The Press Release:
Metallica announced today that they have taken ownership of all their master recordings including all music and long form videos, a move almost unprecedented for musicians signed to recording contracts. Under provision of their renegotiated joint venture agreement with the Warner Music Group in 1994, all masters revert back to the band as of today, November 30, 2012.
“We would like to thank everyone at the Warner Music Group for 28 years of a fantastic relationship, particularly since 1994 where we truly felt we had partners in every aspect of our business in North America,” said the band’s James Hetfield.
Metallica also announced the launch of their new record label, Blackened Recordings. Blackened Recordings was created by the band as a home for all of their recordings, both audio and visual, and anything else that suits them. Blackened Recordings will handle all marketing and promotion duties and will enter into a deal with Rhino Entertainment, who will manufacture and distribute its releases in North America. Blackened Recordings will license their releases to the Universal Music Group internationally.
“It’s always been about control for us as a band,” said Metallica’s Lars Ulrich. “Forming Blackened Recordings is the ultimate in independence, giving us 100% control and putting us in the driver’s seat of our own creative destiny.”
The first release from Blackened will be “Quebec Magnetic” on Monday, December 10, 2012. “Quebec Magnetic” is a live DVD capturing the two World Magnetic live shows from Quebec City in the fall of 2009. The set list for the DVD was voted on by over 35,000 fans at Metallica.com this past September. Fans can order it from the band’s website (linked below)
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PiercingMetal Thoughts: I don’t know about you but I think that this is pretty cool news. Metallica is probably the biggest of all the Metal bands on the stage at this point in history and give or take an album or two they have been consistent in their craft. They are also one of the best bands to see in concert and though its been a while for me, I’m excited at the chance to see them do their thing once again. The launch of a label under the bands direct control will surely mean either expanded remasters of the original catalog as well as a healthy archive of stuff that would have never seen the light of day otherwise. With the band controlling a release, its easy to print 10K copies of a demo tape on cassette and sell them directly to their fans via the website or fan clubs. Since I’ve had their catalog on CD for ages, I wouldn’t mind remastered versions of said discs. When and if the mighty Metallica releases information about any new or vintage albums, I will make sure to share that news right here on the blog. The great part about having this side of the traditional website is the means to expand on the stories we can feature. Since you can comment on these kinds of posts why don’t you chime in down below and let me know what you think about it all. I will see you again soon. Keep it Metal my Friends.
Official Website: http://www.metallica.com