Band - Label relation (music industry question)

[U2girl]

(I hope this is the right forum for this)

As some people called U2's latest album "too safe" and "too mainstream" and "too marketed - sell out" I was wondering how much (if anything) did the sound/promotion of the album have to do with the fact that Interscope bought Island label?

How much influence can a label have on a band's sound and an album promotion? When a band gets a new label, are they under any kind of commitment how much copies of the next album must be sold in order to stay with the label?

 

[Popmartijn]

Hello,

In U2's case it has nothing to do with the fact that they moved to Interscope, etc. U2 has a contract that states that they (= U2) have complete artistic control over the record. This includes the songs, tracklisting and the cover. In short, the label does not have any direct influence on the final product. They may suggest they can better adjust some things, but the final decision lies with U2 (BTW, by suggesting something the label may cause opposite results as the band may be stubborn and refuse to listen to the record company).

However, if you look at this situation more general then there are many cases where the record company does have much influence on the final product of an artist. They may 'order' the artist to write certain songs, may refuse to release an album and they can drop an artist when they think that artist is selling too little.

C ya!

Marty