Although it seems like we've been doing it all our lives, it's important to remember that music streaming and digital streaming platforms are still in their infancy. Without a doubt, the bar has been raised significantly since the earliest days of the MP3 file, Apple's iTunes and the iPod player, with the introduction of Spotify, Soundcloud, and Bandcamp into the marketplace. And given the amount of top-dollar research and development done today by streaming companies—in hopes to create the most lively user experience possible—the open source model, like that of Napster, for example, seems antithetical to the casual listener and archaic to the enthusiast.
This, of course, has left bands in an odd spot—especially a band like Testament that spent the majority of their career working under the old model in what were already decades-old business structures. Guitarist Eric Peterson recently shared some of his feelings on the subject in an interview on the Tavo El Billy podcast, illustrating clearly the lay of the land in 2023.
"The industry, the record company side, they've seen that record sales have gone down a lot, but what they now acknowledge and they now look at is streaming and stuff like that," Peterson said. "So in that case, Testament is now bigger than we've been. They don't go off record sales anymore. That's a good thing, obviously. [There's] physical sales and there's streaming and then there's online sales, but I think what they look at now is the streaming.
"Even Testament isn't so pro-focusing on streaming. We're still kind of stuck in the — I wouldn't say 'stuck', but there's probably a lot more that we could do to be more of a streaming band. That just sounds weird to us, but I think that's kind of where it's headed. I think that there's room for Testament to work a little bit harder with that mentality of streaming and stuff like that."
You can check out the complete interview with Eric Peterson just below.
In other news, Testament has been working on new material recently, but will a new album feature drummer Dave Lombardo? That seems to be a question mark at the moment, as the drummer recently discussed his insane upcoming schedule this year, including gigs with the Misfits and Mr. Bungle.
Meanwhile, Peterson recently told Bloodstock TV he's going to start piecing all the band's ideas together into a new album for a possible late 2023 release. So, be on the lookout for more Testament news hopefully very soon!
