wrong. but remixing metallica’s album on your macbook- and sending it to friends for free- should fall under fair use.
back to the duct tape analogy; someone who has no ducts to tape together has no use for duct tape. but 3m might reach a few extra customers when said customers figure out that you can also use it to put a bumper back on a car. of course, it’s completely within 3m’s rights to define how it should or shouldn’t be used, but duct tape has a much larger fanbase thanks to inventive consumers who weren’t afraid to bend the rules. fortunately for 3m, they didn’t complain.
I’m not talking about stealing your porsche (although I am impressed you have one) I’m talking about taking your porsche and pimping it up for ya. It’s still your car, I just made it ‘better’.
I think we’re both in full agreement that copying and selling for profit is a complete no go zone. I agree with you on the remixing and sending it to ‘friends’ for free… depending on your definition of friends of course. Unfortunately as soon as it hits the public domain then its no longer just friends (unless you’re extremely popular and everyone on the whole wide web is your friend). Putting it up on a torrent site is not just a few friends, is it? How do DJs in nightclubs get on from that angle (I’m not in the music industry so I have no idea, call me ignorant if you want but it’s nothing I’ve ever needed to know). Your duct tape analogy works here because there are tracks that I’ve heard remixed for a few seconds and have wanted to get the whole song. It’s like 30 second advertising. And how many people went and bought Dream On after hearing Sing For the Moment. But then I guess a sample isn’t considered altering the original?
I do love his comment: “… they can hire me to make sure that they don’t include any sucky parts on their next album”. Hahah rock on.
Personally I think MacGyver singlehandedly boosted 3M sales of duct tape. Oh and once you put it on a car it’s no longer duct tape, it’s ‘Hundred Mile An Hour’ tape. Hey, don’t look at me, I don’t make the rules.
Droorings? Awww fanx Big J, you’re my he-row.
hey all. metallica is welcome to download both of my albums – for free – at henchmusic.com. they are then welcome to cut them up any way that they wish and distribute them any way that they wish. for that matter, so are all of you. go ahead – cut them up, splice them with whatever, give them to whoever. all the best, hench
haha thanks hench. great job btw.
and sorry felyne, no porsche here.
lolwut hench?
Allright so here we go.
First thing, people get off this “art” high horse – when you SELL it, it’s a product, no more no less.
So long as everyone who downloads the “cutted” version buys an original copy, let them chop it how they like.
Metallica has to please a BIG fanbase now. And the full package may not suit all. If I buy thre original, and arrange it how I like – sorry, my choice. If I buy a Picasso, and cut out a bit that “offends” – tough I bought it.
Lucky for modern artists, things can be reproduced on the cheap. Or irritatingly. That is the fact.
Copyright is just legal mumbo jumbo as bullsh*t as the stability of the financial system. Have an iPod, will listen. To what I like. Period!
Will I still go to any Metallica gig I can – absolutely! Do I completely love the new album? Jury is still out. But i like it. Will I listen to cutted? Maybe!
to quote James himself: “Wash your back so you don’t stab mine!”
I, who earns £30 000 per year, have spent more than £2000 on Metallica stuff, and will continue to.
So lets just drop the bollox and go forwards – nobody will lose anything real AT ALL!
If you want to “copyright” everything, let me try to copyright the musical notes A-G. Let’s see anyone make music then.
Dalemonster can lick the snot off my balls, Felyne can fuck me in the anal sphinktinator.
[...] has followed in the footsteps of Danger Mouse, Minty Fresh Beats (the Jaydiohead guy), and our pal Hench, and completed a mashup album that blends The White Stripes’ music with some of the biggest [...]
Don’t DJs just play the good part of songs in their mixes at clubs and such? Usually they get praise for their spin on tracks (if they’re any good). It’s really sad that a fan is being chastised for offering his creative take.
If anything, the publisher of the article should feel like a bit of a douche for giving this Universal Fuckwad a way to get to the content. Had the kid (or the article’s publisher) just posted it on YouTube anonymously, he probably would’ve been seriously rewarded in some form or another.
On a side note, Metallica was a lot better musically when Dave Mustaine was writing the songs. It’s all been down hill since Master of Puppets. Read your liner notes kiddies.
Skwerl, the 2nd to last paragraph sums it up perfectly. Kudos.
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