Metallica’s Lars Ulrich “Proud” of Killing Napster

Says not the “greedy rock pigs and luddites” file-sharers claim them to be, and that he’s “proud” of what the band did, and what they “stood up for.”

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich is every bit the “greedy rock pig” and “luddite” he claims not to be in a recent revelation he made to Kerrang! expressing his profound pride in spearheading the campaign that eventually took down Napster in July of 2001.

Ulrich, who admitted to illegally downloading “Death Magnetic” using BitTorrent this past March, and despite the obvious futility of taking Napster down being that file-sharing is more prevalent than ever, insists that taking down Napster was the “right” thing to do.

“Being right about Napster doesn’t mean that much to me,” he says. “I don’t find any particular glory in being proved right about it.”

Right about it?

Geoff Taylor, head of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), and former RIAA CEO Hillary Rosen, who led the RIAA during the Napster era, both disagree.

“I, for one, regret that we weren’t faster in figuring out how to create a sustainable model for music on the internet,” said Taylor this past June when asked about the 10 anniversary of the birth of Napster. He says the music industry would be in better shape now if it had engaged with Napster rather than fought it.

Exactly.

Rosen said at the time of the Napster affair that the music industry, despite its concerns over how they would be compensated, should’ve embraced Napster regardless.

“I’ve been quoted as saying the record companies should have jumped off the cliff and signed a deal,” she also said on the 10th anniversary of Napster. “But it would have been jumping off a cliff, and people have to understand that.”

“There were 100 reasons not to do it, and only one or two to do it. Those one or two reasons were more compelling in the long term, but a much bigger decision and tougher decision,” she adds.

Perhaps Ulrich knows something record company execs don’t, but when it’s not likely being that his success in shuttering Napster did absolutely nothing positive for Metallica, artists, or the music industry as a whole other than to drive file-sharing to thousands of different platforms outside their control.

If the music industry had embraced Napster it could’ve eventually developed an iTunes of its own where it gets to set prices and keep all the profits. The only person happy that Ulrich was “right” is Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Ulrich also credits file-sharers for having been so successful in making the band look bad even though Metallica did a great job of this on its own.

“You have to give props to the other side because they did run a brilliant campaign, and they did portray me and Metallica as being greedy rock pigs and luddites who were completely behind what was happening technologically,” he adds. “But I am proud of what we did, and what we stood up for.”

Multi-millionaire artists angry that teens aren’t paying the requisite $19.95 for an album makes them look like “greedy rock pigs” without any help. Trying to somehow stop P2P again makes them look like “luddites” without any outside help.

Sadly enough these latest comments finally cement who Metallica, or at least Ulrich if you want to name names, really is. It makes his comments this past March about warming up to the idea of file-sharing and alternative forms of reaching Metallica’s fan base seem meaningless.

“We’ve been observing Radiohead and Trent Reznor and in twenty-seven years or however long it takes for the next record, we’ll be looking forward to everything in terms of possibilities with the Internet,” Ulrich said back in March.

Maybe it needs to look backward first instead, for as George Santayana wrote, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Stay tuned.

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