bemetal.com

Well, at least according to Heather Smith of Century Media. This is actually a pretty old interview, from June, but I found it interesting:

As part of the music business, what is your take on the whole Internet downloading thing?

I have a real opinion on this. Our sales are up - way up. Last year they rose 55%; the year before that, 20%; and the year before that, 20%. Why!? If downloading hurts everybody so badly, then why are sales actually up? - Quality of music! If you are Britney Spears or Snoop Dog or Eminem, and somebody can listen to your whole album before they have to buy it, would they buy it? No, because the music isn’t quality. However, if you are MERCENARY or DIMMU BORGIR, and someone downloads your whole album - gets in their car and blasts it - are they doing to say, “Damn! I have to have this! I want to read the lyrics and I want to see the artwork.” They’re going to go buy it! So, if you’re a major label, and you’ve signed a real safe artist who has two good songs on their album, and kids can download the whole album and decide that it isn’t good music, and that they’re not going to bother buying it, then they just don’t bother buying it. But if they can download a great SHADOWS FALL or DIMMU BORGIR or HYPOCRISY or SOILWORK album, they usually go out and BUY that album because they’ve tried it out and they’ve decided, “You know what? This is really good and I have to have this.” And our sales prove that theory. I mean, if METALLICA want to cry that “St. Anger” was downloaded and that’s why it didn’t sell, all you really need to do is go put that album on (laughs).

(Laughs)

I mean, you put ORPHANED LAND’s album on (”Mabool”) and if you like progressive power metal, you want that album, and you want to own it. You want to own the artwork. I mean, go back to the time when you were 15 or 16 and starting to collect all this stuff and you would get cassette tapes from your friends. I still have a cassette tape of RUSH - 2112 still. Did I go out and buy the album? Yes. Did I keep the cassette copy that my friend made me? Yes. So if those are the answers that you have in your head, then that’s probably the same way kids feel about CDRs and CDs. I mean a CDR is a pauper version of the whole album and I think that kids know the difference. I mean, I knew the difference. It’s just a copy. And you don’t have the artwork and you can’t read the lyrics. I remember writing out the lyrics to the whole “Wish You Were Here” album (PINK FLOYD), because I knew that album so well. I still read lyrics from albums I really care about - MERCENARY, NAPALM DEATH lyrics, just because he’s got a lot to say. The new SENTENCED album (”The Funeral Album”) - there’s one album that describes my own truth with depression so well that I had to talk to them about that. “Her Last 5 Minutes” is pretty depressing. Depression is a huge problem in this world and it should be addressed and people should know that it’s okay. The more people know that they’re not alone with it, the more they might reach out for help.

Read the full interview at Metaleater.com.