The Black Keys Explain Why You Can’t Stream ‘El Camino’ for Free

Their reasons actually make a lot of sense.

Since the introduction of Spotify and similar services, there have been a lot of arguments about whether or not streaming is good for music. These seem to heighten whenever an artist or label decides not to allow their work to stream, and there’s a debate between fans who want free and easy access and artists who want to eat and pay bills.

The most recent — but far from the only — band to block a new record from streaming is The Black Keys. They announced last week that their new album, “El Camino,” was not going to be available on services like Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody and MOG.

The band spoke with VH1 to explain the decision. Basically, streaming in its current form is terrible for artists, which we already knew, but they feel it’s also not great for fans.

Drummer Patrick Carney said, “it felt unfair to people who purchased our album to allow people to just go on a website and stream the album for free whenever they wanted.” He also pointed out that at this time, streaming services haven’t figured out a way to be lucrative — or even survivable — for artists.

“For a band that makes a living selling music, it’s not at a point yet to be feasible for us,” he said. “It’s set up to be a little bit more fair for the labels than it is for the artists, I think.”

The band will still stream their lead single, “Lonely Boy.” They seem to be using services in an intelligent way — by allowing one song to be available, streaming becomes more of a marketing tool than a replacement for purchases.

For bands to make a living in the digital age, this is one model that might work better. Provide one song, or a few, off an album for free or allow a set number of listens per account without paying, then require that they purchase the whole album — in either digital or physical form — to have unlimited access to the entire record. The streaming services would become more of a preview than the sole way to hear music, so the fans don’t have to buy an album blindly but the musicians still get to make their rent each month.

Check out the interview below. “El Camino” is out now on Nonesuch Records.