NIGHTWISH Singer FLOOR JANSEN Believes Digital Revolution Has Changed Music Industry For The Better

NIGHTWISH singer Floor Jansen spoke to Metal Wani about the future of rock music as on-demand streaming keeps contributing to a decline in sales and songwriters continue to be cut out of streaming's success. "I think music is being consumed, if you look at it from a product point of view, more than ever before — communication about music is stronger than ever; there's more to do about it than ever," she said (hear audio below). "That's what digital has brought. There's just not a very fair economic system behind it that works on a worldwide level. So I hope that people whose job that is they get to figure it out. At the same time, musicians will always make music — that's like breathing; you'll do that anyway. But I do agree that the industry is pretty sick from the inside out and is radically changing, as it has been doing, in the last 20 years or more. But definitely in my career or time, things have really changed constantly and I think for better, at the end of the day. 'Cause the way it was was not good either."

She continued: "If you think about [how things were in] the old days, [you remember hearing] all the stories about the artists that get fucked over by their managers or record labels. If money is power, money was always with people who, for some reason, made more money on artists than the artists themselves. So there was this power that record labels and managers, they were institutes and so powerful because of this money that… Yeah, I remember our first contract [with Floor's pre-NIGHTWISH band AFTER FOREVER] being completely shit — we knew it wasn't fair — but we signed it anyway, because that was the way things were. In that sense, I think things changed when record labels started to lose their money and artists, at the same time, started to smarten up a bit. So in that sense, things are getting more fair. But as long as people download music for nothing or Spotify prices, there is something out of balance there as well."

Floor added: "So it's an ongoing process, which I really hope will get better. And if you look at record sales, you get really sad. But if you look at the ticket sales, you get really happy. And if you see what's happening online, that's really great. It's just… there's still a bit of anarchy there."

Jansen is currently promoting NORTHWARD, her hard rock project with PAGAN'S MIND guitarist Jørn Viggo Lofstad, which will release its self-titled debut album on October 19 via Nuclear Blast.

NIGHTWISH's recent concerts in São Paulo, Brazil (September 28 at Tom Brasil) and Buenos Aires, Argentina (September 30 at Estadio Cubierto Malvinas Argentinas) were filmed for an upcoming DVD.

This past July, keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen revealed that he had "about 80 or 90 percent of the material" already written for the next NIGHTWISH album.

NIGHTWISH's upcoming disc, which is expected in 2020, will mark the band's second full-length release with Jansen, who has been touring with the group since 2012.