Metallica have seen a slump in the sales of their catalogue after it was added to popular online streaming service Spotify earlier this month.
Sales data obtained by Billboard from Neilsen SoundScan indicates that album sales “were 15% below expectations the week the titles were added to Spotify and 35% below expectations the following week.”
This was based on data obtained for the sales figures of Metallica’s catalogue in four week periods leading up to Christmas from 2008-2012.
Metallica only recently let their catalogue onto Spotify after deciding to bury the hatchet with the service’s founder, Sean Parker. This was done when drummer Lars Ulrich appeared at a Spotify event in New York earlier this month for a panel discussion announcing the band’s decision to join Spotify.
Ulrich famously blew up at Napster – the illegal downloading service which Parker co-founded in the early 2000’s – over music piracy, with Metallica successfully suing Naptster for $10 million. Maybe a bit of karma from the whole tirade is now rearing its head at the band?
Metallica will be in Australia in February and March to headline the sold-out Soundwave Festival in all five capital cities.
