Warner Music Group Intends to Buy French Digital Music Company Believe SA, Owner of Nuclear Blast Records and Tunecore


One of the largest record labels in the world, Warner Music Group (WMG) has announced it intends to purchase Believe SA, a French digital music company. Among the many companies Believe owns includes a controlling stake in Nuclear Blast Records (acquired in 2018) and its offshoot Blood Blast Distribution, as well as Tunecore a Brooklyn, New York–based digital music distribution, publishing and licensing service founded in 2006. Tunecore distributes music through online retailers such as iTunes, Deezer, Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Google Play, Tidal, Beatport. According to the press release you can read below, Warner “would provide Believe with strategic support and financial stability to help the development and growth of the Company, including by accelerating its expansion into new geographies.” Nuclear Blast founded in 1987 in Germany, is home to some of the greatest bands in Metal such as, Slayer, Anthrax, Testament, C.O.C., Nightwish, Sepultura, Sabaton, In Flames, Lamb of God (Europe), and countless others. In addition to their legendary main brand known for Rock, Pop, Country, and Dance music, WMG owns a ton of sub labels boasting some of the biggest names in Hard Rock, Metal and Punk like 10K Projects, 300 Entertainment (Highly Suspect, Waterparks), Asylum, Atlantic (Shinedown, Halestorm) Big Beat, Elektra Entertainment (formerly: Metallica, Slipknot & Paramore – current: twenty one pilots, Brandi Carlile, Sturgill Simpson) Erato, First Night, Fueled By Ramen (Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Eat World, A Day To Remember), Nonesuch, Parlophone (Iron Maiden), Reprise (Lamb of God in the USA, Deftones, Disturbed, Crosses), Rhino (boxed sets, vinyl and CD reissues, and countless legacy releases), Roadrunner (Gojira, Turnstile, Motionless In White, Trivium, newly signed Deafheaven, Coheed and Cambria, Stone Sour), Sire, Spinnin’, Warner Records, Warner Classics, and Warner Music Nashville. WMG’s music publishing arm, Warner Chappell Music, as well as artist management and services divisions. If the sale goes through, it remains to be seen what shape the deal would have and what impact is might have for Nuclear Blast and Tunecore. Stay tuned for more news on this story.Continue reading


Black Sabbath’s Classic Heavy Metal Song “Paranoid” Joins The “Blillions Club”


2F9TEF1 English rock band Black Sabbath: guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne

Black Sabbath has joined Spotify’s “Billions Club” with the band’s classic song “Paranoid”. The track, according to legend was written and recorded in 10 minutes at the end of the sessions for their second album Paranoid in 1970, joins Guns N Roses, ACDC, and Green Day as recent 2024 artists with new tracks on the list. The track was also a single and has been the closing song played at Many Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne solo concerts for decades. Other rock and metal tracks on the list include other tracks Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”, Aerosmith’s “Dream On”, Survivor’s “Eye Of The Tiger”, Papa Roach’s “Last Resort”, Guns N’ Roses’ “Paradise City”, Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life” and more. 500 songs, mostly Pop, Rap and Country have made the list so far. Billions Club is a playlist first launched in 2020 that includes all of the songs on Spotify that have surpassed one billion streams on the platform. After the achievement, Spotify gifts artists the Billions Club plaque.Continue reading


Green Day’s Iconic Track “Basket Case” Joins The Billions Club on Spotify


Having just celebrated the 30th anniversary for their landmark Pop Punk album Dookie (Reprise Records), Green Day’s hit single “Basket Case” has joined the exclusive “Billions Club” on Spotify for crossing 1 Billion streams. “Basket Case” joined the list on the same day as Taylor Swift’s “Don’t Blame Me” (many times on the list) and while rock bands don’t often feature on the list, both AC/DC and Guns N Roses had songs cross the mark this year too. Check out Green Day’s post celebrating the “B!”

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Metallica Earned 1.6 Billion Streams on Spotify in 2022


 

Metallica shared their “artist wrapped” from Spotify for 2022 on their Instagram account. The band earned over 1.6 Billion streams from 72 million-plus listeners in 183 countries last year, and they thanked the fans for their support with a message. These numbers all represent an increase in all categories. Metallica first crossed 1 Billion streams in 2020, with 1.3 billion last 2021. Their music first debuted on the platform in 2012.

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Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” Enters The Billboard Charts After Being Featured in “Stranger Things”


Metallica’s Master Of Puppets album and its title track has entered the Billboard charts as well as Spotify and Apple Music top rankings, 36 years after its release. This is in just one week following its appearance in the season four finale of Netflix’s hit series “Stranger Things”. The popularity of the 1986 song, used in the series, brought it to the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time ever in the band’s lengthy career. It is also #22 in the Spotify Global Top 50, which includes Pop and Rap music, as well as number one on the Apple Music Rock chart. Continue reading


Failure is Pulling Their Music off of Spotify


Alternative Rock legends Failure has joined the chorus of bands leaving the dominant streaming service in the world, Spotify, following the public row with Neil Young. Young, Joni Mitchell and many other artists and fans are leaving the service for a variety of reasons. Failure has shared a message to fans over social media. The band gave a lengthy explanation of their feelings on the matter and urge fans to support them by using Bandcamp to purchase their entire catalog, including their recent release, Wild Type Droid (read our review here). The band will embark on a headline tour supporting the album.

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Spotify’s Founder Responds to Neil Young vs. Joe Rogan Backlash, Rogan Apologizes


Spotify founder and current CEO Daniel Ek has published an open letter in response to the criticism of the platform, waged by artists such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell following Young’s request to have him music. The rub came from Young’s dissatisfaction over podcast host Joe Rogan’s show which has spread misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and the platform’s apathy towwards its best paid ($100 MM USD) content provider. Ek’s letter does hint at changes to their content policy, it does seem that no content removal is forthcoming. Many other artsits are rumored to be considering pulling their music off the platform, while a wave of fans on social media are bragging about quitting the popular service. It was widely reported at the market close last week that Spotify has hemmoraged losses of up to 25% of its value in 2022 so far, between an estimated 2-4 Billion dollars. Rogan has appologized for the rift to Spotify and says he is a Neil Young fan.

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Neil Young Demands Spotify Remove His Music Over Joe Rogan’s COVID-19 Misinformation


Legendary Hall of Fame rocker Neil Young has demanded that all of his music be removed from streaming service Spotify as quickly immediately, according to an open letter the veteran rock musician posted to his website and reported on by Rolling Stone. That message has since been deleted. Young has drawn a line in the sand with Spotify over the misinformation about vaccines being peddled by Joe Rogan, the podcast host who signed a $100 million deal with Spotify in 2020. Young made a similar demand over 10 years ago taking issue with music streaming previously, but it used to be about the low-quality audio that was provided back in the mid-2010s. Joe Rogan gets an estimated 11 million listeners per episode.

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