Thursday, November 11, 2010

ITP: THE MUSIC BUSSINESS: ROADRUNNER AQUIRED BY WARNER MUSIC GROUP


EDITORS NOTE: BTW, ITP V.010 is NOT affiliated with ROADRUNNER RECORDS nor BLABBERMOUTH.NET., nor sponsored nor given money by any record labels. BORI owns BLABBERMOUTH.NET as that site is (or WAS) only "hosted" by ROADRUNNER. and not owned by the label. BLABBERMOUTH.NET is only an occasional source, only when I'm feeling lazy, as ITP V.010 (since 2008/2009) has other and MUTUAL sources., I'm sure BM has even more sources.
In the 90's ROADRUNNER RECORDS was considered a premier extreme metal label with legendary bands on their roster: DEICIDE, FEAR FACTORY, KING DIAMOND, SEPULTURA, SUFFOCATION, OBITUARY, CARNIVORE/TYPE O NEGATIVE, DEATH, ANNIHILATOR and many more. ROADRUNNER 2k and beyond has since dropped the more extreme bands, or they have moved on to other labels for more commercially accessible hard rock acts and a few extreme metal bands such as: NICKLEBACK, STONE SOUR, SLIPKNOT, MACHINE HEAD, KORN, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, THEORY OF A DEAD MAN ect and also OPETH, DREAM THEATER and DRAGONFORCE. There was always much debate on how ROADRUNNER hosting BLABBERMOUTH.NET would effect metal and hard rock coverage, I seriously doubt the WARNER/ROADRUNNER acquisition will effect BLABBERMOUTH.NET.
While ITP author reads BLABBERMOUTH.NET daily, I'm not a registered user, however, I do love the commentary on BM.
FROM WIKEPEDIA BLABBERMOUTH. NET: BTW, BLABBERMOUTH.NET CRASHED the morning after DIMEBAG's death:

Blabbermouth.net is visited by more than a million unique users each month, and it has an average of 80,000 unique visitors per day, based on WebTrends, or between 70,000 and 75,000 unique visitors per day, according to Google Analytics (as of April 2010). The busiest day so far was 298,000 unique visitors in a single 24-hour period, which occurred on the day of Ronnie James Dio's passing (May 16, 2010). The second-busiest day was more than 200,000 unique visitors in a single 24-hour period, which happened the day after the death of Type O Negative frontman Peter Steele -- April 15, 2010.

Busiest days in Blabbermouth.net's history -- as measured in "Absolute Unique Visitors" (Google Analytics):

  • Sunday, May 16, 2010: 298,378 (the day Ronnie James Dio died)
  • Thursday, April 15, 2010: 206,183 (the day after Peter Steele died)
  • Monday, May 17, 2010: 170,905 (the day after Ronnie James Dio died)
  • Monday, May 24, 2010: 154,969 (the day Paul Gray was found dead)
  • Thursday, December 9, 2004: 154,000 (the day after "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott was murdered)

Each of the figures above represents the number of "Absolute Unique Visitors" (Google Analytics) that visited Blabbermouth.net in a single 24-hour period. The figures were provided by Google Analytics except for the December 9, 2004 number of unique visitors, which came from WebTrends.

Blabbermouth.net's busiest month so far was May 2010, with 1,675,645 "Absolute Unique Visitors," according to Google Analytics -- primarily driven by extra traffic caused by the deaths of Ronnie James Dio and Slipknot bassist Paul Gray.

Blabbermouth.net is ranked as the 29,897 most trafficked Web sites according to Alexa.[5] However, this number is misleading as it only covers the visits to www.blabbermouth.net, which is a small portion of the web site's traffic (since the actual web site hosted by Roadrunner Records and is located at www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net, which is not included separately in the Alexa rankings).

Blabbermouth.net has more 93,000 registered users as of July 2010.



BILLBOARD BIZZ has reported that ROADRUNNER RECORDS has been officially acquired by WARNER MUSIC GROUP.
FROM BILLBOARD BIZZ VIA BLABBERMOUTH.NET:
According to Billboard.biz, Warner Music Group has fully acquired Roadrunner Records after first buying 73.5% of the company in January 2007.

Roadrunner — which has been hosting the BLABBERMOUTH.NET web site since 2001 — will continue to operate as a distinct brand within WMG. Cees Wessels, the label's founder, remains CEO.

In an internal memo to staff, Wessels wrote: "Since joining the Warner Music family, we have enjoyed some of our greatest creative and commercial successes as a label. Most importantly, we have retained our unique identity while also expanding our horizons, thanks in part to the tremendous expertise and experience we can tap into as part of the Warner Music family and the relationships we have built with our Warner Music colleagues around the world. I am very proud that Roadrunner is now a fully-fledged stable mate of such iconic labels as Atlantic, Warner Bros. Records, Elektra, Asylum and Rhino, and I believe that we are in this position thanks to our team's hard work and consistently original approach over the years. The vast majority of our staff around the world will experience little or no change to their roles. However, after carefully reviewing our operations, we have decided to transfer the support functions across to our Warner Music colleagues in some territories. This is not an easy process to undertake, but we believe that, by making these changes, we can take Roadrunner to the next level by focusing our resources on marketing our existing lineup of acclaimed artists as well as discovering the stars of tomorrow."

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 TRIVIUM and MACHINE HEAD.
FROM BILLBOARD BIZZ:
By Chris M. Walsh

Warner Music Group has fully acquired Roadrunner Records after first buying 73.5% of the company in January 2007.

Roadrunner will continue to operate as a distinct brand within WMG, according to sources. Cees Wessels, the label's founder, remains CEO.

According to a source, there will be staffing changes, mainly at Roadrunner's corporate head office in the Netherlands, with a number of support and administrative functions being handled by Warner Music going forward.

In an internal memo to staff, Wessels wrote:

“Since joining the Warner Music family, we have enjoyed some of our greatest creative and commercial successes as a label. Most importantly, we have retained our unique identity while also expanding our horizons, thanks in part to the tremendous expertise and experience we can tap into as part of the Warner Music family and the relationships we have built with our Warner Music colleagues around the world. I am very proud that Roadrunner is now a fully-fledged stable mate of such iconic labels as Atlantic , Warner Bros. Records, Elektra, Asylum and Rhino, and I believe that we are in this position thanks to our team’s hard work and consistently original approach over the years. The vast majority of our staff around the world will experience little or no change to their roles. However after carefully reviewing our operations, we have decided to transfer the support functions across to our Warner Music colleagues in some territories. This is not an easy process to undertake, but we believe that, by making these changes, we can take Roadrunner to the next level by focusing our resources on marketing our existing line-up of acclaimed artists as well as discovering the stars of tomorrow”.

Roadrunner's overall albums market share through Nov. 7 (which includes catalog) is 0.85%. Current album market share is 0.91%. Initially founded in the Netherlands in 1980, Roadrunner's roster includes Nickelback, Slipknot, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dream Theater, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Collective Soul, DragonForce, Korn and others.
MONTE CONNER AOR ROADRUNNERS TOP 10 ROADRUNNER ALBUM COVERS:


Thanks-Stay Metal, Stay Brutal-\m/ -l-