METALLICA: The BILLBOARD Cover Story

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich and frontman James Hetfield, as well as Cliff Burnstein, one of METALLICA's managers at Q Prime, were interviewed for the cover story of the latest issue of Billboard, a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry. A couple of excerpts from the story follow below.

On METALLICA's highly publicized battle with Napster in 2000 and Ulrich's belief that when his obituary appears in the New York Times, the word "Napster" will turn up in the first paragraph:

Ulrich: "That's something I have to accept, and I accept it. But it's not something that plays a big part in my life in 2010. I'm proud of the fact that we stood up for what we believed in and took a stance. Were we caught off-guard? Absolutely. Were there some gross underestimation of what this thing was? Yeah. But it came from the same impulsive spirit that drives everything else this band does."

"The two biggest misconceptions during that period were that it was about money and that it was about METALLICA's survival. We all presumed METALLICA would be fine. What it was about was all those people who heard METALLICA and then three months later formed their own bands. We were concerned about where the money was going to come from to support those bands and the labels to release their records and the stores to sell those records through. And now all of that is pretty much playing out the way we predicted 10 years ago."

On METALLICA's initial reluctance to do business with iTunes, which was fueled by "a little bit of fear":

Hetfield: "Something new had come up, and it was like this late-night TV gadget. You don't necessarily want to jump on it right away. Obviously, it's a big way people are getting music now; the younger generation, especially, want everything right now. I totally get that, and we can't change that. It's just how the world is."

On offering individual songs for sale as opposed to complete albums:

Hetfield: "It's like selling the bottom corner of a painting or chapter 15 of a book. But the entire album doesn't seem as important to kids right now."

"With our record company, we have say over our direction. 'We want to put this many songs on the album and we want to sell it for this amount.' They've left us alone, which we like. iTunes does not subscribe to that. There's no negotiating, and unfortunately there won't be until a rival comes up."

On how much time they spend thinking about how METALLICA can adapt to those changes — to the decline, in other words, of the model in which METALLICA came up:

Ulrich: "Not that much. I consider myself METALLICA's No. 1 fan, so for me it's just about, 'What more would I want from METALLICA? Where could they be better?' The main thing is access, and we try to give as much access as possible so people all over the world can get close to what goes on out on the road or in the studio. That old idea of mystique doesn't exist any more, so pretending it does is a waste of time. You might as well capitalize on the fact that your fans want to get close to you."

Hetfield: "We're not interested in becoming a state-fair band that just plays our greatest hits. That's definitely not on the list of things to do. But staying relevant starts with your attitude and your hunger and passion for what you do. What comes after that is just frosting. You can do all the fanciest new tools — downloading straight into your earbuds or whatever — but if you don't have the songs, then it doesn't last."

On the only effect that decreasing record sales will have on METALLICA — that the band sells fewer records:

Burnstein: "It won't change anything else we do. I'm trying not to be cocky about it, but for METALLICA, at their level, the kinds of things you might think about to replace income are minor compared to what you make playing tours and selling merch. We're just finishing 225 shows worldwide [in support of 'Death Magnetic'], and these are massive shows. We can play anywhere. What else do we need to do, really? If we sell fewer records, so be it. Of course I'd rather sell more, but I can't do anything about the size of the market, and neither can they."

On METALLICA's fulfillment of its current record deals all over the world and the band's plans regarding how it will sell its music in the future:

Ulrich: "Given the slow pace at which we write albums, it's not something we'll have to deal with any time soon."

Read the entire article from Billboard.