Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows says streaming has saved the music business: “Maybe you’re not relevant?”

Metal band Avenged Sevenfold have been working on their new album during the pandemic, which is almost ready for release. The band have previously said that they took inspiration for the album from rapper Kanye West, and the album also features a string orchestra.

Now, in a recent episode of the Bob Lefsetz Podcast, the band’s frontman M. Shadows defends streaming, which has often been maligned for the low royalties musicians receive for listening as record sales lose their status as a source of income for musicians.

However, Shadows believes that streaming is not the devil, but has saved the music business.

“They’re still in 2022 talking about how music doesn’t make any money, no one’s buying our CDs. Maybe you’re not relevant? Let’s be relevant, let’s put our hat in the ring so when they’re listening to Bieber or The Weeknd, they can jump over to Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold. We’re playing in the same park here.”

That has always made sense to me, but you still get these people that are there, ‘Streaming’s killed industry, and now we got to do this and we got to do that.’ No, streaming kind of saved the industry, It saved the user, I call them the Web 2.0 user. The fan gets to listen to you at any point, so how are you going to get their attention? How are you going to be the best thing that’s going to be going through their earholes that day?”