As you may have heard by now, Century Media Records have been making headlines with their press release confirming that they’ve pulled their repertoire from Spotify. The next day, Earache Records released a statement announcing that their entire catalogue will remain on the streaming service.

With so much buzz surrounding Spotify in the metal community right now, we decided to reach out to Earache Record’s U.S. label boss Al Dawson for a more in-depth statement. Al was kind enough to clarify the original statement released this morning and to share his thoughts on Spotify and its influence in the industry. He’s what Al had to say:

“Our press release has been misunderstood – we are not “now on Spotify” -  we have been for over 3 years now. What the press release really didn’t make clear is the fact that there was one easy link to access the entire Earache catalog.

While none of us have a crystal ball to see exactly which way the future of this business is going to turn, we have been actively embracing all possible legal outlets for our artists and their music. We have given away free album downloads by both Gama Bomb and Wormrot and like to think we keep an open mind on the latest ways people “consume” their music.

I do not believe for one minute the record industry is dying but evolving (as it always has) and it is up to us as record labels to find, develop and build careers for our artists utilizing our accumulative years of experience.

I think it is no coincidence that when Spotify launched here in the USA, we also had our best ever month of sales on iTunes. Spotify is just one of the many new ways that fans can find and listen to new music by our recording artists and should be seen as that and nothing more.”

So there you have it: not only one view that somewhat opposes Century Media’s current stance on Spotify, but also the opinion from a representative of a fellow metal label. We’re sure that the debate over Spotify won’t be cooling down any time soon though.

Thanks again to Al for taking the time to comment. Those with Spotify accounts can access Earache Record’s entire catalog via this link.