EMI Global Music Services and Caroline Distribution distributes, markets and promotes a number of independent record labels. Of them, seven are Metal labels, including Century Media, Nuclear Blast, Season of Mist, and Earache. BITPOM caught up with Sr. Coordinator of Customer Marketing and proud BITPOM member Sarah Wefald to talk about the concept of March is Metal Month and what goes into working for a distribution company.
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BITPOM.com contributer M. Lazar, a musician (check out September Mourning), writer and model, recently caught up with Roadrunner Sr. Dir. of A&R Mike Gitter about the industry. Here’s her interview:
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Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top sellers of the week as well as what’s getting played at Metal radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.
If there’s one thing to be learned from this week’s chart, it’s that Nu-Metal isn’t dead. At least it’s not when Dope debuts in the top 100 and Static-X is most added at metal radio. The Gods (Lamb of and Forbid) continue to do well, and Static-X and Chimaira invade FMQB’s Top Ten.
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Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top sellers of the week as well as what’s getting played at Metal radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.
Lamb of God takes a predictable second week slide, but they’ve still got the #12 album in the country, which is amazing. Otherwise, it’s a pretty slow week for debuts, unless you’re U2 (both Sepultura and P.O.D have covered “Bullet the Blue Sky”) or Rush (they sorta can be classified as Metal, or at least could in the ’70s and ’80s). A few body parts make up other notable debuts. Uh, huh huh huh. FMQB’s chart sees Chimaira claim most added, while the top ten shuffles around without any significant movement.
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Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top sellers of the week as well as what’s getting played at Metal radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.
We knew that Lamb of God were going to have a good debut week, but we were on the fence as to whether that would mean that they would invade the charts at #2! As Stabitha Christie commented to us, “satan just officially won the battle of good v. evil,” when LoG have a bigger debut week than the Jonas Brothers! Amazing. Meanwhile, God Forbid, the other white meat metal band with God in their name, have by far the best debut of their career with Earthsblood selling over 5,000 copies its first week out. Meanwhile at FMQB, Queensryche comes out of retirement to snag most added.
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Season of Mist Records, based in the South of France, was started by a metal fanzine editor named Michael Berberian in the mid-1990s. The label’s focus was the budding progressive Black Metal scene. The label solidified its place in the worldwide metal scene with its signing of the band Mayhem, the label’s 27th release. 14 yrs later, the label has evolved in a forward thinking, well-rounded vehicle for multiple genres of of extreme metal, goth and hard rock. Upcoming releases in 2009 include new records from Atheist, Mayhem, Brutal Truth, Destroyer 666 and the The Sign of the Southern Cross.
Office manager Sean “Pellet” Pelletier started in the biz booking shows and writing a pro-hemp/pro-aggressive fanzine & radio show (WRBC) called “Ganjavitis”. In 1994, after being named “High Times Freedom Fighter of the Month” pictured wearing a Nuclear Blast America shirt, he got an offer to intern at Relapse Records/Nuclear Blast America. He wound up getting hired, and stayed at Relapse for 10 years, helping sign bands such as Soilent Green, Benumb, Mastodon, and Dillinger Escape Plan. He quit the label in 2004 to join forces with his twin brother, Chris, running the US office of Season of Mist Records. He also wrote a column entitled “Pellevision” for 10 yrs in Japan’s music rag, Eat Magazine. In addition to being the current office manager at Season of Mist, he has a hobby label called Vessel Records and small artist management business, overseeing Bobby Liebling and Pentagram. He’s also currently producing a documentary film with 914 Pictures (Rock School) about Bobby’s life entitled “Last Rites, The Rise & Fall of Bobby Liebling.”
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Posted by Bram Teitelman on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 5:00 am
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