Garth Brooks openly railed on national television against digital music providers who, he declares, are seriously hurting musical performers and songwriters - and he tagged YouTube as "the devil."
Brooks was on "Access Hollywood" on Nov. 17. When the show's hosts Billy Bush and Kit Hoover asked the country star about his thoughts on the recent conflict between Spotify and artists like Taylor Swift, Brooks quickly broadened the conversation. His comments focused on the way digital music providers hurt the artists who create and release music and the songwriters who write it, reports Billboard.com.
"YouTube; oh my god," Brooks began. "They claim they pay people, [but] they're not paying anything, either. People get millions and millions and millions and millions of views, and they don't get squat. Trust me. Songwriters are hurting. So, I applaud Miss Taylor and I applaud everyone for standing up for the songwriters, because without them, music is nothing."
Brooks went on to describe a meeting he had with YouTube representatives - a meeting where he asked the video sharing website about pulling all of his content from YouTube's archives. Brooks explained that he was told it would be impossible to block any user from uploading Brooks-related content.
"You can't get out of it," he said, according to Billboard.com. "I had the sweetest meeting with [YouTube]. They were all fired up. They were the sweetest, and they're all, like, 12. So young! I said, 'I just have the first question: How do you get out?' Silence. You don't. You don't get out."
So, what does Brooks think artists should do in relation to Spotify and YouTube?
"It's totally backward right now," he asserted. "If the artists would just keep hammering away - unify, stick together - then music will become the king again, which is what it should be. Music should always be first."
