Silly Metallica. The situation is like this.
- Metallica invites select bloggers to review some tracks to their new album.
- Metallica does not make bloggers sign Non-Disclosure Agreements.
- Said bloggers naturally post their review/thoughts/impressions of the songs on their respective blogs.
- Naturally, Metallica orders the blogs to remove the reviews, all of which were positive.
- Read full, sad account of Metallica sticking it to the man fans.
A very funny animation created several years ago during Metallica’s infamous battle with Napster. (NSFW language)
Tags: Bloggers, Blogging, Heavy, James Hetfield, Kerrang, Lars Ulrich, Metal, Metallica, Music, Review, Rock
Your Daily Chum 
June 12, 2008 at 6:53 am |
Silly daily chum. the situation is like this:
1. Writers (not bloggers) are invited to hear unfinished tracks in a record company boardroom, as they are writing feature due to be published in the autumn. They go to press before the record will be ready, – this was a private hearing so they know what the hell the record will sound like.
2. No one is made to sign anything – that gives out the message they are not trusted right?
3. Some journalists blogged about what the album sounded like in review form, on sites that were not invited to listen (piqued?) and were asked politely to remove the reviews for the time being
4. metallica put all the links to the reviews up on their site
Silly daily chum
June 12, 2008 at 10:50 am |
Metallica apologise, on behalf of their management, for killing early reviews!
http://drownedinsound.com/articles/3461200
http://www.metallica.com/index.asp?item=600942
June 12, 2008 at 11:19 am |
Bit of an update on this in our blog
June 12, 2008 at 11:45 am |
Silly Postcards-
1. Me thinks Metallica moved, just yesterday mind you, to avoid some more bad PR..which is why, in my humble opinion, they put the links to the review up on their website.
2. Signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement is just an easy way to protect all parties. It’s more to do with business sense and less to do with trust.
But thanks for pointing out their site, I ck’ed it and found this statement from the band.
“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.”