Metallica’s Lars Ulrich “happy” people “still stream or buy or steal our records”

nme.com:

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has shared that he is pleased that fans are still listening to Metalica music despite how they get their hands on it.Back in the early 00s, Ulrich became the face of the anti-Internet music piracy movement after being vocal about the cons of people sharing MP3 files of the band’s music via P2P file-sharing platforms such as Napster.While appearing as a guest on 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 despite how they get it.“Well, obviously it’s changed quite a bit,” he said. “And in your guys’ industry, some of the same things that we were dealing with 20 years ago are happening.

Big picture, and I know this may sound like a little bit of a cop-out, I’m just happy that fucking anybody cares about what we’re doing and shows up to see us play and still stream or buy or steal our records or whatever.”Ulrich continued: “The engagement itself, I think, is the triumph and the victory.

Obviously, it’s way, way harder for a lot of the younger bands nowadays because they don’t get the support of the record companies for basic things — just like gear and tour support.

So there is very much of a different thing.”On April 13, 2000, Metallica filed a lawsuit against Napster and alleged that the file-sharing company was guilty of copyright infringement.