ARMORED SAINT Singer Hopes Artists Will Eventually Get 'Properly Paid' By Streaming Music Services

Former ANTHRAX and current ARMORED SAINT singer John Bush was recently interviewed for the "Talking Metal" podcast. You can now listen to the chat using the Spreaker widget below.

Asked for his opinion on streaming music services like Spotify, Bush said: "You know, the whole streaming thing, I don't know that much about it. I got a present for the holidays, the Alexa thing [Amazon's cloud-based digital assistant], and we use it at our house: You know, 'Alexa, play ARMORED SAINT, or whatever. I mean, not that I'm doing that — I'm not that narcissistic. [Laughs]"

He continued: "I was talking to Brian Slagel [Metal Blade CEO] not that long ago, and he said that he feels like the whole streaming thing with music is going to eventually work itself out. And that's coming from him, who stands to lose with some of the stuff, and certainly with the record sales declining as they have. But he seemed pretty optimistic that it's not that far into the future that they're gonna iron it all out and people will be getting properly paid for this."

Bush added: "Quite frankly, the music business has been just hurt so badly — it's been awful — and especially for artists, and even labels, and you name it; it's just been a mess. So I hope they fix it, because I don't really think that… I mean, I don't see how people would eventually continue making music, because it costs money to make a product. This isn't something you just are churning out in the middle of this digital kind of limbo world; it takes effort and it costs money to do this. Even at the most simplistic of ways — home studio, and you can do things like that, and it's great, and just kind of put it on to stream, and it's great. But at some point, if you're not earning something for it, it's just a big nothingness, and that's a drag. You know, I see royalties and I get statements, and believe me, sometimes it's a drag when you see, like, two cents, three cents. It's, like, 'Okay. Great.' And I know that it should be bigger than that — it should be — because there's definitely lots of ways that people are able to access music, and I know they're listening to my music. So I hope they fix and they work it out. It would be nice."

ARMORED SAINT will release a new live album, "Carpe Noctum", on February 24 via Metal Blade. The effort features the band's 2015 Wacken Open Air festival set as well as their headlining show in Aschaffenburg, Germany.

"Carpe Noctum" can be pre-ordered at PledgeMusic in various formats and bundles, with every "pledge"/purchase receiving a digital download of the tracks, plus behind-the-scenes content (including footage from Wacken 2015, plus 2016's Ozzfest and QUEENSRŸCHE appearances, and more).