Roadrunner Records Sell Up, Comments Anyone?

Motley Crue

Warner Music Group Corp. today (Jan. 29) announced the completion of its acquisition of 73.5 percent of Amsterdam-based Roadrunner Music Group B.V., which includes Roadrunner Records, one of the leading hard rock and heavy metal labels.

The Roadrunner acquisition was originally announced on December 18, 2006. The transaction was subject to regulatory approval in Germany, which has now been obtained.

Roadrunner will operate as a freestanding label group within WMG's Atlantic Records Group. Roadrunner Managing Director Cees Wessels continues to run the company he founded.

Lyor Cohen, WMG's Chairman and CEO of U.S. Recorded Music, said in a previous press release, "Very rarely do you find a record company with such a longstanding reputation and distinct viewpoint that its very name rises to the level of true brand. Roadrunner, from its strong artist roster to its deep catalog and first-rate creative team, embodies the hard rock aesthetic to its core. Cees and I shared great success when we brought Roadrunner into the IDJ family in 2001, so naturally I'm thrilled today to welcome Cees and his team to Warner Music Group. We look forward to building upon Roadrunner's 25 years of success together."

Initially founded in the Netherlands in 1980, Roadrunner Records has earned its place as one of the most prominent international independent record labels. The Roadrunner catalog boasts early releases from such seminal artists as KING DIAMOND, TYPE O NEGATIVE, SEPULTURA and ANNIHILATOR. More recently, the label has experienced unprecedented success with multi-platinum artists NICKELBACK and SLIPKNOT, gold-certified STONE SOUR and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, as well as modern heavy hitters BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, TRIVIUM and MACHINE HEAD. Though primarily known as a metal and hard rock label, Roadrunner's roster also includes acts such as THE DRESDEN DOLLS and newcomers MADINA LAKE.

Roadrunner has been at the forefront of the hard music genre for more than 25 years, a genre that has outpaced the overall U.S. industry. According to NPD MusicWatch, hard rock/heavy metal has experienced the greatest increase in market share of any subgenres of rock in 2006 over the prior year.

In four of the last five years, Roadrunner has had at least one of the five top-selling hard music acts in the U.S. with releases from NICKELBACK. With the acquisition of Roadrunner, WMG has the top three labels in hard music based on 2006 SoundScan figures: Warner Bros. at No. 1; Atlantic at No. 2; and Roadrunner at No. 3.

Still headquartered in the Netherlands, Roadrunner occupies offices in New York, now the A&R hub for the label, as well as the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France, Japan and Australia.

honru

I'm sure you meant to post this in Rock/Metal?

Moved.

projectmayhem

just another example of "the big 5" record labels eating everything else up. fair play that rr is running itself as it was, but chances of that sticking is slim to none.

at the same time though, i haven't bought anything from rr in ages...

John

Roadrunner was already a pawn of Universal which had a considerable share in the group via Island/Def Jam. I can't see being owned by Warner making a huge difference, the majority of music released on Roadrunner these days is hardly exciting. Apart from Opeth and the Dresden Dolls I can't think of anything they've released in the last five years who have been interesting in the slightest.

dimerocks

RR along with the heavy metal scene in general, IMO is curently over saturated with too much ****.

smackbunnybaby

in fairness to roadrunner they changed with the times and updated their roster where needed. unfortunately most of us may feel this was for the worst when they signed all those metalcore bands.
but roadrunner are a company, and companies are there to make a profit so they will do they can to keep this going.
transfering to warner merely backs this up.

*reminiscing
i remember one of my first road runner samplers had sepultura, obituary, fear factory and deicide.they were the days.
recently i kinda liked the new satyricon one, even if it wasnt kvlt

Civilian_Target

Roadrunner still release some awesome stuff. A lot of junk too, but such is life.

Look on the bright side, at least universal didn't buy them...

Motley Crue

Civilian_Target wrote:

Look on the bright side, at least universal didn't buy them...

I dont see what the difference is. By having such a majority share theres nothing Roadrunner can do independantly of Universal on any major scale, and that means is hiring or firing a good act. Personally, the only thing this means is that youll still get the Roadrunner logo on the base of your KSE and Nickelback albums, albeit with the Universal one too. Personally, I think Nickelback had a lot to do with Universals interest, as their popularity skyrocketed RR in the mainstream

Ruaidhri

And I was wondering where the 'best of' albums were coming from in the metal section....
Mneh, Metal is big enough now to be noticed by the big players. It was only a matter of time really.

projectmayhem

Motley Crue wrote:

Personally, I think Nickelback had a lot to do with Universals interest, as their popularity skyrocketed RR in the mainstream

i disagree. i think nickelback were popular for one single. even in the states they're a joke ever since that "how you remind me" song. i think more then anything the sales of slipknot and the like have universal interested. remember, this is a band that released nothing for 2 or 3 years, then charted in the top10 worldwide on the first week of their new albums release.

it means universal can cash in on heavy music without "tainting" their website with masked, unshaven and generally unattractive men next to sheryl crow and whoever else they have. granted, they do have rammstein on their books....

gizmo

Killswitch have been rising in popularity with each successive album so don't forget about them too.

Trivium are there also but like, we know about them

John

Erm, maybe you all missed my post above but Roadrunner WAS part owned by Univershill!

projectmayhem

John wrote:

Erm, maybe you all missed my post above but Roadrunner WAS part owned by Univershill!

saw it alright. but chose to ignore you

nah, universal had a share alright, but it wasn't majority, so it was really a financial deal then. now they have control of the company, and can change it as they wish.

John

Listen, when Universal are involved, they get their say. They're a powerful company and I do honestly think that they have pushed Roadrunner towards being a more commercial label instead of being a good label.

projectmayhem

John wrote:

Listen, when Universal are involved, they get their say. They're a powerful company and I do honestly think that they have pushed Roadrunner towards being a more commercial label instead of being a good label.

i don't think universal pushed RR to be more commercial at all. i think RR pushed it themselves. for years they've gone for the big sell over what's actually interesting. the only times they've signed interesting bands (glassjaw springs to mind) is when a producer gets involved. they signed nickelback off their own back years ago. not exactly fitting into the "heavy metal label" stuff. they dropped machine head in the states; signed slipknot based on 1 track (and an image), etc. etc.

the point being that RR have always been commercial. they love money

Motley Crue

projectmayhem wrote:

the point being that RR have always been commercial. they love money

thats for damn sure