After 28 years Metallica have taken ownership of their original masters and have launched their own label Blackened Recordings.
Metallica, Lars Ulrich, photo by Ros O'Gorman
Metallica has renegotiated its 1994 agreement with Warner Music Group to revert all masters, including music and long form video, to the band as of today (November 20, 2012). They then announced Blackened Recordings to handle the future release of their titles.
“It’s always been about control for us as a band,” said Metallica’s Lars Ulrich. “Forming Blackened Recordings is the ultimate in independence, giving us 100% control and putting us in the driver’s seat of our own creative destiny.”
Blackened Recordings has licensed the Metallica catalogue back to Warner’s Rhino Entertainment for North America and to the Universal Music Group for all other territories internationally.
“We would like to thank everyone at the Warner Music Group for 28 years of a fantastic relationship, particularly since 1994 where we truly felt we had partners in every aspect of our business in North America,” said the band’s James Hetfield.
The first release on the new Blackened label will be the live DVD ‘Quebec Magnetic’ on December 10, 2012.
