While piracy has been blamed for many terrible things over the years, Rob Zombie sees things differently. Not only does the musician, director and producer not care about the phenomenon, he's happy to give his music away for free, claiming that piracy has not only re-energized him, but also made him more creative. Opinions on the state of the recording business are everywhere, from the ongoing row over Taylor Swift jilting Spotify to the endless debates over illegal downloading. Most industry commentary on the latter is provided by the suits, whose corporate line dictates that unauthorized sharing costs money and jobs, and could ultimately mean the end of the industry. Just lately their emphasis has been placed on personalizing the debate, with the aim of making the public have more empathy with hard-working artists. The line goes that if these people aren’t given a financial incentive to create, eventually it will be the art that suffers through lack of investment and development. Then along comes Rob Zombie and turns the argument on its head. In an interview with LoudWire covering filmmaking, his upcoming album, and even Alice Cooper, Zombie says that while everyone in the industry is complaining about illegal downloading, it simply isn’t an issue for him. “I don’t care about any of that stuff. In fact, in a funny sort of way the fact that nobody buys records doesn’t bother me. In fact, I feel like it’s freed me,” Zombie said. “I never did anything to sell records, per se, but when you take that pressure away 100 percent, I swear to God you get more creative because it doesn’t matter anymore.” While the idea of not having to create art within a profitable formula is an interesting one, it’s not one that the majority of artists have the luxury of. However, Zombie says that not only does he enjoy operating outside the box, he’s happy to let people have his music without paying for it. “That’s really been the case, I’m happy to give it away for free. I don’t care. I just want to make it, play it, get crazy with it. I hear a lot of musicians crying about it but for me, it’s re-energized us,” the musician concludes. While Zombie in 2014 speaks of how piracy has benefited him, five years ago he had less flattering comments on the practice. “The pirating thing is bad. The people it hurts the most are the ones you least think it hurts,” he said. “It’s not the big Britney Spears albums that are being pirated; it’s the indie bands that don’t have two cents to their name.” And so the see-saw continues….
