Warner Music Group shutting down Roadrunner's European offices

[Chris]

WARNER MUSIC GROUP SHUTTING DOWN ROADRUNNER’S EUROPEAN OFFICES | MetalSucks

According to Lambgoat, Warner Music Group — who acquired a majority stake in Roadrunner Records in 2007 and have 100% owned the label since late 2010 — is shutting down the legendary metal imprint’s European offices “in a cost cutting move.”


Unlike Vince, who I’d normally to prefer to cover such an event (he’s on an airplane as I type this), my pre-MetalSucks career wasn’t in the record industry… so I can’t really tell you what this means for artists signed the label’s European division (which in some cases includes bands signed to other labels for distribution in other territories, such as Lamb of God). WMG’s European offices may be able to handle to the work load on their own, for all I know, continuing to utilize RR basically as a brand and nothing more (the equivalent in the movie business being something like New Line Cinema, which is now basically just a few people in an office at Warner Bros. ). Or it could mean that a bunch of bands are now free agents. What it most certainly does mean, obviously, is that some very distraught Europeans are now gonna be looking for employment elsewhere.

[Chris]

And at least one well-known Roadrunner artist is pissed about it:

[ToxicTrace]

Fuck this shit. I actually agree with Matt Heafy for once.

[Joey]

Looks like Nuclear Blast could be picking up a few new artists.

[ToxicTrace]

Originally Posted by MusicTheoryJoey

Looks like Nuclear Blast could be picking up a few new artists.

Shattermask?

[Rev Drucifer]

That's a bummer, man.

Hope all those people can find new gigs! And all the bands getting screwed, same hope goes for them!

[Wookieslayer]

super lame. will be interesting to see where bands move off to...

[petereanima]

I am actually suprised it took so long for such actions. Well, as much as I am thinking that there ARE people in this business earning to much money for nothing - I am pretty sure those people are unfortunately keeping their jobs and the good ones have to go.

[Blankplank]

Damn Roadrunner are no doubt my favourite label, and have signed most of my favourite bands over the years. This really does suck. The money they're gonns save will probably be like pocket change in comparison to what they already make.

[zslane]

Every year I face extinction as an American trying to do what I do for a living in my own country (i.e., feature film visual effects). Like many other fields involving a large, expensive labor force, outsourcing has become the primary cost-savings measure for studios lately. More and more my job is being done, less skillfully, for a lot less money by artists and technicians in other countries, leaving me with the unpleasant prospect of either continuing in this career as an ex-pat living somewhere else (subject to the vagueries of foreign labor policies), or finding a new career all together.

I have lots of friends and colleagues who struggle mightily to find work in this new environment, and I tell them the same thing I would tell artists signed to Roadrunner who face an uncertain future (or artists who still cling to the increasingly obsolete notion that society will--or ought to--forever agree to monetize artistic creation): Things change. Be adaptable. It is nature's preferred defense against extinction.