Matt Healy hates paid artist meet-and-greets: “It’s disgraceful”
“If you want to do paid meet-and-greets […] you take the money off the fan – I challenge you to do that.”
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Matt Healy is not a fan of paid meet-and-greets and the artists who hosts them, calling the practice “disgraceful” for taking advantage of fans.
Healy spoke out in a conversation with Zane Lowe, suggesting that artists who partake in paid meet-and-greets sessions were exploiting fans and their passion for money.
He said: “What I don’t want to take for granted is [that] transient, ephemeral thing that is what music is. It’s people reaching for something which is why I hate paid meet-and-greets.
“You’ve paid for the album, you’ve paid for the ticket, you’ve paid for the parking, you get them in the room and somebody’s gone, ‘how do we monetise that?’”
Healy was referring to the hand-clutching motion he sees fans often make at shows – which he gathers are an attempt of connecting with the artist onstage. He was also speaking before 1975’s new album, Being Funny In a Foreign Language, drops tomorrow, setting fans up with his opinion in advance.
He continued: “If you want to do paid meet-and-greets, do them. I stand by it. But you take the money. You take the money off the fan – I challenge you to do that. Don’t put it on the label or the company – don’t put the responsibility on anyone else. It’s absolutely gross.
“Trust me, do one where it’s £20 a meet and greet and every single fan – before they touch you – go, ‘Let me see that twenty.’ And you’ll do it for two minutes and never do it again, because you’ll realise it’s disgraceful.”
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The singer then called out the likes of Jared Leto, saying it’s an “abomination” that they continue to host paid meet-and-greets.