As many of you are already aware, Death Grips liberated their latest album for free, apparently without the permission of their label Epic. The label then told the band to take the album down, but this was mostly just hearsay from the band and other news outlets. Of course, the damage is done and all the fans who wanted the album already have it. To make matters more interesting, Death Grips released a screenshot of an email from an executive telling the band how disappointed they were in the matter, and that they want to take the music down in order to sell it later. This is supposed to serve as proof that they are indeed going against what the label wanted.
I am calling bullshit on this, though. Why? Because it makes almost no sense that Death Grips would go behind the backs of the label they willingly signed with a year ago, especially after a fairly successful debut release. I could be missing something here, but it all seems very fishy. Plus, when a band signs to a label, a major one at that, they usually give their social media rights to the marketing team.
In most cases, the label would delete a post this revealing, if it were true. And, the pictures doesn’t even reveal the actual email addresses of the executives at hand. Not that those would be hard to find in any case. I am just speculating, but the whole tough guy mentality is beginning to look more and more like a contrived major label marketing push then that of an actual underground band. Who knows, though, maybe my conspiracy theory is far-fetched.
Read the email by clicking the image to enlarge below, or head over to Facebook to view the original post. And click here to see the response from the group’s manager, Peter Katsis. Let us know what you think about this in the comments section below.
The best.
Nah, that’s generally how these types of situations are handled. I do licensing and royalty auditing for a business management firm and we will send preliminary emails like this to just have for the record. My guess is that they have talked on the phone. The band is just taking advantage of the PR opportunity.
I agree with the sentiment. A couple of things: 1. Artists don’t necessarily give up rights to social media. If they’re smart at least. 2. Email would NOT be the way the label would be communicating this. Phone calls and/or meetings would be happening. The song “I’ve Seen Footage” is great, by the way.
i love you, whoever you are
So am I!
Who cares, I’m a fag
it’s lame because it’s so “fake punk” it hurts
hahahaha
Who cares, they juste have an unorthodox way to promote themselves, and it’s working.
the number is an “Epic” number, although that is also pretty easy to fake/provide.
doesn’t have an email address, but have you tried the phone numbers in the signature to confirm or deny this “publicity stunt”?
Who cares their music sucks