I remember this so well back in the day, Metallica had this one-two punch of putting out disappointing albums (Load/Reload) and all the weird press that went with it (cutting their hair, going on TRL, weird album art, saying metal was over), and then maybe about 2000 there was this shit with Napster. I know a lot of folks who checked out of Metallica fandom because of it.

I think even folks who used Napster understood why artists were upset and concerned. But there's a way to go about it without acting like a fucking asshole about it like Lars did. Buying songs at $1 a pop off iTunes, and then streaming services, were the answer everyone was looking for.