READ THE FULL Q&A WITH JOE ON MUSICALLY HERE
When you have sold over 100m albums and shift more tickets today than you did in your supposed peak in the 1980s – as Def Leppard are – you are “not exactly hurting” for money and can therefore afford to take your time when considering the leap into new, digital revenue streams.
This, according to lead singer Joe Elliott, was one major factor behind the band not putting their entire catalogue on streaming or download services until earlier this month. But there were other factors – notably a very public war of words with Universal Music over the handling and licensing of their catalogue, including the mega-selling Pyromania and Hysteria albums.
Elliott rarely held back in interviews over the past decade when asked why Def Leppard were digital holdouts.
What took so long to get all your music on digital services?
There are many different factors. First of all, there are the legalities – the grown-up side. When our record deal with Universal lapsed in 2009, there was no digital part of the deal. That’s because there was no digital in 1979 when we signed it. That had to be negotiated. So you just leave the grown-ups in one room to deal with all of that stuff. That didn’t work out originally because the people in Universal at the time and us just couldn’t meet in the middle.
You made some inflammatory statements about the label in the past and there seemed to be a lot of bad blood. David Rowe was very diplomatic when I spoke to him recently, but was a lot of this to do with a change of management at Universal?
READ THE FULL Q&A WITH JOE ON MUSICALLY HERE