John Petrucci (excerpt)

Cotonete conducted an interview with guitarist John Petrucci of progressive metal giants Dream Theater when the band played at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon, Portugal on February 26. You can now watch the chat below.

When asked for his opinion on illegal music downloading, Petrucci said, “I think it is hurting — it is hurting the industry, for sure. I mean, it’s a question of intellectual property. If you’re an artist — if you write music, you write books… whatever it happens to be… you write movies — and you’re professional, you want to be compensated for your art, for your work; it’s property, just like anything else. So the Internet has obviously made it really easy for people to get their hands on things, illegally download stuff for free. I don’t think it’s right. I think that the industry has always been playing catch-up to the technology, and the technology is just really moving so rapidly. The bills and the laws that are in place are very antiquated at this point and it’s hard to really catch up. And even with our album, the very latest one [‘A Dramatic Turn Of Events’], it was so hard to keep a leak from getting out there. Once it happens and everybody has the album before it even comes out and they’re all commenting on it, and then... Honestly, if you have a band’s album already before it comes out, why are you gonna download it from iTunes, why are you gonna go to the store [and buy it]? You already have it. So it’s hurting the industry, and you can see it. Recording studios are closing, record companies are folding, bands aren’t as successful. Sales numbers for bands are nothing like they used to be — nothing. So bands are more reliant on merchandise and live touring and things like that.”