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Arcade Fire‘s manager Scott Rodger has responded to complaints that the band was somehow unworthy to win the Album of the Year award at this year’s Grammys. Last weekend music executive Steve Stoute took a full page ad out in the New York Times to accuse the Grammy voters of losing touch with popular culture and industry sales. 

READ: Steve Stoute’s Controversial Grammy Letter

Rodger has drafted his own open letter in defense of the talented indie rockers:

“Arcade Fire deserved the win this year. They made the best album. If the award was named ‘Album Sales Of The Year’ award, there would be no discussion. Stoute’s letter was a nice piece of self publicity. Did he see Kanye’s tweets when we won and the praise he gave us?? He needs to tune in. Eminem made a big selling album but it was far from being his best work. Katy Perry made a big pop record that simply didn’t have weight or credibility. Gaga’s repackage, great album but it was a repackage of the main release. I think everyone felt it was going to be Lady Antebellum’s moment having won 5 out of 6 awards to that point. We all felt that way too.’

“I’m proud of this band and what they have achieved,” he continues. “We didn’t lobby any organisation for this nor did the band play the game. We paid our own overhead to do the event, thus the lack of on stage gimmicks. No label picked up the tab.’

WATCH: All The Grammy Performances You Missed

“Arcade Fire is now one of the biggest live acts in the world. It’s not all about record sales. It’s about making great records and it’s about building a loyal fan base. The band makes great albums, they’re not a radio driven singles band. On top of that, they own their own masters and copyrights and are in complete control of their own destiny. Things couldn’t be better.”

Fair points all around. What do you think? Sound off in the comment section below. 

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Arcade Fire’s manager Scott Rodger responds to Steve Stoute’s controversial Grammy letter.

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Arcade Fire’s manager Scott Rodger responds to Steve Stoute’s controversial Grammy letter.

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Arcade Fire’s manager Scott Rodger responds to Steve Stoute’s controversial Grammy letter.

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Arcade Fire’s manager Scott Rodger responds to Steve Stoute’s controversial Grammy letter.