Members ZachMetal Posted September 5, 2006 Members Share Posted September 5, 2006 I've been reading these forums for a while now, probably a year or something. I just noticed that a lot of the problems with the labels, and the horrible business right now is more directed into like Classic Rock/Jazz/Classical. What about Metal? Like bands like Trivium signed to Roadrunner, seem to be happy as can be. I'm really happy with what they're putting out, and it sounds great. I was just wondering how the state of Metal labels are. I see a lot of bands getting signed to labels, and such. Seems like every day, me and my friends sign online, and find a new band is signed to a major. Zach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AdanV Posted September 5, 2006 Members Share Posted September 5, 2006 I play in a Metal band and listen to Metal on my car stereo 7 out 10 times. The rest is blues and classic rock. You mention that they "Seem Happy". Consider this, has Trivium been signed for a good long while (Im talking at least 5 years)? Deicide was signed to Roadrunner for a good while. After leaving Roadrunner, they mention how much they really hated it. They were not allowed to produce music videos, interviews were very limited, etc. Slipknot (im not really a fan of them) lost all rights to their music. That is probably why that lead vocalist left along with other original members. I dont know if its true, but I heard that Slipknot sued the "Burger King Company" for their Chicken Fries Rock band commercial (the one that has a band playing and all the crowd are headbanging). Things could go sour after a good while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted September 5, 2006 Members Share Posted September 5, 2006 Zach,do you really think that the business principles and market forces by which the record industry operates varies from one genre to the next? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lefthandpath Posted September 5, 2006 Members Share Posted September 5, 2006 Also keep in mind the youth of the bands in question. A lot of time, people don't think about the long haul and go for what is immediately tangible. Later on, after they've become a hit and and are stuck in something with little to no bargaining room or opportunity for growth, the kvetching starts. We'll see where it leads for Trivium and the bunch. I'd doubt, like Bluestrat and the rest, that a different genre leads to better contract negotiations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gtrbass Posted September 5, 2006 Members Share Posted September 5, 2006 Roadrunner is a halfway decent label to be on. They are a successful indie, meaning that they don't have the kind of money to throw around that a major label does. Budgets are smaller, and they don't waste money. Metal is a genre of music that is geared towards an active market of consumer. Metalheads seek out stuff and buy it based on whether they like it. That's how Metallica sold platinum on "And justice for all" without any airplay. AFAIK the 1st video for that record was done after the label realized they had sold gold and it was a no brainer. Whether you sign to Roadrunner, or Metalblade, or whoever, you are probably going to face business decisions that benefit the label financially that you may not agree with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Inazone Posted September 6, 2006 Members Share Posted September 6, 2006 Dealing with metal labels, it's important to recognize that most of them are very small businesses with limited resources. They have less money to put behind their bands, whether for promotion or recording or touring, and seemingly minor mistakes can hurt the label and bands. There was a time when a lot of indie metal labels existed to support the underground metal scene, at least giving the appearance that money was secondary to helping bands...but a business that isn't making money won't be in business for long. However, the trade-off is that most metal labels are not going to dictate a band's musical direction, as the genre is divided up in such a way that straying from an established sound can be fatal to both the band and label. My band signed with a European metal label for two albums (optional third), which gave us international distribution and provided the marketing and manufacturing capability we didn't have on our own. We paid for the studio time, they paid for the mastering and everything after that. They never asked us to change our style or any of the songs...but they demanded a remix based on the recommendation of the mastering engineer they employed. The guy was a complete hack, and the finished product sounded much different from what we had set out to do. Adding insult to injury, they promoted us wrong, so that *our* intended audience didn't buy the album due to the marketing angle, and *their* intended audience didn't buy it due to our sound not matching the "promised" similarities to other bands in the genre. The CDs didn't sell, nobody recouped any money, and neither the band nor the label was happy. Then they went out of business, and we're left hanging. Everyone had the best intentions, but the label mishandled other bands' releases much like they did ours, and when the time came to finance some of their bigger projects, the money just wasn't there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Comic_God Posted September 7, 2006 Members Share Posted September 7, 2006 Originally posted by Inazone We paid for the studio time, they paid for the mastering and everything after that. They never asked us to change our style or any of the songs...but they demanded a remix based on the recommendation of the mastering engineer they employed. The guy was a complete hack, and the finished product sounded much different from what we had set out to do. Adding insult to injury, they promoted us wrong, so that *our* intended audience didn't buy the album due to the marketing angle, and *their* intended audience didn't buy it due to our sound not matching the "promised" similarities to other bands in the genre. The CDs didn't sell, nobody recouped any money, and neither the band nor the label was happy. I listened to all the songs on your site, and I will be honest in saying they lack "hook" for me. Not sure that better marketing would have made it go platinum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Inazone Posted September 8, 2006 Members Share Posted September 8, 2006 Originally posted by Comic_God I listened to all the songs on your site, and I will be honest in saying they lack "hook" for me.Not sure that better marketing would have made it go platinum. I'm not sure what your musical background or listening tastes are, so it doesn't surprise or bother me that you find the songs to be lacking something. We have a niche, and our expectations were realistic as an unknown band playing what is not exactly commercially lucrative music. Our frustration stems from the way things were handled between the time we finished tracking and when the CDs shipped. I can accept low sales, because I'm writing songs that I am proud of, and know that some listeners will appreciate. Unfortunately, it's tough to stand by and watch those songs be pushed as sounding like this band or that band, knowing that such comparisons are way off base. Metal fans are not as open-minded as many claim, and promoting a band as fitting into a particular subgenre when it does not is going to have a negative impact. Additionally, demanding a remix and then mastering an album to sound like one of those "other bands" is an even worse idea. But these were the mistakes of a new band working with a relatively new label, and there was not enough communication going into the partnership. The original poster was asking about metal labels, and I still believe that most metal labels will allow their signed bands more freedom than the majors. However, some of the most successful metal musicians return to their day jobs when the recording or touring is done. In Europe and Asia, metal festivals draw incredible amounts of people and metal albums frequently reach #1 on the charts. Gold and platinum records are common, but those peaks are reached with fewer units sold. Platinum? Even the biggest names in the genre, on large indie or major labels, have trouble cracking 100,000 in America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gtrbass Posted September 8, 2006 Members Share Posted September 8, 2006 I think that 100,000 units in most European countries is a platinum record. I have a friends who are huge stars in Europe that are virtually unknown in America. Consider that a band like Rammstein will do 1500-3000 seat venues in the US, but does soccer stadiums just about everywhere else. Metal has a healthy following and is more popular than people think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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