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tahu157
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2014 10:22 pm
Posts: 1008
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:17 pm 
 

French digital distribution company Believe Digital purchased a majority stake in Nuclear Blast. The selling price hasn't been disclosed but it is speculated to be an eight-figure sum. I'm honestly not sure what that means for the future of buying Nuclear Blast releases digitally. It appears to be a strategic move, meaning Nuclear Blast wasn't about to go under and this isn't an attempt to bail out a failing company. Does anyone know what the purpose of a move like this is?

http://www.metalinjection.net/its-just- ... c-99933361

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narsilianshard
Veteran

Joined: Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:22 pm
Posts: 3618
Location: PDX
PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 9:07 pm 
 

In the past few years The Orchard (NB's previous distributor) became wholly-owned by Sony, so it honestly seems like they just wanted to take a step away from that. Who knows, maybe Sony was pushing them to put out more commercial mainstream hard rock like what happened with Roadrunner. The "we need to move away from the idea of conventional collaborations" quote from the article supports this theory. They also recently started a Bandcamp page: https://nuclearblast.bandcamp.com
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Bingewolf
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2017 9:59 pm
Posts: 864
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 9:42 pm 
 

narsilianshard wrote:
In the past few years The Orchard (NB's previous distributor) became wholly-owned by Sony, so it honestly seems like they just wanted to take a step away from that. Who knows, maybe Sony was pushing them to put out more commercial mainstream hard rock like what happened with Roadrunner. The "we need to move away from the idea of conventional collaborations" quote from the article supports this theory. They also recently started a Bandcamp page: https://nuclearblast.bandcamp.com


I don't disagree that they could've wanted out of The Orchard/Sony's world but I don't think Sony was pushing them to do anything. Sony has been a great partner with Century Media since acquiring them and have led to some of CM's better output over the past 2 decades... When Warner acquired Roadrunner, they wanted Roadrunner to be their "hard rock" brand because of what RR had accomplished with Nickelback.

Most distributors who get into this part of the metal biz want the labels to keep doing what they're doing. Metal fans are much more consistent than casual mainstream fans and are a more reliable revenue stream for a distributor. Even in the streaming era... mainly because metal fans listen to full albums and mainstream fans listen to singles.

I tend to think that more metal labels are being acquired because of the consistency they bring so Believe probably just made the best offer (and they allowed NB to keep all their leadership team in place as well).

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HaPoStaPu
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:20 am
Posts: 183
Location: Armenia
PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 8:21 am 
 

I've been to the guy's house in the late 80s/early 90s once, assuming it's still owned by the same chap, forgot his name now, he already owned a Porsche (I think it was) then. That was when NB still released hardcore stuff and only just started with metal. He must have done rather well.

He later accused us of having stolen some rare hardcore ep or something (again, memory is a bit hazy). I certainly hadn't, don't think any of my friends had either. Was all a bit odd.

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FatTheGates
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2007 4:53 pm
Posts: 127
PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 9:20 am 
 

Curious to see if they mesh any of the other labels that are owned by Believe (they own Soulfood Distribution which is the owner of AFM Records and Massacre Records). Obviously the hammer is going to fall in some way here, as Believe certainly have some staff members already on payroll that could take over the administrative stuff like accounting or warehousing/logistics. We'll see. Once you sell a majority stake, you're no longer in control of your own destiny.

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~Guest 361478
Metalhead

Joined: Tue May 19, 2015 4:55 pm
Posts: 1930
PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 10:52 am 
 

FatTheGates wrote:
Curious to see if they mesh any of the other labels that are owned by Believe (they own Soulfood Distribution which is the owner of AFM Records and Massacre Records). Obviously the hammer is going to fall in some way here, as Believe certainly have some staff members already on payroll that could take over the administrative stuff like accounting or warehousing/logistics. We'll see. Once you sell a majority stake, you're no longer in control of your own destiny.


Believe Digital is part/owned by American venture capital funds, via these funds acquiring a pile of money in 2005-2007 and then splurging it on existing companies. Despite their rather twee website / image, they'll definitely be looking to make various euphemisms in the name of holy mother profit, those types of firm always are. The wedge thrown at the Nuclear Blast owners must have been pretty big to get them to cash out.

The point made above is key - metal fans buy albums. Sony didn't buy Century Media out of love for the music, or relaunch Music for Nations purely out of nostalgia - all about the money ! (same with Universal and Spinefarm).

Warner Music would be the odd one out - maybe they'll pick up Peaceville or Season of Mist via some innocuous looking subsidiary ?

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tahu157
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2014 10:22 pm
Posts: 1008
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 5:51 pm 
 

HaPoStaPu wrote:
I've been to the guy's house in the late 80s/early 90s once, assuming it's still owned by the same chap, forgot his name now, he already owned a Porsche (I think it was) then. That was when NB still released hardcore stuff and only just started with metal. He must have done rather well.

He later accused us of having stolen some rare hardcore ep or something (again, memory is a bit hazy). I certainly hadn't, don't think any of my friends had either. Was all a bit odd.

I take it the NB owner was a friend of a friend or something? What did you go to his house for?

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HaPoStaPu
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:20 am
Posts: 183
Location: Armenia
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2018 9:35 am 
 

tahu157 wrote:
HaPoStaPu wrote:
I've been to the guy's house in the late 80s/early 90s once, assuming it's still owned by the same chap, forgot his name now, he already owned a Porsche (I think it was) then. That was when NB still released hardcore stuff and only just started with metal. He must have done rather well.

He later accused us of having stolen some rare hardcore ep or something (again, memory is a bit hazy). I certainly hadn't, don't think any of my friends had either. Was all a bit odd.

I take it the NB owner was a friend of a friend or something? What did you go to his house for?


Can't remember. Either my friends were handing in a demo or to trade stuff? I was just a kid then. Just stuck with me as the whole thing was kinda lame. Some of us were young, not exactly well off kids and there's this small town, middle class label owner with a Porsche accusing us of stealing his collector's items. He also kinda bashed shitty sounding hardcore (whilst releasing subpar hc crap himself at the time) and loved Metallica, I seem to remember. You can tell I never was a big NB fan esp after that episode ;-P, even though the label undeniably released some good metal albums later on.

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