Celebrity Buzz: Black Keys Start Beef With Spotify's Sean Parker

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Black Keys Start Beef With Spotify's Sean Parker

'He's an a--hole,' drummer Patrick Carney says of Parker in response to claims the Spotify board member made at SXSW.
By James Montgomery

Black Keys' Patrick Carney
Photo: Jason Merritt/ Getty Images

At this point, you're probably aware that the Black Keys' Patrick Carney has taken over the Noel Gallagher/Brandon Flowers role as the industry's "oft-quoted sh-- talker" — a list of his recent accomplishments includes beefing with Lady Gaga fans, calling Nickelback "crap" (though he subsequently sorta apologized), and singling out members of the media as being "pricks" — and he's living up to the title with his latest comments that take shots at Napster founder/ Spotify boardmember Sean Parker.

In a new interview with Michigan radio station WGRD, Carney took issue with Parker's recent comments that within two years, Spotify would overtake iTunes in total revenue, mostly because, well:

"Because [Parker's] an a--hole. That guy has $2 billion that he made from figuring out ways to steal royalties from artists, and that's the bottom line," Carney said. "You can't really trust anybody like that. The idea of a streaming service, like Netflix for music, I'm totally not against it. It's just we won't put all of our music on it until there are enough subscribers for it to make sense."

The subscription-based Spotify would have to really churn and burn if it wants to catch iTunes in terms of revenue (iTunes sells individual tracks, and controls roughly 70 percent of the U.S. download market), and let's just say Carney isn't rooting for them to do it.

"Trust me, [Keys frontman] Dan [Auerbach] and I like to make money. If it was fair to the artist, we would be involved in it. I honestly don't want to see Sean Parker succeed in anything," he said. "I imagine if Spotify becomes something that people are willing to pay for, then I'm sure iTunes will just create their own service, and they're actually fair to artists."

In the past, the Black Keys famously refused to allow their El Camino album to stream on sites like Spotify. And though the debate over Spotify's royalty payments to artists continues, Parker has yet to respond to Carney's barbs.

What do you think of Carney's position on Spotify? Tell us in the comments below.

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