Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows has reflected on the upheaval reshaping the music industry, explaining the thinking behind the band's 2023 move into blockchain technology. Speaking on Joel Madden's "Artist Friendly" podcast, he argued that record labels, streaming services and social media platforms have systematically denied artists direct access to data about their own fans, leaving musicians as "the product" while intermediaries profit. He framed the band's experimentation with blockchain, via partnerships with Berify and Bitflips alongside Ticketmaster, as an attempt to reclaim ownership of fan data rather than as a speculative bet on cryptocurrency values.

Shadows traced the industry's disruption back to the rise of the internet, YouTube and file-sharing services such as Napster and Limewire, saying labels failed to adapt while technology "blew everything to bits". He contrasted this with Avenged Sevenfold's emergence in 1999, when CDs, radio play and big-budget music videos still underpinned success. Now 45 and reflecting on lessons learned from working with major labels, he said the band is using new technologies to determine what value labels, managers and agents genuinely still offer artists in a transformed landscape.