If you’ve been following your Twitter feed for the past 24 hours, then you’ll know that Chimaira frontman Mark Hunter has been on a tweeting frenzy. He’s been answering fans’ questions, giving his insight into the music industry, and even reconnecting with old friends like Lamb Of God’s Randy Blythe non-stop. His honesty about what truly occurs in the industry (breaking down who makes how much from CDs and touring numerous times) is very eye opening and a great read. However, Hunter had posted roughly around 30 or so tweets per hour throughout most of the day, so it definitely requires a major bulk of your time (that’s why we’re looking forward to actually talking with Hunter himself later today for an interview we’ll be posting in the very near future).
One part of the Hunter tweet-a-thon we will cover now, though, is his interaction with Metal Blade Record’s CEO/founder Brian Slagel. A little back history, Hunter admitted that not being able to listen to Cannibal Corpse (who are signed to Metal Blade) on Spotify lead to his Twitter rampage. While the main focus of his tweets were about the industry itself, he would occasionally mention the European music service and eventually tweeted at Slagel. When Slagel responded asking what they (including Blythe, JJ Stoner, and GWAR’s Oderus Urungus) needed, Hunter came straight out and asked why Metal Blade pulled out of Spotify. Slagel retweeted with a candid response, saying the following:
“@chimairamark we did not, stuff was not supposed to be there in the first place. It will be back once we have a legit deal”
This is the first time Slagel, or anyone at Metal Blade Records for that matter, has publicly acknowledged what has occurred with Spotify. And it is pretty surprising to hear that Spotify never actually asked for permission or worked out a deal prior to their U.S. launch with labels like Metal Blade. You’d think with all the time and energy they had spent negotiating with major labels that they’d also secure deals with independent labels. Granted, the talks with major labels heavily delayed the U.S. launch, but here we are now (after the launch) with many independent labels’ catalogs not on Spotify because of “unfair” rates. It’s all dandy to say that labels are still getting more than they would via illegal downloading, but Spotify needs to expand its streaming catalog in order to grow (though Facebook will help as well). An easy way to do that is simply renegotiate with independent labels.
There’s a great chance that Hunter will be continuing his Twitter rampage today. Make sure to catch up with all of yesterday’s enlightening tweets (he may even respond to your questions).
