Machine Head's Robb Flynn: Streaming Can Help Save Metal

I fucking love Spotify. It’s one of the biggest changes in the music industry since I’ve been playing music, and I don’t get the hate over it from the metal scene. It’s very frustrating. It’s innovative and it’s really changed everything, and enough people are using it that it’s not just a fad thing. You look around and see hip-hop, which just passed rock music in America for the first time in history, and that’s totally embracing Spotify. Since the beginning of music, rock has dominated, but rock music now is Coldplay and Mumford & Sons! That’s not rock music! What is that? And a lot of it is because those bands are killing it on streaming.

You watch Netflix, right? Do you miss going to rent a DVD from Blockbuster? I don’t! I love being able to pull up some shit on Netflix and there it is! What’s the big resistance in metal? And I say all this as a dude who has lived through vinyl, and then when vinyl died cassettes became the dominant thing. I remember 8-tracks. I remember when CDs came out, and I was totally resistant to them because I had a cassette player. And then iTunes came along, which I thought was great. And then vinyl came back, which is really weird, because as soon as CDs came out I thought, ‘This is way better than vinyl!’

If people want metal to survive that has to be part of the equation. For me, if people want to buy CDs and vinyl, that’s great. If that’s your preferred way of listening to music, so be it. You’re not supporting me in any way, shape, or form, though, just by buying my CD; that does not equate to a chart position anymore. It’s a combination of YouTube streams, Spotify streams, single downloads from iTunes, Apple Music streams and CD and vinyl, which makes up a chunk of it. But it’s all that. So when so-and-so rapper has 4,000,000 streams on YouTube, that’s going towards his fucking chart position! But I get it. There’s change. For me, it wasn’t so big of a deal. It was fucking easier! And I’m not the dude saying, ‘Don’t steal my record.’ Fucking steal it! It’s so fucking inconvenient at this point to go to a site and download it illegally when you can fucking listen to it on Spotify! It’s weird, and I think it’s unhealthy for metal, and I think metal’s going to disappear if people don’t get on-board with streaming, because it’s such an important part of a band’s longevity.

I don’t even fucking know where to buy a Machine Head CD! Literally, in Best Buy, the CD rack is as big as a drum set and it’s got Taylor Swift, Foo Fighters and Pavarotti or some shit like that! It doesn’t carry metal. You can go to Amoeba or Rasputin in Berkeley and they probably have some cool stuff, but do you want to drive 30 miles to get a record? No! Do I want to carry a fucking suitcase full of CDs with me on tour? No! Do I want to be able to check out new shit really easily and support the artist like that? Fuck yeah!

Catch Machine Head on tour in 2020 across Europe and North America at one of the dates below. Get your tickets here.

Machine Head world tour 2020

January

28 Tampa, Ritz Ybor
30 Atlanta, Center Stage
31 Silver Spring, The Fillmore

February

01 New York City, Webster Hall
04 Toronto, Danforth Music Hall
05 Montreal, Corona Theatre
07 Boston, House of Blues
08 Buffalo, Town Ballroom
09 Cleveland, Agora Theater
11 Indianapolis, The Vogue
12 Louisville, Mercury Ballroom
14 Detroit, Crofoot
15 Chicago, Metro
16 Minneapolis, Skyway Theatre
18 Denver, The Gothic Theatre
19 Salt Lake City, The Depot
21 Oakland, Fox Theater
22 Anaheim, House of Blues

April

19 Zaragoza, Teatro de las Esquinas, Spain
21 Santiago De Compostela, Capitol, Spain
23 Oporto, Coliseu de Porto, Portugal
24 Lisbon, Coliseu de Lisboa, Portugal
25 Madrid, La Riviera, Spain
27 Malaga, Paris 15, Spain
28 Murcia, Gamma, Spain
29 Valencia, Republicca, Spain

May

01 Barcelona, Razzmatazz, Spain
02 Toulouse, Le Bikini, France
05 Ludwigsburg, MHP arena, Germany
06 Wiesbaden, Schlachthof, Germany
08 Hannover, Swiss Life Hall, Germany
09 Prague, Forum Karlin, Czech Republic
10 Bratislava, Refinery Gallery, Slovakia
12 Bucharest, Quantic Club, Romania
13 Sofia, Universiada Hall, Bulgaria
15 Thessaloniki, Fix Factory Of Sound, Greece
16 Athens, Piraeus Academy, Greece
20 Kiev, Stereoplaza, Ukraine
22 Moscow, 1930 Moscow, Russia
23 St Petersburg, A2, Russia
25 Helsinki, The Circus, Finland
28 Stockholm, Fryhuset Arenan, Sweden
29 Oslo, Sentrum Scene, Norway
30 Aarhus, Train, Denmark

June

01 Hamburg, Grosse Freiheit 36, Germany
02 Utrecht, Tivoliredenburg, Netherlands
03 Lille, L’Aeronef, France
05 London, Brixton O2 Academy, UK
06 Birmingham O2 Academy, UK