Archive | Label Moves
Hypebot is reporting that EMI revealed to investors this morning in their annual report that they experienced a net loss of $802 million this past year. If that wasn’t bad enough (after all, it wouldn’t be EMI without more bad news), they are also expecting to need another cash infusion as early as next year and will also fall short of its banking covenants until at least 2015.
EMI basically is pointing their finger at iTunes for their problems. They feel that the online store’s dominance in the download market and pricing is a huge risk to EMI’s future profit. With everything going wrong for EMI this past year, I’d say that iTunes isn’t the only thing risking their future. That said, this isn’t the first time the label group has experienced problems, and they’re still here.
In an interview with Rockstar Mayhem’s YouTube channel, Chimaira reveals that they are currently “free agents” and have split with Ferret Music and Nuclear Blast Records (who represented the band internationally). “We’re basically in a phase right now where we’re still moving forward and still gaining momentum and still having a great time, but on the business side of things, we need to reorganize it and just come out with a better plan that works for us and that will ultimately work better for our fans,” singer Mark Hunter explained to Mistress Juliya during Mayhem Fest’s stop in Dallas, TX.
Since signing with Ferret in 2007, the band has released two full length studio albums and just recently a live DVD/CD called Coming Alive. Mr. Neilstein of MetalSucks.net expressed concern about label-mates 36 Crazyfists and the care they might or might not get at the label following Warner Music’s ILG taking full control of Ferret after its original owners split off into Good Fight Entertainment. Whether that’s the reason the band is declaring themselves free agents or not isn’t clear, but they had no problem finding a label after splitting with Roadrunner.
You can watch the interview with Chimaira in its entirety up above (the actual interview starts at the 1:08 mark, while the band’s remarks about leaving the label are at the 2:40 mark).
One of the larger metal and hardcore management companies teaming up with a label whose biggest commercial success is the Kidz Bop series of compilations might be a bit of a head scratcher at first. But the union of Razor & Tie and the Artery Foundation for Artery Recordings makes a lot more sense upon further inspection. Razor & Tie has already made inroads at metal via their partnership with Prosthetic, and the for a hands-on company like Artery, a label is the next logical step for a company that does booking and management. With a relatively small five-band roster (Atilla, Bury Tomorrow, A Bullet For Pretty Boy, Chelsea Grin and I Declare War), the label has been able to flourish under Razor & Tie’s marketing thus far. We caught up with Artery Recordings label manager Mike Milford and marketing manager at Razor & Tie for Artery Recordings Sean Lynam to talk about the partnership and the future of the label.
Tell me how this all came together.
Mike Milford: For the last good five to seven years the Artery Foundation has always done management and what now. We’ve managed bands along the lines of A Day To Remember, The Devil Wears Prada, etc., and over the last, it’s been about a year hasn’t it Sean?
Sean Lynam: It’s getting close to it. Yeah definitely.
Mike: Yeah we’re getting close to a year. Eric [Rushing, Artery Foundation Owner/CEO] met with Razor & Tie originally about working a couple of other things, and talked to him about the label and kind of just out of nowhere the label started up. I don’t have a long story for you on that one. Everything seemed right. Everything worked out. The partnership worked out really great, and now almost five or six months later we have four releases out now. The first one was Chelsea Grin, and things have just continued to be doing well. We should be doing some more in the near future.
How did the idea of a label come about?
Mike: Eric did a label in the past called 720 records. He did a lot of the Sacramento releases. He’s always had that in his blood, doing record labels and he’s always done national shows as well. It just kind of went along with our company. We know exactly what most artists today want from their record labels and it just kind of makes it easy because we know exactly firsthand what they want. So we decided that it would be better for us to step in there and start doing it as well, and we have really close relationships with all our bands on label. We’re a close family. We treat it that way. We’re always there for our bands, and it just made sense. It wasn’t one of those things we’re like ‘Hey let’s go out, do this record label because we can make tons of money on it.’ We just wanted to give bands what they wanted and what they deserved and the tools that they needed to be able to become successful like touring musicians and what not.
Sean: Yeah I wasn’t personally too much involved in the forming of the label. I kind of jumped on board after I heard about it and said ‘Hey we got this Chelsea Grin record coming out in a couple of months. We’ve got to start working on it.’ But it’s a community type of thing. They have a definite sound to the bands and all the management really takes care of them whenever they come through New York and they say really great things about the management side, and extending into a label is the next step as far as creating the whole community. Read more »
You read the headline correctly, Sumerian Records has just announced the signing of Bizzy Bone. The Grammy Award winning rapper and singer is best known for his work with the hip-hop group Bone Thugs N Harmony. His new album Crossroads 2010 is supposedly a fusion of hip-hop and rock, featuring appearances from Danny Worsnop of Asking Alexandria, Devin Oliver of I See Stars, Jonny Craig of Emarosa and many more.
Even with the special appearances and rock influence, this still is a weird addition to Sumerian Record’s roaster, which mainly consists of hardcore acts. It looks like our friends at Metal Sucks are going to have to redefine the “Sumeriancore” term genre they coined. Sumerian Records’ founder Ash Avildsen had the following to say:
“It’s true and the album is incredible! Anyone who has closely followed the label knows that we have never been one dimensional in the bands we have signed and the records we have released. While we have been making a meaningful impact on the current state of heavy music, the true theme to Sumerian has always been about progressive music, not just metal. Bizzy Bone is one of the most progressive vocalists I have ever heard! Known in his genre for being the fastest yet the most melodic, the most technical yet the most harmonic, the marks Bizzy has left in music are something I will always love. The fact that Bizzy and Bone Thugs all booked one way Greyhound tickets to LA and lived on the streets until they were able to get discovered and signed is true artist dedication to their craft. This same spirit is something that has allowed many Sumerian bands to organically build their careers and achieve their dreams.”
You can go to the rapper’s MySpace page to check out tour dates and the cover artwork to his new album, as well as to hear previews of the album’s songs.
EMI has been having a rough year so far, and is in need of desperate change just to stay afloat. Well if rumors are true, then they be announcing a drastic plan soon.
Hypebot is reporting that EMI is set to announce a plan that will move distribution, sales and some marketing functions to one of the other three major labels. It’s also rumored that EMI plans to outright sell their recorded music division (which includes Capitol and Virgin Records). In addition, the New York Post also reports plans for EMI to securitize certain publishing catalogs. In other words, they intend to give up a stake for certain catalogs in exchange for upfront cash.
While this should still be taken as a rumor, we’ve been hearing about EMI’s possible interest in separating the music division for a while now. While their publishing division is still their strong point, if it means staying alive for a little while longer then selling some of it is their strongest option.
You can debate whether or not Sepultura is Sepultura without the Cavalera brothers all you want. But that won’t stop this lineup of the Brazilian thrash legends from continuing on. Especially with the announcement today that Sepultura has signed a new recording deal with Nuclear Blast Records.
Guitarist Andreas Kisser commented:
“We are happy to be at Nuclear Blast, especially in the year we are celebrating 25 years of history, and it is a great honor for us to join forces with the most metal label in the world. I am sure this will be a great journey for both of us and we are already working on new material while on the road. Let’s go for another 25 years!”
This marks another established metal act signing with Nuclear Blast, who has also signed bands like Accept, Doro and Forbidden within the past year. These bands also join veteran thrashers like Exodus, Testament and Death Angel on the label. We’re beginning to see a similar trend that E1 Music has been following: signing already well established acts. Sure, these bands might not be the biggest sellers in metal, but it’s still a safe play for both labels to do. And now with Sepultura on Nuclear Blast, maybe we can see a dream tour featuring them with some of their thrash peer label mates?
In 1993, Josh Grabelle started Trustkill Records in his dorm room. While it grew significantly over the next 15 years and launched the careers of bands like Bullet for my Valentine, Poison the Well and Bleeding Through, Grabelle recently left the label to form a new venture, Bullet Tooth. We went behind the bullet, so to speak, to ask Grabelle why he would do this, as well as talk about the public perception if his old label and what we can expect from his new venture.
Why give up something you started in college that so closely has your name associated with it?
I never thought in a million years that in 2010 I would still be running the label I started in my dorm room in 1993. However, it ran its course and we have to move forward and not delve in the past. To explain what happened as simply as possible, in 2002 we signed a deal with RED Distribution in the US who invested money in the label to allow us to build our brand and artists. From 2002 to 2006 while we were at RED there was definitely some rampant spending on tour support, retail co-op, video production, and more. Hindsight is 20/20, but at the time, it made sense to everyone. In 2007 we moved to Fontana/Universal after they gave us an offer we couldn’t refuse. The deal was great and the people we did the deal with were awesome. Unfortunately the head of the company died shortly after and the guy who spearheaded the deal quit. This is pretty typical for any label or band doing a deal with a major unfortunately. Fast forward a year and there is a whole new staff of people who didn’t like the deal we had agreed upon previously. This put us in a bad spot and we tried everything to work it out and it just couldn’t work.
What happens to the bands on the label? Do you bring any of them with you?
The bands we are working with for Bullet Tooth are Memphis May Fire, First Blood, Victory In Numbers, Deception Of A Ghost, Kid Liberty, Soldiers, The Great American Beast, Most Precious Blood, Awaken Demons, and we have a new band announcement coming very soon. We also have projects coming up like the Saw VII Soundtrack, HorrorFest Soundtrack, and many other tricks up our sleeves. Read more »
Trustkill Records Founder Josh Grabelle has announced today that he is launching a new record label and publishing company called Bullet Tooth. Grabelle is known for his success in breaking bands like Bullet For My Valentine, Bleeding Through, Poison The Well and Walls Of Jericho just to name a few. Now he is branching off from Trustkill in a new venture. Bullet Tooth’s first releases include albums from The Great American Beast, Kid Liberty, Deception Of A Ghost, Victory In Numbers, First Blood, Soldiers, Most Precious Blood, Memphis May Fire and Awaken Demons. Bullet Tooth also sees Grabelle uniting with publishing company Primary Wave Music to administer their catalogue and place music in soundtracks.
Check in with Metal Insider later on today to read an exclusive interview with Grabelle himself and find out more about his new label.
It’s awesome to be able to report good news every now and then. We reported earlier this week that Terra Firma, the investor group that owns label group EMI, needed to pay creditors $156 million by this Friday to stop the label from changing ownership to Citigroup. It turns out that they were able to come through with the funds, according to the Wall Street Journal. EMI plans on making the payment in mid June. While this is encouraging, and a good sign, that doesn’t mean that they’re totally out of the woods yet. They’ve got until March 2011 to turn the entire company around. And there’s also word that perpetual money machine Queen may be exiting the label and taking their catalog with them. While that remains to be seen, it’s good to see that EMI, which includes Virgin and Capitol Records, will live to see another day.
Ending several months of speculation, Darkest Hour have signed with E1. The Washington D.C. band had been signed to Victory Records since 2001, having released five albums on the label. Each album has done better, sales-wise than the one before, with their most recent album, last year’s The Eternal Return, having debuted at 104 on the Billboard chart.
“We are at the end of [our latest] touring cycle and we are going to be playing a kid’s house, since he won the contest, which was to have Darkest Hour play at your house, and we’ll be playing in Grafton, Ohio,” guitarist Mike Schleibaum told Noisecreep. “He invited his entire school and we are going to play on his mom’s deck on April 18. I am sure the cops will come after the first 20 minutes. It’s part of the fun. We talked to his parents, and it’s kind of a fitting end for the touring cycle. We were playing houses when we started 15 years ago. We will play this show, then go into hibernation. We have been writing the E1 record for a few months, but we will hibernate and get it finished.”
E1 has been on a signing rampage lately, with Kittie, High on Fire, Zoroaster, and Overkill among those joining the roster in the past year or so. Having seen Darkest Hour play on last year’s “Summer Slaughter” Tour, the band stood out amidst a sea of generic deathcore bands as the on the tour. Yes, they’ve been playing for 15 years, but it seems like they’ve still got plenty left in the tank. Looks like we’ll find out around the end of this year or the beginning of next.
Posted by Zach Shaw on Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Gloom And Doom, Label Moves