Hard rock band Sixx:A.M. are releasing a new album, Prayers For the Damned Volume 1, on Friday. If you want to hear some music from it, you can go to YouTube to listen to “Rise” and “You Have Come to the Right Place.” However, according to an open letter from the band, you’ve come to the wrong place if you want them to get paid for that. “Don’t Be Evil, YouTube,” a posting on the band’s Facebook page reads. It’s a well-intentioned, informative read, and following Metallica’s management, the second group of multi-millionaires to call out YouTube. Essentially, the band are unhappy with the pitiful streaming rates that artists are getting from YouTube, and want their owner Google to increase payouts to artists
Of course Sixx:A.M. and Q Prime are upset about leaving money on the table, but Sixx stated that it’s not about them, it’s about the next generation of artists. The statement acknowledges that they’re not poor. Like Metallica’s management company, they come from a different time. If you wanted to hear a Motley Crue album, you had to buy the whole thing, and they’ve reaped the benefits for 30 years now. While SixxA.M. might not be rolling in cash, they’re probably not worrying about going broke due to their other gigs writing songs and a near-10 year history as a band. Smaller and newer bands, on the other hand, need every bit of revenue and exposure they can get, and if that means getting paid meagerly from multiple spins on YouTube, then so be it. It’s hard to deny the math though, that those in charge of YouTube are making a ton of money that perhaps could be paid to artists. That being said, if they have to pay artists more, that means they’ll have to pay more to anyone else that creates content on the service, be it unboxing videos or video game playthroughs.
Read SixxA.M.’s statement below and weigh in on this in the comments:
