LAMB OF GOD's MARK MORTON Talks Record-Industry Changes, Music-Streaming Services (Audio)

LAMB OF GOD guitarist Mark Morton was interviewed by the WSOU 89.5 FM radio station on August 20 at the seventh annual GWAR B-Q at Hadad's Lake in Richmond, Virginia. You can now listen to the chat using the SoundCloud widget below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On LAMB OF GOD's third album, 2004's "Ashes Of The Wake", officially becoming certified gold in February by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for sales in excess of a 500,000 copies:

Mark: "Yeah, it's really cool. With the music industry the way it is, and also keeping in mind our style of music, it's really special to see it do that well commercially. It took a while, but still, it's cool nonetheless. [The change of rules, with on-demand video and audio streams now included in the RIAA's certifications] helped a little bit. We were close anyway, but when they changed the rules, it instantly went gold."

On the biggest changes in the music industry since LAMB OF GOD first started:

Mark: "Really, so many changes. The way labels work, I think, has changed really dramatically; that's kind of the first thing that pops in my mind. It used to be you would get with a label and the budgets were much bigger and the labels were a lot more willing, I think, years ago to develop a band, or to allow a band to develop rather, I should say. But now, just because labels are struggling to figure out how to get sales, the size of the deals has changed, I think the labels' patience for a band to demonstrate success has changed, the benchmark for what is considered success has changed quite a bit. You know, there's good things about it too. I think it allows bands to come up with their own strategy and really make their own way. I mean, you can complain about how it's not how it used to be, or you can get creative and figure out your own way to reach people; the Internet allows anybody to reach the world at the tap of a few buttons. So the whole landscape has changed, and it's up to the artists to decide how best to navigate that."

On music music-streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music:

Mark: "It still kind of falls in line with our trajectory to success. I mean, yes, the Internet kills sales and people don't have to go out and buy hard copies of an album anymore. But I firmly believe that our band wouldn't have had the success we've had without that kind of exposure and without the Internet. [Pre-LAMB OF GOD band] BURN THE PRIEST was very early in on… I think the site was MP3.com… Our drummer, Chris [Adler], was really in front of the whole Internet/web explosion, so we had a presence there from early on, even as BURN THE PRIEST, which, as you probably know, was the first incarnation of LAMB OF GOD. So we were pretty well in front of that, and it worked to our favor. It's kind of a double-edged thing. If we had been signed in 1994, we would probably have more money than we do right now. That said, we make a very good living doing what we do. I get to play guitar and write songs and tour the world for a living, which is just a blessing in itself. And, like I was saying, I think the Internet and the way it works and the way it exposes bands to people was really important in us getting out there in the first place, so it's hard for me to complain about it."

LAMB OF GOD's latest album, "VII: Sturm Und Drang", was released in July 2015 via Epic in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast Entertainment in all territories outside of North America. The CD was once again produced and mixed by Josh Wilbur with engineering by Wilbur, Nick Rowe and Kyle McAulay, and was recorded at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, California and Suburban Soul Studios in Torrance, California.