In a new interview with Goldmine magazine, Joe Elliott said that music streaming services like Spotify AND Apple Music have helped create DEF LEPPARD as “a cool heirloom set.” He explained: “You have to remember: we were one of the longest holders [from the digital music revolution]. We didn’t announce our digital deal until I and Neal Schon were doing the promotion for TRAVELING stadium tour in 2018, in January. And then because in the past I would have to call our management and say, ‘How many copies have blah, blah, blah sold?’ ‘Oh, I’ll get back to you in two weeks’ and then I have to call somebody and they have to go rummage through a filing cabinet, looking for a piece of paper. Now you get, ‘Do you want to know how many times you were broadcast this morning in Venezuela?’ We have this information immediately. And I was told the other day that we’re almost six billion streams since January ’18. I’m, like, ‘Wow, that’s crazy!’ You know, it’s not like that Taylor Swift or Adele territory, but for us, that’s pretty incredible, you know? And these things, again, inspire you to go a little higher. And also, now you realize you’re broadcasting so massively in South America that you’ve pretty much booked the tour around where you’re broadcasting. This was information that was always guesswork in the past. Now it’s the information highway.”
Joe continued: “And between broadcast and social media, which you can pretty much tie together, hand in hand, we have this unique situation to have this permanent vehicle. Don’t wait now until Thursday lunchtime that to release music records, which is what we had done in the UK Registration statement, disk, nWith, sound, and they were all due out on Thursday. And they would all have pretty much the same information, but you have to go through it to see who’s on tour, what songs are being reviewed, and then place your order to buy a copy of it. It’s completely different, but it’s just as exciting. I don’t think it’s as organic, but anything else, whether it’s games, music or news, any kind of information, the fact that it’s immediate, can become disadvantageous. But at least you only have two or three minutes to capture what you need to capture. You don’t have to wait until 10 o’clock for the 10 o’clock news, find out what’s happening in the world. You can sit on the toilet, catch this, it is Sky News and see what is happening. [Laughs] And so musically, I think it’s really helping all the artists, but I’m glad we stayed because it gave our catalog a big buzz when we finally announced it.”
In 2012, a few years before agreeing to Universal Music Group on the digital rights to some of the band’s most popular material, DEF LEPPARD began re-recording her greatest hits, including 1983’s “Rock of Ages” and 1987 “Pour some sugar on me”, as a way to offer her fans a digital option while simultaneously giving a giant middle finger to the band’s old label. According to The Hollywood Reporter, DEF LEPPARD they did this because at some point they were able to negotiate a deal where they had approval for everything that was done with their songs – from special collections to licenses for movies, TV shows and games and their availability on the Internet .
Elliott said The Hollywood Reporter in a 2012 interview he struggled with UNIVERSAL it was “on principle”. But, he admitted, “I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was for money, because the problem we have is that they want to charge us what we think is a ridiculously low fee. It’s a known fact. : Artists throughout the years have always been invaded by record companies… The reason we are so keen on this is because two years ago, we made a deal with a gentleman in UNIVERSAL who was more or less on our side – he was a fan, a smart businessman and a nice guy – and we shook hands. Fifteen days later, someone above his head said the deal was not going well. For an Englishman, when he shakes hands, it is a binding contract and UNIVERSAL gave up on it. So we dug in our heels and said, ‘We’re going to say a blanket no to anything you ask.'”
As a result of the disputes, UNIVERSAL we can’t “release our back catalog, we won’t let them put a song on a compilation unless we want it there, and they’ll never be able to license it,” the singer said. They won’t be able to do anything without our permission because it’s in our contract.”
Elliott went on to say that the crux of the dispute centers on the fact that DEF LEPPARD wanted to “get the same fee for digital as we do when we sell CDs, and they’re trying to give us a fee that doesn’t even come close. They’ve been putting our songs illegally for a while, paying us the fee they chose without negotiating with us , so we hired our lawyer,” he explained.
“We made a decision years ago that we would try to fight reverse control,” he added. “And I think that’s something to applaud. We’re just trying to own what we’ve done. We own our T-shirt deals, our stage and our rights to make whatever decisions we want. We’re not trying to milk our back catalog for billions of dollars, we’re just trying to get paid a fair amount.”
DEF LEPPARDS ‘ “Stadium Tower” began June 16 in Atlanta, Georgia. The veteran British rockers co-headline the journey with him MÖTLEY CRÜEwith the support of poison AND JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS.
DEF LEPPARDThe tour set includes some of the band’s biggest hits, such as “Pour some sugar on me”, “Photography” AND “Rock of Ages” — as well as songs from the band’s latest album, “Diamond Star Halos”Among them “Strike” AND “Fire it”.
DEF LEPPARDThe long-delayed North American tour was originally scheduled for 2020 and was later moved to 2021 and then 2022. “Stadium Tower” will conclude on September 9 in Las Vegas, Nevada.