DESTRUCTION's SCHMIER: 'Young Bands Cannot Afford To Record Anymore And To Distribute Their Music'

In a new interview with the Brutally Delicious podcast, DESTRUCTION frontman Schmier blasted Spotify for the paltry payments the music streaming service pays out to music rightsholders. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It’s a new world. A couple of years ago, everybody was, like, ‘Oh, streaming is bad.’ Now everybody’s streaming.” Referencing METALLICA‘s decision to launch legal action against Napster in 2000, Schmier continued: “Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] got slaughtered for something that was actually a good idea. And he failed to get the government involved to control this bullshit. And now we’re all suffering from it.

“At the end, I’m not against streaming. I’m just against the underpayment of streaming,” Schmier explained. “And that’s the true fact that those CEOs and those companies make far too much money and the artist gets just pennies. And many artists get nothing, because he doesn’t pay out until a certain amount of money. And if you see, you only earn, like, 0.002 — two zeros behind the comma — cents a song, there’s a lot of bands that don’t make those one thousand dollars in the time period that you need to get your accounting…. Let’s say there’s one hundred thousand bands that don’t make it to one thousand. He keeps one hundred times one thousand euros for himself. That’s not a fucking fair model of distribution of music.”

Asked if he thinks the current situation will discourage younger musicians from creating more metal and more art, Schmier said: “I think the problem is that young bands cannot afford to record anymore and to distribute their music. That means at one point, we’re gonna have A.I. music and no more young bands, because it’s easier. And that is a terrible dead end. So, we need to support real music, we need to support real art, and therefore it’s important to go to concerts, to buy merchandise and support the bands.

“There’s nothing evil about listening to Spotify — it’s a new tool,” Schmier clarified. “We have to use it. Sometimes people say, ‘Yeah, go to Bandcamp. It’s better paid,’ which is true. But not everybody’s using Bandcamp. And the Pandora’s box is open. We’ve just gotta see how we deal with it best.”

For years, Spotify has been criticized for offering paltry payouts to musicians and songwriters, with some claiming that the service gives major-label artists an unfair advantage via playlist placement and other promotional avenues.

In recent years, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has been trying to defend Spotify‘s payouts, telling CBS News in early 2023: “We don’t pay artists directly. [Artists] have their deals with their record companies and their deals with their publishers, et cetera. And what Spotify does is we pay out to those record companies and these publishers, and don’t know what individual deals these artists may have.”

Four years ago, Spotify created a web site called Loud&Clear to clarify exactly who receives payments.

According to Forbes, “Spotify has been paying back nearly 70% of every dollar generated from music as royalties to rights holders who represent artists and songwriters. These organizations, which include independent distributors, publishers, performance rights organizations, record labels, and collecting societies, then pay the artists and songwriters based on their agreed terms.”

DESTRUCTION‘s 16th studio album, “Birth Of Malice”, is due on March 7, 2025 via Napalm Records. The LP was recorded at Switzerland’s Little Creek Studio by V.O. Pulver. Guitarist Martin Furia mixed and mastered the LP at The Black Mancave in Hannover, Germany. The cover artwork was designed by talented Hungarian artist Gyula Havancsák, known for his works for bands like ACCEPT, KREATOR and BLIND GUARDIAN.

DESTRUCTION, known as one of the “Teutonic Four”, alongside KREATOR, SODOM and TANKARD, were reunited with the other three acts at the “Klash Of The Ruhrpott” concert on July 20, 2024 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

In August 2021, DESTRUCTION officially parted ways with guitarist Mike Sifringer and replaced him with Martin Furia. The Argentinian-born, Belgian-based Furia is best known for his work as sound engineer and producer for such bands as NERVOSA and EVIL INVADERS.

Prior to his exit, Sifringer was the only member of DESTRUCTION to have remained constant throughout the band’s career. Schmier appeared on DESTRUCTION‘s first three albums before exiting the band and being replaced by POLTERGEIST vocalist André Grieder. André‘s sole recorded appearance with DESTRUCTION was on the “Cracked Brain” album, which came out in 1990. Schmier rejoined DESTRUCTION in 1999.