Garth Brooks: 'Technology is running the game'

A full 17 years on from his last Croke Park show, Garth Brooks appeared before press at the iconic Irish stadium this morning to confirm the fact that he's out of retirement and set to play two summer shows (July 25-26) at the venue before his world tour starts in the autumn.

Dressed in double denim and a baseball cap sporting a 'G' initial, the Oklahoma musician joked about the aging process ("I've got to lose weight!"), talked about leaving music to raise a family, expressed his hopes for the year ("I don't want to recreate moments, I want to make new ones") and offered his thoughts on the state of the industry today.

Brooks, who has sold over 68 million albums to date, famously does not allow his music on iTunes or videos on Youtube.

"Music is a songwriter, the artist, the record label and technology," he said.
"Technology is running the game. Which makes the record labels a slave to it, so they just basically – no offence to the labels – crap on the bottom two. They just do.
"The reason why our stuff is not on iTunes and the reason why our stuff is not on Youtube is because I think if every artist owned their own stuff, I think you'd see half of them not on iTunes or Youtube. No offence to iTunes or Youtube, but it's just basically giving your stuff away.
"This stuff that songwriters have traded their lives to make their living doing. And I've got to tell you, too much of anything is… too much! We've got to step into social media now because we're going to put our hat back in the ring. But the word we use is 'quality'. Not quantity. Quality takes care of quantity. Too many times... we're trying to go for a gazillion views. When the truth is I'd rather have 100,000 if those 100,000 will die for what you're doing."