Linkin Park, whose Meteora is one of the biggest selling rock albums of 2003, has joined the likes of Kid Rock, Metallica, and Green Day in nixing Internet sales and downloads of individual album tracks. The bands only want their full albums available for sale via Internet download.
Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington revealed that the band still wants fans to get the music via the Internet, but he said it has to be done in a way that works for fans and the bands. “We’re all going to have to adjust,” says Bennington. “You know what I’m saying? Eventually everything is going to be purchased online. It’s just a matter of how you’re going to do it. You know? Do you sell albums by track or do you sell albums to download for one cost when you go in to download the music? Who knows? It’s not up to me, it’s up to the people to figure out the way they want to do it, and to do it in a way that’s not going to destroy the bands that they love.”
Bennington added that Linkin Park and the others think that downloading the album may be the better way to go, but they don’t want to endorse or climb aboard a system that isn’t proven. “Bands like us that have commercial success by selling records are in a different place than the bands that are in a lower playing field, so it’s hard for us to really understand from our point of view,” Bennington says. “But we do understand that there’s an issue there, and until everybody kind of figures it out and there’s more education on how to fix it, we’re not really going to run around and preach anything that we don’t know is going to work for certain.”
Linkin Park isn’t afraid of the Internet. In fact, before the band got signed to Warner Brothers, they used technology to allow fans to download free MP3s, and used their website to assemble street teams to build a loyal core audience around the United States.
Linkin Park’s Meteora, is still holding strong at Number 15 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The band has released its second single from the effort, “Faint,” which follows in the footsteps of “Somewhere I Belong.”