MADONNA AND WARNER MUSIC GROUP ANNOUNCE MILESTONE, CAREER-SPANNING PARTNERSHIP!!

[Would You Like To Try 9,433]

1 minute ago, Ayham said:

Yes, digital releases and remastered videos. 😭

[steady75 10,297]

Madonna’s commercial and chart career and single choices went to shit after she left Warner. Let’s be real. Warner were solid gold when it came to her career, single choices and promo bar a few glitches towards the end of her contract. Interscope were floperoo. 

[deathproof 11,132]

1 minute ago, steady75 said:

Madonna’s commercial and chart career and single choices went to shit after she left Warner. Let’s be real. Warner were solid gold when it came to her career, single choices and promo bar a few glitches towards the end of her contract. Interscope were floperoo. 

Her time at Interscope was missing all that A&R love, and of course whatever radio relationships she had at Warner

[Adonna 20,958]

12 minutes ago, steady75 said:

Madonna’s commercial and chart career and single choices went to shit after she left Warner. Let’s be real. Warner were solid gold when it came to her career, single choices and promo bar a few glitches towards the end of her contract. Interscope were floperoo. 

To some degreee, I agree.  But I think Warner started losing grip during the single releases of Music. Sometime after radio (especially in the U.S.) was reluctant to play her. 

[MikeyK 971]

1 hour ago, steady75 said:

Madonna’s commercial and chart career and single choices went to shit after she left Warner. Let’s be real. Warner were solid gold when it came to her career, single choices and promo bar a few glitches towards the end of her contract. Interscope were floperoo. 

Interscope wasn’t great but they were able to finagle that radio deal that helped GMAYL debut high. That was about as good as anyone could’ve done. 

Warner did what they could for most of it but they kind of gave up once it became obvious getting her on US radio would be a struggle following American Life.

One could say Hung Up wouldn’t have been a big US hit no matter who she was under bc it wasn’t conducive to top 40 at the time but they didn’t even seem to try. 4 Minutes had Justin to grease the doorway but everything fizzled after.

[wtg1987 10,638]

Why are we still having this argument of Warner years Vs Interscope ??? Her music output just wasn’t as good with interscope - it has nothing to do with how the label managed her - she was too busy chasing everyone else who was selling far more records than she was ( too many collaborations with younger artists that still didn’t yield high chart positions ) she should have focused more on the song writing and production….

[Prayer 16,691]

1 hour ago, wtg1987 said:

Why are we still having this argument of Warner years Vs Interscope ??? Her music output just wasn’t as good with interscope - it has nothing to do with how the label managed her - she was too busy chasing everyone else who was selling far more records than she was ( too many collaborations with younger artists that still didn’t yield high chart positions ) she should have focused more on the song writing and production….

Not true. It was all about the lack of promo and pushing on radio. You can see how "Give Me All Your Luvin'" got a US Top 10 cause it had a radio deal. She was on her own after that. Interscope didn't care cause she wasn't their artist in the end, they just distributed her stuff. Why spending money on something you will lose after 15 years? Makes no sense really. So they did the bare minimum for her.

The deal was ill fated since the start and she should have known better.

Warner wasn't perfect was always guaranteed at least massive exposure for the first single. Even with "American Life", it was everywhere even with the infamous flags version.

"Ghosttown" would have been massive with proper radio pushing and "Bitch I'm Madonna" too, it was on YouTube on its own, imagine with proper promotion and a label behind caring.

[deathproof 11,132]

2 hours ago, Prayer said:

She was on her own after that. Interscope didn't care cause she wasn't their artist in the end, they just distributed her stuff.

This isn’t true. That’s just a made up fan theory. She was on their roster. Every article in 2011 stated that she signed a 3 album contract with Interscope. She likely had a 180 deal which focuses on recording and distribution only. No licensing, merchandise, touring, and partnerships since that was already part of the 360 contract with LiveNation. Remember, Interscope bought the writers demos. They are the ones who pushed her to work with various producers and writers. If she had a “distribution-only” deal (which isn’t really thing, especially for major labels), then why did they have so much control over the recording?

[Prayer 16,691]

31 minutes ago, deathproof said:

This isn’t true. That’s just a made up fan theory. She was on their roster. Every article in 2011 stated that she signed a 3 album contract with Interscope. She likely had a 180 deal which focuses on recording and distribution only. No licensing, merchandise, touring, and partnerships since that was already part of the 360 contract with LiveNation. Remember, Interscope bought the writers demos. They are the ones who pushed her to work with various producers and writers. If she had a “distribution-only” deal (which isn’t really thing, especially for major labels), then why did they have so much control over the recording?

Cause they were obviously fighting for their own interests along the way. Using and suggesting her Universal songwriters and producers meant a bigger piece of the cake in publishing rights for Interscope/Universal than just the % for every sale agreed on the distribution deal. "Rebel Heart" was the pinnacle of this situation.

In the end the Interscope deal was a late solution for a problem that wasn't supposed to be there to begin with. Live Nation was meant to have their own label when she signed with them. When that didn't happen Live Nation chose to do it with Universal.

Of course she had a distribution only deal. She said during the "Madame X" campaign she was funding herself the videos (and joked before on the "MDNA Skin" promotion that she would use that money for them later). The copyright of her three 10s studio albums is her own company, Boy Toy Inc., exclusively licensed to Interscope. It's on every copyright info for those albums. When that contract expires, they'll go into Warner with the new deal. The 10s albums were never property of Interscope, only licensed temporarily.

They didn't allow her to do the double album plan for "Rebel Heart" cause that would have already ended the three albums deal, nothing else, and she was meant to be tied to Live Nation and them for yet another big tour and album after. It wasn't a "we don't want "Candy Shop" as the first single" Warner situation.

[Blue Jean 17,118]

28 minutes ago, Prayer said:

They didn't allow her to do the double album plan for "Rebel Heart" cause that would have already ended the three albums deal

Probably why she wanted to do it. She wanted out of that shitty contract.

[deathproof 11,132]

32 minutes ago, Prayer said:

Using and suggesting her Universal songwriters and producers meant a bigger piece of the cake in publishing rights for Interscope/Universal than just the % for every sale agreed on the distribution deal.

Again, it wasn't a distribution only deal. Madonna owns her own pubishing. If it was a "distribution only" deal, then why didn't she own the Interscope masters?

36 minutes ago, Prayer said:

Of course she had a distribution only deal. She said during the "Madame X" campaign she was funding herself the videos (and joked before on the "MDNA Skin" promotion that she would use that money for them later).

Because the Interscope contract covered the recording and distribution. That's what a 180 contract is. She inked a three-album pact with Interscope at a base of $1 million per album, as confirmed back in 2011. LiveNation gave her a $17 million advance for each of three albums, thats where the money came from to cover promotional costs. Whatever promotion Interscope did, was minimal at best, because she wasn't their priority. They didn't have licensing and merchandising deals because that was covered in the LiveNation deal.

37 minutes ago, Prayer said:

They didn't allow her to do the double album plan for "Rebel Heart" cause that would have already ended the three albums deal

Not true. Guy O confirmed in a Decemeber 28 2014 Twitter post that the double album planned was axed due to the leaks and the abrupt 6-song pre-order, not because of a deal dispute with Interscope. The 2 album concept had been in the works since summer of 2014. Interscope knew about it, if they didn't approve of it then they wouldn't have financed 2 albums worth of songs...

40 minutes ago, Prayer said:

In the end the Interscope deal was a late solution for a problem that wasn't supposed to be there to begin with. Live Nation was meant to have their own label when she signed with them. When that didn't happen Live Nation chose to do it with Universal.

Not true. When the 360 deal was announced, Live Nation CEO Irving Azoff stated that they "would partner with some other entity in releasing Madonna’s next album." Executives stated numerous times that "they don’t intend to enter the record business full-tilt." They would either have to distritbute themselves (which means losing money), or partnering with a label.

[Prayer 16,691]

1 hour ago, deathproof said:

1) Again, it wasn't a distribution only deal. Madonna owns her own pubishing. If it was a "distribution only" deal, then why didn't she own the Interscope masters?

2) Because the Interscope contract covered the recording and distribution. That's what a 180 contract is. She inked a three-album pact with Interscope at a base of $1 million per album, as confirmed back in 2011. LiveNation gave her a $17 million advance for each of three albums, thats where the money came from to cover promotional costs. Whatever promotion Interscope did, was minimal at best, because she wasn't their priority. They didn't have licensing and merchandising deals because that was covered in the LiveNation deal.

3) Not true. Guy O confirmed in a Decemeber 28 2014 Twitter post that the double album planned was axed due to the leaks and the abrupt 6-song pre-order, not because of a deal dispute with Interscope. The 2 album concept had been in the works since summer of 2014. Interscope knew about it, if they didn't approve of it then they wouldn't have financed 2 albums worth of songs...

4) Not true. When the 360 deal was announced, Live Nation CEO Irving Azoff stated that they "would partner with some other entity in releasing Madonna’s next album." Executives stated numerous times that "they don’t intend to enter the record business full-tilt." They would either have to distritbute themselves (which means losing money), or partnering with a label.

1) She owns the Interscope years masters. She simply can't license those to another company until the contract expires (Interscope had to approve the use of the 10s remixes for "Finally Enough Love", for example). They're only licensed to Interscope for a period of time. And that's why she was able to included them on the new Warner deal and they'll pass into Warner as soon as the original Interscope deal expires. Again, the three albums are copyrighted to her own company, Boy Toy Inc. since day one. That's what a distribution deal means: the artists keeps the copyright and the ownership of their masters, while giving a company the exclusive license to distribute it for a number of years/limited period of time.

2) We agree then that she wasn't a priority for Interscope and that's why they didn't do s**t for her apart from the minimum.

3) She herself said that, whatever Guy O. said as well. I always felt Guy played a double game there. He was the one "forcing" her to go to the million people writing camps for "Rebel Heart", probably to make Universal people happy, while telling her it was the best for her to have a hit album. She later resented that. And maybe he was the one trying to control the "the label didn't allow me to do the double album" narrative, cause it was a negative one.

Anyway, here's her saying the label rejecting the idea of the double sided album:

It's clear she wanted to do a Beyoncé's "I Am... Sasha Fierce" type of project.

I remember also other interviews with her subtly talking about it.

Worth mentioning too how even in the final configuration with all the songs together, initially the final album that was leaked in February 2015 was going to include "Queen" and another song (was it "Joan Of Arc" Acoustic? Or "Iconic" Pt. II, something like that) but they were taken out as well and changed for "Living For Love" remixes, cause with the duration and number of original songs it would have counted as a double album anyway because of the chart rules or something. She tried the pull the double album trick until the end. But Interscope said "no, bitch" 

4) I'm not so sure about that. I think Live Nation wanted to venture into recorded music with Artist Nation, at least it looked like it when the deal was first announced:

https://www.livenationentertainment.com/2007/10/madonna-joins-forces-with-live-nation-in-revolutionary-global-music-partnership/

https://www.livenationentertainment.com/2007/10/live-nations-artist-nation-division-redefines-the-music-industry-with-unified-rights-model/

They didn't mention a partnership with Interscope for record distribution at all at first. Actually that was announced much later:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-madonna-idUSTRE7BE1BH20111216

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/madonna-interscope-live-nation-deal-273943/

Artist Nation then suddenly disappeared as a concept/brand later.

[Blue Jean 17,118]

Do you all have copies of Madonna’s contracts in a filing cabinet or something?

[Sultrysully 2,907]

14 hours ago, tscott said:

To some degreee, I agree.  But I think Warner started losing grip during the single releases of Music. Sometime after radio (especially in the U.S.) was reluctant to play her. 

American Life was definitely the turning point for American radio.  I love the later albums but she was not even given a chance.  Americans really were pissed off... and have stayed that way.  Madonna was more issue based from that point on too and Americans overall prefer fluff to substance.  Americans wanna play, not think.  Madonna was asking people to think more and they really wanted to party.  Just my opinion.  

[deathproof 11,132]

14 minutes ago, Prayer said:

1) She owns the Interscope masters. They're only licensed to Interscope for a period of time. And that's why she was able to included them on the new Warner deal and they'll pass into Warner as soon as they original Interscope deal expires. 

The Interscope deal ended back in 2020.

 

1 hour ago, Prayer said:

2) We agree then that she wasn't a priority for Interscope and that's why they didn't do s**t for her apart from the minimum.

Because it was a 180 deal lol. LiveNation already covered partnerships, licensing deals, touring, and merch.

That doesn't mean that Interscope didn't have a say in the recording and release of the albums. They preselected the singles for MDNA. They rejected Madonna's suggestion of Falling Free being a single, even when Orbit commissioned remixes for it. They were the ones who gave Madonna free reign to pick the first single for Madame X, but opted to have Crave be the 2nd single. They put together the radio deals for Ghosttown & Crave at adult contemporary stations. They put together the Valentine's Day weekend deal for pop radio.

16 minutes ago, Prayer said:

3) She herself said that, whatever Guy O. said as well. I always felt Guy played a double game there. He was the one "forcing" her to go to the million people writing camps for "Rebel Heart", probably to make Universal people happy, while telling her it was the best for her to have a hit album. She later resented that. 

From Guy O's mouth: The original plan was to release a double album in April 2015, which was "half Rebel, half Heart". This plan changed due to the recent leaks. It will now be one album with 19 full tracks, no interludes, to be released on March 10th. The album is "almost finished. Needs a little more work in the new year."

Guy suggested Avicii, he even wanted M to work with him since MDNA. Numerous other producers and writters were hired by Interscope. A lot of them confirmed this. Including Ariel Pink, who he and both Guy confirmed that Interscope pushed that possible collaboration.

21 minutes ago, Prayer said:

4) I'm not so sure about that. I think Live Nation wanted to venture into recorded music with Artist Nation, at least it looked like it when the deal was first announced:

Billboard confirmed the deal first:

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/update-madonna-confirms-deal-with-live-nation-1048045/

While she is signed with Live Nation, the company’s CEO Irving Azoff reiterated to Billboard in February that it would partner with some other entity in releasing Madonna’s next album. Executives at the firm have stated repeatedly that they don’t intend to enter the record business full-tilt.

“Live Nation, prior to the merger, entered into some of these all-rights deals, so there are certain artists, Madonna being one of them, that there is a recorded music strategy,” Azoff said. “Once she gets the album recorded, we’ll sit down with her and her manager Guy Oseary and figure out what’s best for the record. It has to start with the music.”

[wtg1987 10,638]

1 hour ago, Sultrysully said:

American Life was definitely the turning point for American radio.  I love the later albums but she was not even given a chance.  Americans really were pissed off... and have stayed that way.  Madonna was more issue based from that point on too and Americans overall prefer fluff to substance.  Americans wanna play, not think.  Madonna was asking people to think more and they really wanted to party.  Just my opinion.  

Plus it didn’t help it was a very poor album with the worst lead single of her career - no amount of radio play or animosity from the public was going to save that wretched song - she should have gone with Hollywood as lead single - not that it was particularly a strong song 🥹 damage was done by then …

[Sultrysully 2,907]

10 minutes ago, wtg1987 said:

Plus it didn’t help it was a very poor album with the worst lead single of her career - no amount of radio play or animosity from the public was going to save that wretched song - she should have gone with Hollywood as lead single - not that it was particularly a strong song 🥹 damage was done by then …

I actually love the American Life album.  I prefer it to the Music album.  Love Profusion... Nothing Fails... Intervention... Nobody Knows Me... Easy Ride...  Die Another Day... X-static Process... Hollywood... There is fantastic material on the album.  I am an American Life stan for sure  but it is well crafted.  It is phenomenal but not as a singles album.  A listen from beginning to end serves it best. 

[maddy1111 1,954]

1 hour ago, wtg1987 said:

Plus it didn’t help it was a very poor album with the worst lead single of her career - no amount of radio play or animosity from the public was going to save that wretched song - she should have gone with Hollywood as lead single - not that it was particularly a strong song 🥹 damage was done by then …

Very poor album with the worst lead single of her career? 

Giiiiirl, haven't you noticed GMAYL and MDNA? 

[Adonna 20,958]

Wow @PrayerThanks for all your input.  I agree the Interscope deal was for distribution only.  It was up to Madonna and her management to promote the albums.  Originally, Live Nation was going to distribute her work, but they failed to launch a record label to distribute, so Madonna was left scrambling for a distribution label.  If I recall Interscope made a three album deal for distribution and when she wanted to make Rebel Heart a double album, they weren't having it.  I assume they wanted to get another new project out of her as I suspect the double album could have completed their deal.

Anyway, thanks a lot.  You expressed her deal better than anyone else could.  Well done!

[Ziploc 2,570]

1 hour ago, wtg1987 said:

Plus it didn’t help it was a very poor album with the worst lead single of her career - no amount of radio play or animosity from the public was going to save that wretched song - she should have gone with Hollywood as lead single - not that it was particularly a strong song 🥹 damage was done by then …

That doesn't ring true at all. It was number 1 in Canada, Denmark, Italy, and Switzerland, number 2 in Greece, Spain and UK and Top 10 in Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands and Sweden. 

It even charted the week before it was released in the UK on import sales alone. Clearly it 'flopped' in the US due to the controversy and backlash and I don't think they've ever forgiven her. Look at the hate 'Hanoi Jane' Fonda still gets 50 years later. 

[Aiwa08 18,457]

1 hour ago, HC Charge said:

Very poor album with the worst lead single of her career? 

Giiiiirl, haven't you noticed GMAYL and MDNA? 

GMAYL and MDNA are better than American Life (album and Single). Period. 

[Would You Like To Try 9,433]

14 minutes ago, Aiwa08 said:

GMAYL and MDNA are better than American Life (album and Single). Period. 

 

Period?Girl what?

I love MDNA but nothing can insult my baby American Life

[Aiwa08 18,457]

9 minutes ago, Would You Like To Try said:

Period?Girl what?

I love MDNA but nothing can insult my baby American Life

What are you talking about? I haven't insulted American Life. But MDNA is insulted by a few fans every day since 2012. Please, accept that some of us love MDNA over American Life.

[Ziploc 2,570]

14 minutes ago, Aiwa08 said:

Please, accept that some of us love MDNA over American Life.

[Adonna 20,958]

15 minutes ago, Aiwa08 said:

What are you talking about? I haven't insulted American Life. But MDNA is insulted by a few fans every day since 2012. Please, accept that some of us love MDNA over American Life.

I'm proud to say I love the both.  If push comes to shove, I won't lie, I prefer AL over MDNA, but the latter has some really fantastic songs.  I don't take the singles from that album too seriously. They are fun tracks and if radio was willing to play her, those songs would have been pretty decent hits, especially GGW.  She pulled off a pretty massive publicity move with the Superbowl and then went straight into tour mode, which where the money was.