Pixies’ Black Francis Embraces Streaming Music: ‘It Seems to Work’

More so than any single artist, the most polarizing aspect of today's music industry is streaming. Fans tend to love it and artists can go either way, either loving the exposure or wishing they got paid more by Tidal, Spotify and other prominent services. In a recent interview, the Pixies' frontman Black Francis spoke about the issue, taking a laid back stance on the topic.

As an artist, he said he doesn't have the desire to look too much into the financial side of it, saying:

I can get all involved and take a stance and develop an opinion, but at the end of the day, I’ve got too much to do. I’ve got five kids. I just want to f---ing play music and make art. I’m not criticizing other people who have highly developed opinions about all this, but I just don’t have time for it. I don’t have any interest in it. I just want to play music, and fortunately I’ve got my t-shirt money, I’ve got my concert ticket money, I’ve got my commercial usage money. It’s no different than when I started out. Technology changes and formats change, but it’s basically you generate creative content, you try to get it heard, you try to get it paid for, you try to collect what is due to you, and, you know, file for your taxes. [Laughs] What else can I do?

He's also for streaming as a fan, saying it's the primary way he listens to music:

iTunes is too much of a pain in the ass. I have an iTunes account, but I mean, Jesus, between the Cloud and the iTunes Match and “did I buy this?” and “did I not buy it?” and “did I lose it?” and all that s---, it’s kind of annoying. That was the best setup a few years ago, but now that there’s streaming—which can be annoying too, because it’s all just accounts and passwords—it’s a little bit of an annoyance, like a lot of technology. But in general it seems to work.

The moral of Francis' story: Relax. Musicians can still make music and fans can still listen to it. Read the full interview here.