Streaming

Metal Blade Records Pulls Music Off Spotify

image from cdn.indiemerch.com Fans began noticing several days ago that seminal indie hard rock label Metal Blade has pulled their music off Spotify, and our own survey confirmed it this morning.  There's been no official response from either the label or Spotify as to why they made the move. But another heavy metal and hardcore label, Century Media also pulled its artists from Spotify earlier this summer. According to Century, they did it "to protect the interests of their artists".


"The income streams to the artists are affected massively and therefore that accelerates the downward spiral, which eventually will lead to artists not being able to record music the way it should be recorded," stated to Century. "Ultimately, in some cases, it will completely kill a lot of smaller bands that are already struggling to make ends meet.

We don't know if Metal Blade agrees or has their own reasons for dropping Spotify. Century did stick one toe back in the Spotify pools by posting sampler albums.  Spotify "is a great tool to discover new music," admits Century. So they're, reintroducing their bands to Spotify by putting up the samplers. "This way, fans can still discover the great music released by the label."

So far, the only Metal Blade music we could find on Spotify had been released via other labels.

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11 Comments

  1. I think the solution to streaming is to “window” releases. CD/downloads first six months, then put up on streaming services after that.

  2. I have noticed this also with my favorite Avant Garde label Tzadik. When Spotify first launched Tzadik had tons of stuff on there, but recently I have seen some (though not all) of my favorite releases taken down.
    This makes me really sad.

  3. The problem is Spotify and Rdio are both very genre specific still. Top 40 and indie rock are doing well there in comparison to metal, hardcore, rock etc are not. I can understand Century Media and Metal Blades fears of the service because they aren’t seeing the numbers that indie rock or top 40 our seeing, however I feel these decisions are very short sighted. Instead of running and hiding they should be educating their users. Grow your listener base on these services and win over existing listeners to try out your music.
    There are currently roughly 3 million ad supported users on Spotify, mostly non-metal fans. That’s a lot of music listeners who are in one place NOT listening to someones music. Yes they may not be metal fans but the beauty of the service is you’re paid for a listen and its REALLY EASY to listen, so all they have to do is convince some of those users to just try something, they don’t even have to like it!

  4. Sorry, calling B.S. on this entire story. Listening to a Metal Blade album from Gwar right now on Spotify.

  5. That isn’t a bad idea at all. It would work like the movie industry. People that really love upcoming releases and love supporting them would purchase them first. Casual listeners get to listen to stuff later.
    Although, a full listening party for the first week of release would be good too. Who knows?

  6. I have a bought a lot of them already, but it’s a lot more expensive than a free service.
    Also, that’s probably their plan,and I hate being manipulated…

  7. “The income streams to the artists are affected massively and therefore that accelerates the downward spiral, which eventually will lead to artists not being able to record music the way it should be recorded,” stated to Century. “Ultimately, in some cases, it will completely kill a lot of smaller bands that are already struggling to make ends meet.”
    No, Century Media, what is killing bands’ ability to “make ends meet” (read: CM’s ability to recoup and reap from the band’s income) is the fact that labels ass-rape bands for 90% of their income.
    I think the Metal labels are clueless as to how to even market digital music. If anything, it would increase an artist’s revenue stream…but that would mean that CM would have to pay out more money, or hire a team of monkeys to find more creative ways to screw artists out of their digital royalties.

  8. How many cd do you really need? I subscribe to Spotify and get http://www.wimp.no for free with my tv subscription. And I have 8 bannanboxes of cds, going on the 9th now. The labels need to wake up a and smell the coffee or the new times. This is just plain stupid.

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