Julian Casablancas has hit out at streaming services, calling them “a waste of time” and blamed the platforms for music having “gone so backwards”.
In an interview with Billboard, The Strokes frontman said he didn’t use “the new gatekeepers” Spotify or Apple Music, explaining that “they’re all just ripping everyone off”.
“You can have your online existence, but trying to suck on Spotify’s sweet sweetness is just a waste of time for me,” Casablancas explained.
The Voidz frontman went on to explain that he chose to find music via radio instead, as there are “still DJs playing cool things.”
“Everyone I know who’s listening to Spotify or Apple Music doesn’t discover anything interesting,” he elaborated. “When I ask them to pull up a cool song, they don’t even have one. If you have to choose a streaming service, I would say YouTube is the only one, even though that’s kind of not what it is.”
He went on to berate the new service’s inability to let him keep music, saying that he often ripped music and put it “on a non-Apple device because they don’t even let you have MP3s anymore,” Casablancas explained, “It’s so stupid, it’s gone so backwards. The whole process of music is so stupidly complicated right now, for all the technology.”
Casablancas did relent, saying he understands that the price of the services make them more accessible: “If you want to hear music in a simple way, it’s $10 a month, I get it, you’re not gonna buy songs on iTunes, I understand that.”
The interview was conducted to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Phrazes for the Young, Casablanca’s solo album.
Last year, Casablancas and his Strokes bandmates took part in the music edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live’s ‘Mean Tweets’ alongside the likes of Halsey, Imagine Dragons, Dua Lipa, The Chainsmokers, Elvis Costello, Korn, Nickelback and more. Check it out here.
Photo via Andrew Lipovsky/NBC
