The advent of the streaming giant and similar services has drawn the music business out of the dark ages, according to the author.
The Ghost mastermind has never shied away from the fact that his own nostalgia for the ’80s music and pop culture informed the sound, style, and image of his brainchild, and he also likes to keep his.
“I wish it was 1985; it would be amazing,” says Forge, after explaining how he’s never had a personal account on a social networking site. Even though he understands people need to be a part of these platforms, he also argues that streaming platforms changed the music industry for the better.
“And Spotify – the same thing. I mean, yeah, of course I wish it was 1985; it would be fucking phenomenal. But it’s not, and Spotify -specifically Spotify, and some similar services definitely drew the music business out of the dark ages. That was about 10,12, 15 years ago, where there was nothing, it was just a big decline.
“And now, at least it works. At least Spotify gave the investors, for lack of a nicer word, but you know, record labels and music labels… They gave the labels an incentive to invest in bands again. And that is what was going out the door in 2007. They were leaving, they were, like, not doing it anymore because everything they invested in was a loss. So I’m really happy about that.”
Ghost is on a tour with two other metal bands. Upcoming Ghost tour dates can be found here.