Machine Head’s Robb Flynn Still Loves Spotify, Likes Apple’s New Streaming Service Too

I can’t be the only one who cringes every time I see a headline on Blabbermouth in which some old fart in a has-been metal band complains about how “Spotify has ruined music,” or “streaming payouts are unfair,” or “it ain’t like it used to be.”

Machine Head’s Robb Flynn is not one of those dudes. Flynn went on record in 2013 as saying he loves Spotify and thinks streaming services are great, proclaiming he’d never buy another physical CD again. And, with his latest General Journals entry, it’s nice to see that he’s continuing to embrace steaming as a viable medium for bands.

Today’s entry is simply titled “SPOTIFY STATS!!!” and while he doesn’t get into the financial side of it — that’d be GREAT to see, Robb, if you ever feel like sharing — the larger point is that he really doesn’t give a shit. What’s important is that fans — MILLIONS of them — are listening to Machine Head music, which Robb RIGHTLY knows leads to ticket sales, merch sales, and even sales of physical album formats. It’s not all about short-term gains and what you can earn now — shocking, I know! — but building long-term fans. Robb gets it.

Where’s the chorus of bands complaining about YouTube revenue, which is also strikingly low on a per-stream basis? Oh, right, no one’s complaining about that even though piracy is rampant.

Here’s his latest entry on how Machine Head do on Spotify, and Robb’s thoughts on Apple’s new streaming services as well:

A big shout out to all the Spotify users out there for getting “Now We Die” past the 3 million streams mark. It is now the #2 most streamed song in our catalog on Spotify. As of today “Now We Die” is at 3,146,734 streams, while the #1 streamed song is “Locust” with 4,308,323 streams (the #5 ranking of NWD reflects its stream status today).

Very cool to see our fans embracing this way of consuming music!!

I’ve also included the iTunes / Apple Music stats as well, though they are less specific, and in the case of Apple Music there is no indication on the number of streams or if these numbers reflect streams-only, or iTunes-singles-purchases-only, or both…?

It’s confusing.

Spotify is a lot more transparent in that sense.

Has anyone tried Apple Music?

Did anyone use the 3 month free-trial period?

I find it pretty easy myself (though I’ve read complaints about it being difficult). It’s 2-steps-easier saving music, and having the songs I’ve already ripped/downloaded in iTunes next to songs I just saved via-streaming is pretty rad.

I’m all about the premium tier, so I signed up for the Apple Music “family plan”, I got Genevra and my son Zander on it for $16 bucks a month.

Recently through Apple Music I grabbed the latest Slayer – Repentless, Trivium- Silence In The Snow, Bring Me The Horizon – That’s The Spirit, and rapper Vinnie Paz – Season Of The Assassin (which is hard as nails!) and quite a few others.

Over on Spotify (where both my wife and I are premium subscribers for $9.99 each = $20 bucks a month) I grabbed the new Five Finger Death Punch – Got Your Six (which they delayed putting on Spotify for 2 weeks), Slipknot – 5: The Gray Chapter, and the new Trivium again, (just cause I use both streaming services), and have another 1000 + songs saved to my phone for “offline mode”.

I like Spotify better because you can select the streaming quality, for both streaming and syncing to your phone. I have both options set to “Extreme” which sounds really good at 320 kbit/s (twice the size of an iTunes AAC download). The “Normal” recommended-streaming-version sounds fine, but is a little compressed, and sub-drops / 808’s tend to “woof out”, but on Extreme it sounds clear as fuck.

We’ve got 132,617 followers on Spotify which is respectable, but I’d love to see those numbers higher, because the big picture is that they are pretty low when you consider that In Flames has twice that, and Bring Me The Horizon has over 600,000 followers. Hell, when you get into mainstream artists, Maroon 5 has over 6 million followers on Spotify!!

Either way you cut it though, very stoked to see these numbers!!

There is one point on which I disagree with Robb, and that’s Apple Music. What’s the point? Why pay for two services that essentially do the same thing?

To answer Robb’s question, I signed up for the free Apple Music trial and I never used it! Then I got nabbed for the renewal fee when it came up (bastards!) and promptly canceled my subscription. I’ll bet this happened to a lot of other folks.

Robb Flynn has been very open and honest in his General Journals diary entries over the last few years. Whether it’s talking about getting kicked out of the Sistine Chapel, updating fans on the progress of new Machine Head music, recounting tour stories or just talking about life at home, you can always count on him for a good read. Thanks for keeping it real, dude.