Metallica has been around for decades and they already sealed themselves as one of the most legendary music acts in the music industry. Over the past few years, many would assume that the band is slowing down in terms of fandom, sales, and streams, but Lars Ulrich proves otherwise.
According to NME, the singer became one of the biggest supporters of the anti-Internet music piracy in the early 2000s as he opposed to the idea of sharing MP3 files of Metallica's music through sharing platforms illegally.
The rocker recently appeared on "SmartLess" podcast as a guest where he opened up about his feelings regarding the support that fans have been giving Metallica regardless of where they get their music.
He told the host that things "changed quite a bit" since the 2000s but he is still happy with all of the love and support.
"I know this may sound like a little bit of a cop-out, I'm just happy that f****** anybody cares about what we're doing and shows up to see us play and still stream or buy or steal our records or whatever," he said.
He further noted that there was a struggle that the group faced, especially when it comes to engagement with the public as there were a lot of younger bands that don't get basic support from their record labels.
Metallica vs Napster Lawsuit
Per the outlet, Metallica members filed a lawsuit against Napster, a peer-to-peer file sharing application that launched in the late 90s and became popular in the early 2000s.
At the time, they alleged that the company was guilty of copyright infringement as countless of the group's songs were being shared in their platform.
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Lars Ulrich faced the Senate Judiciary Committee and explained that the demo for the song "I Disappear" was leaked on Napster even though they haven't released it yet as it was intended to be publicized for the movie "Mission Impossble II."
The group argued that the sight enables users to exchange illegal music in the form of MP3 files.
The lawsuit was settled in 2001.
Napster Lawsuit Didn't Do Metallica Any Favor?
In an intervierw with Nyhetsmorgon, Kirk Hammett of Metallica said the Napster lawsuit didn't do the band any favors.
Regardless, he noted that they were still in the right and no matter what angle other people would look at it, they did nothing wrong and Napster was in the bad side.
"All you have to do is look at the state of the music industry, and that kind of explains the whole situation right there," he added.
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