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Posted by: Scott Gentzen Jun 11 2008, 05:48 PM

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/06/metallica-kills.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080610-metallica-to-bloggers-dont-review-our-music.html
http://www.thequietus.com/2008/06/metallica-from-rocks-back-pages/

So, the short story is that Metallica invited some journalists to preview a couple songs from the new album. At least one of them was a blogger. When the blogger posted what he thought of the preview Metallica's management sent a takedown notice.

From what I see in the articles, the review was positive unlike with the early bad reviews for St Anger. Someone in Metallica, Inc. needs to go to SXSW or talk to Trent Reznor and learn how to work with the web and the fans instead of against them.

Posted by: Paul Coutts Jun 11 2008, 06:12 PM

seriously.... they need to take a leaf outta Pennywise and Offspring's book and at LEAST offer the first single as a free download off their website... best way to attract attention in my opinion.
But as of right now.... I keep losing interest in this album because they are keeping way too much quiet. At least with Offspring I was on the edge of my seat, and still am until June 17th. I've been following Offspring's updates for a least six months, and watching leaked studio videos, live shows, etc... for glimpses of the upcoming album...
Metallica really do need to learn how to craftily leak stuff onto the internet.... the interest would be MASSIVE

Posted by: Scott Gentzen Jun 11 2008, 06:28 PM

Agreed. There's a lot of different ways to do it. Nine Inch Nails started leaking out MP3's of the singles by putting them on thumb drives and dropping them in the bathrooms at venues where they were playing. Then there's the way Ghosts came out ($5 MP3's, up to a $300 delux limited edition which sold 2500 units in a day for a cool $750k). Now The Slip which was free. Plus the Ligts In the Sky sampler of the opening bands for the next tour.

There are a ton of independent artists out there that throw their stuff out there digitally for free and make money off paypal tips and people that want to buy a CD anyway and stuff like that.

Metallica has been previewing stuff out there. The Mission:Metallica site, for one. They've been playing some of the new stuff on their "sick of the studio" tour.

I've been thinking about how Metallica's handling this...I wonder how related it is to the Mission:Metallica site.

It's clear that they don't understand Web2.0 but they're not completely ignorant of the web. Mission Metallica's kinda Web1.5-ish....I'm wondering if this takedown issue has to do with that the blogging doesn't fit into the marketing plan that they had set up through the Mission?Metallica site.

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jun 11 2008, 06:40 PM

A friend and I suscribed to Mission Metallica and we have never received any new...

Posted by: Scott Gentzen Jun 11 2008, 07:05 PM

I signed up too. No communication yet, and nothing new on the website.

Posted by: VinceG Jun 11 2008, 11:16 PM

why are we still talking about this?

This is old news.

Metallica=money

Posted by: JuanMV Jun 12 2008, 03:27 AM

Vince, is there a band out there that it is NOT about money? Same with the stupid discussion "do you think they have gone too commercial?" Come on, all the bands are commercial, and there is nothing wrong about making money. Do you think that the darkest black metal band that you can imagine does not want to make money as Bon Jovi does? They all do. I just like to listen to the songs. If I like the songs, I buy the records. Period. All the rest is prattle, in my view.

Posted by: TreyDeschamp Jun 12 2008, 03:38 AM

I'm with him. Sorry for coming off like a idiot but what does prattle mean?

Posted by: Daniel Robinson Jun 12 2008, 03:55 AM

Music has to be like any other business though, if owned a cafe, and i am a jerk to all the patrons that come to eat in my cafe, i am going to be out of business in short order.

I understand musicians, (especially in this digital download world) wanting to protect their interests. But there is a line that some like Metallica cross that damages their reputation turning off possible new fans and old ones too in the process.

I respect what they do as a band musically but sometimes i think they rattle lawyer sabers too often. Get a grip Metallica!


Daniel

Posted by: kahall Jun 12 2008, 03:59 AM

uhh, your a what to all the patrons? I think you might want to edit that....or I just don't get it. ;-)

Posted by: JuanMV Jun 12 2008, 04:33 AM

Doesn't it mean like foolish talk or nonsenses? I am the one that feels like an idiot now

Posted by: Bucket86 Jun 12 2008, 04:34 AM

Thats a great point (he means if he is a jerk to the people that come there)
no onw likes seeing peopl "tattle"
and metallica takes things a little bit too far sometimes, the internet is here, infromation you dont wantr on here WILL be here period, and theres not much you can do about it, they need to realize that.
(oh by the way, i have listened to metallica since i was in my mothers womb, so no i do not dislike them, just how they treat these situations.)

Posted by: The Uncreator Jun 12 2008, 04:55 AM

Once you give up hope this stuff doesn't bother you so much

Posted by: TwistedSun Jun 12 2008, 11:02 PM

To be honest I could care less what their management does as long as the new album is perfect.

Posted by: Trond Vold Jun 13 2008, 01:04 AM

The saddest thing is that news like this doesnt come as a shock to anyone, it's what we have come to expect
Metallica desperatly needs to get new advisors/management.

Posted by: SEANCD2005 Jun 13 2008, 01:23 AM

I agree im just ready for the album to come out

Posted by: blindwillie Jun 13 2008, 07:30 AM

The sad thing is that they never learn. Don't tick off your fans. I'd guess it's not Metallica but their moneymakers that did this. Ofc it all about the money for them and it's OK, but there is different ways to get that money and things like this is not a good way. Every store or business or enterprise need to make money but I choose to use the one that treats me fair. Simple as that.

Posted by: audiopaal Jun 13 2008, 08:18 AM

Well, actually the management did that without authorrization from Metallica when they were touring Europe.
The reviews on the respective blogs are back up and is even linked to from Metallicas website.
So I guess they learned something

Posted by: Enucleation Jun 13 2008, 08:32 AM

There is a lot we don't know. I mean, maybe Im biased I'm a huge Metallica fan. I never think they sold out. But even so there is a lo behind the scenes we don't know about. Maybe they wanted the reviews taken down because they don't want any reviews good or bad of the album until they are ready to release it or something. Maybe the band had no control over it, it was management.

Don't make harsh judgements before you know the whole story and I highly doubt most any of us will ever know the whole story with any famous band unless its your own band. Granted I'm guilty of it too and I will be again just ...yeah.


E D I T

Reviews . . .
6/11/2008
[ back ]

While we occasionally enjoy reading the various comments, rumors, speculation, reviews, gossip and all the good that the internet brings, rarely do we feel the desire/need to respond to the "blogosphere" . . . hey, everyone is entitled to have their thoughts and opinions, right? However, once we re-surfaced on Tuesday after a few weeks on tour in Europe, we were informed that someone at Q Prime (our managers) had made the error of asking a few publications to take down reviews of the rough mixes from the new record that were posted on their sites. Our response was "WHY?!!! Why take down mostly positive reviews of the new material and prevent people from getting psyched about the next record. . . that makes no sense to us!" So after a few rounds of managerial ear spank and sentencing everyone at Q Prime to 20 push-ups each, we figured why not take matters into our own hands and just post the links here on our site. Kerrang, Metal Hammer, The Quietus.

You see, we have maintained an "in the press" section here on Metallica.com for many years now, posting links to reviews of shows, album and DVD releases, and various other tidbits we've come across while surfing around. Some good, some not so good, but we put 'em all up . . . sort of the same way we treat our message boards on this site . . . welcoming all feedback.

So in the spirit of keeping this section current, we've put as many of the reviews of the rough mixes of the new record up here as we could find. If we missed any, let us know . . . and in the meantime, we're always adding, so peruse at your leisure.




BOOYAH Copy and pasted from the Metallica web site. Seeeeeeeeee... told ya so...nah Im kidding.

Posted by: Scott Gentzen Jun 22 2008, 02:34 PM

Just to follow up on this...Metallica's made a statement on the issue. They're putting it on someone at Q Prime.

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/06/metallica-chang.html
http://www.metallica.com/index.asp?item=600942

Update:
Here's Kerrang's review...

http://www2.kerrang.com/2008/06/metallica_preview_new_album_in.html

Posted by: Pablo Vazquez Jun 22 2008, 06:21 PM