Skip to content
News

Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge Argues That Streaming Music is Like ‘Killing Elephants’

Tom DeLonge

Ever since Taylor Swift pulled her entire discography from Spotify, opinions on music streaming have run rampant. Take Dave Grohl, who essentially doesn’t care how you listen as long as you listen, or Billy Bragg, who called out Swift’s “corporate power play.” Now Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge is arguing that getting your tunes from the cloud is tantamount to killing elephants. Everybody together now: What?

In an interview with Faster Louder, DeLonge made the blanket statement comparing streaming service subscribers to slaughtering endangered animals: “I tell people condoning streaming is like condoning the Chinese that are killing elephants for their tusks and carving ivory statues,” he said.

DeLonge went on: “It’s cool to put on your shelf but if you really think about what you’re doing it sucks. Streaming music is doing the same thing to artists — might not be killing ’em but it’s killing the industry. It might be cool for you as somebody that likes music but you’re not really thinking about the effect it has. We’ve got to value our art, you know?” Oh, Tom. Yes, the industry is dying, but [adjusts glasses, uses Woody Allen voice], “The music industry, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies.” The key phrase being “move forward.”