NICKELBACK TO CONTINUE FUNDING ROADRUNNER BANDS WE ACTUALLY LIKE FOR ABOUT FIVE MORE YEARS; AFTER THAT, ALL BETS ARE OFF [AKA THE LIVE NATION DEAL]
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 4:54pm by Vince Neilstein
News of Nickelback’s all-encompassing deal with touring behemoths Live Nation is all over the Internet. “Fuck Nickelback,” I hear you say. Touche. But let’s read between the lines here: Nickelback, quite honestly, are a large part of the reason that Roadrunner Records is able to continue to release records by other, less-sucky acts. Simply put, Nickelback’s 7 million records sold fund every 100,000 to 200,000-selling release by other Roadrunner bands we like, such as Killswitch Engage, Machine Head, Opeth, Megadeth, Dream Theater, Biffy Clyro, Life of Agony, Trivium, Soufly, etc etc etc etc. Get it?
The fact of the matter is, Nickelback leaving Roadrunner is actually BAD news for the metal community, as hard as this is to believe. Love them or hate them, Roadrunner definitely sits atop the metal label throne, and what’s bad for Roadrunner is bad for metal. And this is most certainly bad for Roadrunner.
The good news is that Roadrunner still has Nickelback under contract for two more records, so we can reasonably expect these two albums and subsequent touring cycles to last approximately five years. Sweet. Wait, what the fuck… did I really just say that?
-VN
[Source: Billboard.com]
Touché! I thought the exact same thing when I read the article.
My question is this: couldn’t those bands easily find another label if Roadrunner went under?
Uh, Roadrunner “sits atop the metal label throne”? WTF? What about Nuclear fucking Blast? Century Media? Are you judging by revenue, number of bands signed, what?
I love you guys but more sourcing would be great.
Also, that “touche” made me lol. Thanks.
I was wondering when/how you’d report this. I do not like Nickelback, but I do realize they make an indirect contribution to the metal community. Kudos to you guys for covering this story fairly.
And by the way, I hate to tell you this, but I think their last album alone has gone platinum X 10.
Killswitch Engage? Soulfly? Motherfucking TRIVIUM?
Roadrunner and their entire collective of mediocrity could go under tomorrow and I wouldn’t miss one wink of sleep.
“Bad for the metal community”… Hear that flushing sound? That’s what’s left of your credibility and integrity. Jesus christ.
I’m with Conor on this one. I love Killswitch, but take a look at Nuclear Blast, Century, or how about Metal Blade? Come on.
How is it that Nickelback manages to sell so many records yet I have never met a single person who even remotely likes them?
This isn’t about who sits on top the ‘metal throne’ , which if you guess haven’t guessed doesn’t actually exist. On a more objection and sane level, VN makes a great financial assessment. Whether you like it or not they are the breadwinners. So stop trolling, and look at the article for what it’s meant for.
i think nickelback was actually worse for roadrunner, setting unrealistic standards for 99% of the rest of the roster, thus making selling around 100k appear to be a failure for a band like chimaira for example, taking away attention and support, and ultimately driving them from the label. same probably goes for every other young band they have chewed up and spit out. ps, i highly doubt biffy clyro has sold anywhere near 100k. wouldnt be surprised if roadrunner gave away that much though in that insane 2 free cd deal they did with them.
They may not be #1 in sales, but Relapse gets my vote for favorite.
I remember a time when Machine Head couldn’t find a label and wound up going back to Roadrunner because that was the best option for them. Let’s be realistic here, the majors aren’t really eating up metal right now and I don’t think we can rely on each of these bands to efficiently or successfully release their own material or find a label that can support them along with supporting their artistic creativity to the extent that Roadrunner does if they went under. Now that being said, I don’t think Roadrunner will go under, but I do agree we will see the effect of this somehow. I love some of the other named metal labels too, but I’m with Vince in saying that Roadrunner does indeed hang at the top of the community.
you mentioned biffy clairo, thats funny. i got that free cd they sent out to people who buy from the label often. . . . it blew goats, hornless goats.
Profound Lore are the best metal label.
jono: Hit a junior high school dance sometime, you’d be shocked.
Conor- I think the reference to RR being atop the metal throne was more of a reference to the fact that almost every RR band tends to move more records than a band on Nuclear Blast or Relapse.
Quantity over quality, in some cases.
And part of the reason a RR band can move 100k CDs is because Nickelback makes RR so much money, they can dump that money back into advertising and radio promotions and music videos for their ’smaller’ metal bands like Opeth or KSE.
nickelback is great for the label’s general health, but it’s going pretty far to say that the band’s success helps finance other records directly. based on the terms of their roadrunner deal, the band earns more with RR and somehow doesn’t need a major label’s promotions machine to maintain awareness. (maybe it’s their good looks.) so good for them. anyway, it’s more accurate to say the nickelback’s sales help take the heat off of the low-end of RR’s roster — but it doesn’t birth records.
that said, it’s incredibly wise to link up with live nation as nickelback will need a bit of a relaunch for the second phase of their career, ie as their current fanbase grows up and stops liking that crap. they’ll need live nation’s unlimited vertical power to step into the ‘legacy band’ arena with aerosmith, madonna, u2, pearl jam.
who’d've thunk it? nickelback is godawful. and they’ve shipped 7 million of their, what, 5th album? they must be the happiest dorks ever.
blah, it wasn’t insane and we didn’t give away 100,000 copies of the Biffy Clyro album. While people bitch and moan about the music industry fucking this, record labels being greedy, and more importantly being uninventive dinosaurs, we’ve been experimenting. That was one of ‘em. There are more going on now and more to come.
We gave away 1000 CDs in pairs by targeting people based on bands they said they liked on social networks. We sent them a little info packet (which you would’ve gotten) and asked that if they liked the CD, they give the other copy to a friend. We hoped that people digging it that much and being asked to actually do something interactive with a friend would get even more people into the band.
It obviously didn’t break the band here, but I wouldn’t call it insane. It’s a rather minor investment compared to, say, spending tens of thousands of dollars on radio and television spots…
Good response Jeremy. But let’s change topic.
Instead of trying to push a band like that, how about
searching around middle America a bit for bands that
have real potential to sell records. Not saying they would be
easy knock over success, but with the exposure you can easily provide, I can give you a list of 10 bands in the midwest that
would outsell Biffy Clyro 10 times each.
Biffy Clyro times 10 and then multiply 10 again. $$$
And I could tell about one band that would be a solid replacement
for Nickelback leaving the RR stable that would appeal to
the same general audience.
Seriously.
Thanks,
C.J.
I’ll follow you guys to your new record deal. I don’t care what these other fans think. Your very special to me so is All The Right Reasons. I will miss you with Roadrunner. NickelBack, You rock my world, you always will. I Hope you can put this album out for my birthday which is Oct.19th it would make very happy just like it did in 2005. My husband and I would like to see you guys play but we have to get somebody to bring us and win tickets. Please make htis album special for me. I want a copy of your new song. Your NickelBack fan for ever
Ok people bitch and moan about Nickelback all the damn time & why? Cause they’ve sold Millions up on Millions of cd’s? Because they are smart enough deliver what the fans want? Because they have hot wives or because they have huge shlongs? You know what get over it. Hey guess what people like them tough shit! If the band you love doesn’t do as well as theirs well I’m sorry but that’s the way it goes. These guys have worked and sweat ed their asses off for years to get to where they are. A lot of bands have done the same and never went anywhere. With all the bands/singer out there it’s down right amazing that they have done as well as they have in this Hip/Hop nation. And you know what I don’t give a damn if someone says they don’t like NB because obviously people do or they wouldn’t have made RoadRunner the money they have…..I bet 85% of you that post all the I hate NB crap belt out the words to Figured You Out, Aniamls, RockStar, or How You Remind Me when your in your car all alone….ah come on..you know you do! LOL The point is who gives a damn if you like a band or not. Who do you have to impress with by saying you hate them? Your friends? Well honey unless your still in high school then that pretty pathetic. If you cant be yourself infront of your friends then why are you friends with them? If you like’em you like’em! Why do people feel like they have to hide that?
Now I’m sure it will be a loss for RoadRunner to lose the amount of $ that NB brings into them. And the up and coming bands will feel a little bit of a pinch if…..RoadRunner doesn’t come up with the next cash cow. They could be waiting right around the corner. One of the already signed bands could blow up all of the sudden, And when and if they do I gurantee some of ya’ll will be shouting that they have sold out, or a new one just waiting for a deal could come along. If RoadRunner is smart and I think they are cause they’ve held onto NB for all these years they will sign a band that will give them commercial success. Cause lets face it that’s where the money is.
Just my Nickel’s worth think what you want say what you want but even if they never have a hit song again (please God don’t let that happen) thier songs will be around forever…deal with it.
Christy
[...] THIS should be interesting. Ever since the backlash that resulted from my post last week about the Nickelback / Live Nation deal in which I declared that Roadrunner “sits atop the metal throne” (I really just meant [...]
Kudos to Christy and Robin! Seriously people, just because your favorite band sucks and nobody likes you doesn’t prove your point. Obviously NB has been doing somthing (aka everything) right! and they have the fan-base and income to prove it.
And for you metal fanatics that think NB sucks… seriously, i’d be a metal artist too if i liked randomly screaming crap very deeply into a microphone, dressing in black leather, tatooing my face, peircing my *insert gross retarded piercing here*, and biting parts off of random live creatures. and if i was a crack adict that could stomach doing the above, i could sell those metal records too. yeah thats right.
p.s. : to be quite honest, NOBODY F***ING CARES WHAT YOU OR I THINK, this is the internet… like whatever band you like, listen to whomever you choose, in the end noone else really gives a crap. unless of course you’re in 9th grade, and then you better get on every forum, every message board, every website and proclaim your everlasting love and/or hate for *insert band here* because it proves that you have a big penis.
the end
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You people who bash nickelback are just jealous fu$%ing idiots!! give me a break! oh, you’re so cool and rebellious for not liking nickelback. You’re such a deep, dark, badass. what the hell do you know what type of music is creative and what isn’t. Nickelback plays music that they like. Obviously millions of people around the world like it also. These bands that try to sound “different” just end up sounding like shit. All these bands that try not to sound like nickelback end up sounding like other bands trying not to sound like nickelback. These guys have some kickass rock songs. The millions of people who like nickelback dont give a flying fu$k about you wannabe “rebels” who commit your life to bashing them. Deep down- all of you like a nickelback song.