Opeth mainman Mikael Akerfeldt fears that the general public take music and musicians for granted.
And he believes that a traditional record label system is the only way new bands will find their way out of the cluster of self-powered acts who struggle to gain mainstream success.
Akerfeldt tells Music Business Facts: “It’s so hard being a creative person. You put out a product, and people throw the ‘sellout’ thing at you because you depend on some kind of income.
“It’s like, ‘You’re lucky to be in this position. You shouldn’t complain. Get a real job, just like the rest of us.’
“Which is fair enough – but I think people underestimate how much they need music. Once it’s gone…”
He adds: “It’s really difficult for bands starting out today to get their names out there. I think the filter that was provided by a record label back in the day was ultimately good.”
Akerfeldt argues that bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Kiss had to go through a process where they were compared against competing artists, meaning they knew what they had to deliver if they wanted success.
“Bands today start their own YouTube channel and put out their own record. But they’re fighting,” he says.
“They’re rubbing elbows with millions of bands – and quite frankly, many of them are shit. For a band who have something, starting out today would be very difficult. They’d be caught in that stream of shitloads of bands.”
Opeth continue to generate an income from their music, but Akerfeldt has considered what might happen if that begins to tail off.
“If the sales would go down completely, maybe I would actually sell out – who knows? I think I would have to reconsider my life and change it around completely. I would probably move away from music if that happened.
“I’d still write, of course, but I wouldn’t want Opeth to end up in that position where we just put out music to pay the bills.”
Earlier this month he argued that the band’s fans couldn’t be allowed to call the shots over their musical direction. Opeth appear at this year’s Bloodstock Open Air in Derbyshire on August 6-9.
