Warner absorbs Roadrunner Records EU and UK, people lose jobs, bands get pissed

I don't see why that would happen seeing as though the company makes money and lots of it. But then again I didn't think the entire UK office and every European office (I thought maybe the smaller European offices would have been shut down at least, but not the whole continent) would be absorbed and Cees would have to step down as CEO. That would be really sad.
 
AeonicSlumber said:
I don't see why that would happen seeing as though the company makes money and lots of it. But then again I didn't think the entire UK office and every European office (I thought maybe the smaller European offices would have been shut down at least, but not the whole continent) would be absorbed and Cees would have to step down as CEO. That would be really sad.
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It is what happens in a takeover. Eventually, the remnants from those taken over gets bounced. Just ask Ted Turner. Remember him? Access is probably going to fold Roadrunner into Atlantic and drop a shitload of bands on the mid and lower end of Roadrunner.
 
Angela from Arch Enemy had a great quote regarding the whole situation:

Arch Enemy vocalist Angela Gossow has also weighed in on the matter, with a grave warning to all metal lovers. “Metal fans stop buying music, they download it ‘for free.’ Labels dont make money with selling metal music anymore. Labels first cut down their offices and staff, then they will drop all the artists who don’t sell CDs anymore. Metal bands are the first to go. It’s a small niche compared to mainstream music.”
*
She added that with no label, most metal bands would be unable to survive. “Bands have no label support anymore, thus won’t get any tour support, so they cannot go out and build a live profile / make a name as a good live band anymore. The only real income for a band these days. This results in lack of touring offers in general. Every time you rip music for free, you tick the ‘I don’t care if my fave band will die’ box in a way. Think about it. Twice.”
 
It's really sad when any sort of downsizing occurs and I definitely feel for the workers and the families of said workers but statements like Gossow and Heafy need to stfu.
 
Yeah I'm not sure why they need to STFU? Obviously the people who lost their jobs are the primary concern, but it affects the bands as well.
 
dcowboys311 said:
It's really sad when any sort of downsizing occurs and I definitely feel for the workers and the families of said workers but statements like Gossow and Heafy need to stfu.
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Yup, a couple years ago the company I worked for was bought by a bigger one, they kept the parts of it that they wanted, and dropped the rest, including the employees that worked in those unwanted parts, like myself. This may be a surprise to Ms. Gossow, but I don't work in the music industry. It happens all the time in all businesses, and has fuck all to do with "downloading".

Yeah, "downloading" may not be good for the industry in general, but making a link between this particular Roadrunner/Warner acquisition/consolidation and downloading is specious at best. Especially, if as AS says, Roadrunner was making plenty of money anyway.

Neil
 
dcowboys311 said:
It's really sad when any sort of downsizing occurs and I definitely feel for the workers and the families of said workers but statements like Gossow and Heafy need to stfu.
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Why do they need to STFU? Just as people who download music illegally get to have an opinion the bands themselves whose products and art is being stolen just have to sit there and be silent about it? no fucking way, dude.

I am not even going to get started on the subject because piracy is illegal and stealing is wrong. Justify it ANY WAY THAT YOU WANT TO AND CAN POSSIBLY DO (i don't want to hear it), but at the end of the day the only reason any of you still have jobs is because consumers have not figured out a way to steal it and get it for free. Because, if the entertainment industry is any indicator people will steal anything that they can given the opportunity. Again, speaking broadly here and there are exceptions to every rule, but we have all heard the arguments. bottom line, you either are a thief or you aren't, period. but don't try and silence the artists because they speak the truth that far too many don't want to hear these days.

sorry, rant done.
 
dcowboys311 said:
It's really sad when any sort of downsizing occurs and I definitely feel for the workers and the families of said workers but statements like Gossow and Heafy need to stfu.
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Sorry Brian, but I think if you have an actual job in the music business (specifically the metal scene) and depended on that income (whether as supplemental income or your full income) that comes directly from album sales and concert ticket sales, you wouldn't be saying that.
 
AngraRULES said:
Sorry Brian, but I think if you have an actual job in the music business (specifically the metal scene) and depended on that income (whether as supplemental income or your full income) that comes directly from album sales and concert ticket sales, you wouldn't be saying that.
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Yes I would. Re-read Angela's statement. It's all scare-tactics. It's the equivalent of "guys, pay CLOSE CLOSE ATTENTION to your oven timer, because if you are not paying attention, you will be startled by the beep, jump up, trip over your pants, fall down and bust open your head, and your girlfriend will leave you." Yeah, no. The worst that'll happen is you'll have slightly burnt chicken. In the end everything will be just fine. If she had used anything that wasn't illogical then I wouldn't.

You know how many industries have had downsizing over the past couple years? Almost every single one. Most industries would consider metal to be LUCKY to have only one small (ok, proportionally for RR it's big, but in numbers it's small) downsize. Pirating or no pirating, bad economy leads to loss of jobs. It's been that way since the beginning of time. Choosing the easy scapegoat is lame. Sorry, at the end of the day you're still seeing the world, getting free alcohol/drugs, banging groupies, and hanging with your best friends all day long. No risk no return.

And let's not forget that bands have survived with no tour and no label support since before piracy even existed.



Edit: Sorry Glenn, didn't see yr message. Now I'll be the one to stfu.

BTW I am starting a small/distro label soon, initially to release my band's first demo but hopefully to expand after that. If you want some mp3s let me know and I'll be glad to shoot you a link.
 
I work in tv broadcasting / commercial end of the spectrum and have been through 6 mergers / absorbing / buy outs. I have seen great people come and go because of it. Each merge brings more and more cuts. With the digital age there is less and less people needed for certain jobs but it is what is happening all over the globe.

I honestly see down the line the new underground digitally where bands wont need a label. Maybe for recording at most but if you went all digital you could just set up a pay web site to download songs and stuff. You could cut out the middleman and no longer need to worry about what stores carry your product and stuff. Jasonic and I were talking one night about this. A small band can now literally cut out doing any physical product and just release songs when ever they want really digitally.

When Diamond Head toured the US last summer they were selling flash drives with 2 albums and videos on it. No CD's.
 
The Metal Madman said:
So wheres the news on blabbermouth?????????????????????? Oh thats right.....
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Contrary to popular belief, Bori has no affiliation with Roadrunner besides Blabbermouth using the company's webservers. In fact, Bori was an A&R for Century Media in the 90's - but he aggregates stories that slant CM negatively all the time.

Actually if anything, Roadrunner has to give Bori slack or otherwise he could take his site elsewhere. Blabbermouth generates so many hits it makes Roadrunner look good and drives traffic to their own site and costs them nothing to maintain as it's their own server. Roadrunner benefits far more from Blabbermouth than Blabbermouth does from Roadrunner.
 
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