Add Garth Brooks to the list of music superstars who aren’t big fans of the current state of digital music.
Garth visited Access Hollywood Live in New York City on Monday morning, where he spoke candidly with Billy Bush and Kit Hoover about stars like Taylor Swift and Jason Aldean who have recently taken a stand against some of the digital music services, like iTunes and Spotify.
“I think a lot of people are going to start following. When music starts standing up for itself, it’s going to get a lot better,” Garth told Billy and Kit.
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“And there are some big friends of ours in music we need to stand up to, too,” Garth – who just released “Man Against Machine,” his first album of new music in 13 years — added. “If iTunes is going to tell you how to sell your stuff and it’s only going to go this way – don’t forget who created the music and who should be doing this stuff.”
But Garth didn’t stop there — he also took exception with YouTube.
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“And I’m telling you, the devil – nice people, but YouTube. Oh my gosh,” Garth exclaimed. “They claim they pay people. They’re not paying anything either and people are getting millions and millions and millions of views and they don’t get squat. Trust me.”
Garth – who launched his own digital music service GhostTunes in September – said he has spoken with YouTube about keeping his music off of the popular free streaming video site, but to no avail.
“Yeah, you can do it. But you can’t get out of it. I had a sweet meeting with them. They were all fired up. They’re the sweetest… and they’re all like 12,” he joked. “I had the first question: ‘How do you get out?’ Silence. You don’t. “
While it has been reported that YouTube shares royalties with artists, in the end, Garth said it’s the songwriters who are getting short changed in the deal.
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“Songwriters are hurting,” he continued. “I applaud Miss Taylor and I applaud everyone for standing up for the songwriters, because without them, music is nothing.
“It’s totally backward right now,” he said. “If the artists will just keep hammering away, unify, stick together, then music will become the king again, which is what it should be. Music should always be first.”
YouTube had “no comment” on Garth’s claims when contacted by Access Hollywood on Monday morning.
— Eric Anderson
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