MNRK buys Black Label Society recorded catalogue
MNRK Music Group has bought the recorded catalogue of Black Label Society, the metal band founded by Zakk Wylde. The company announced the acquisition on September 15, according to Music Business Worldwide. It did not disclose what it paid.
The price stays private. That is common in catalogue deals, where buyer and seller often agree to keep the figure confidential. The announcement also gave no details on who brokered the sale or how long talks took.
At the centre of the deal are 11 studio albums. Together they span more than two decades of releases. A studio album is a collection of newly recorded songs, made in a studio rather than captured on stage.
A recorded catalogue means the master recordings. Those are the original versions from which every copy, download and stream is made. Owning them is different from owning the songs as written down on paper. The new owner controls the specific recordings that fans know from the records.
Four titles were named in the announcement. They are Stronger Than Death, The Blessed Hellride, 1919 Eternal and Order of the Black. Those four records cover different periods in the band's history. They will now sit under the same owner for distribution and licensing, the business of authorising use and collecting payment.
The purchase goes wider than the main studio albums. It also includes Wylde's solo recordings made outside the band. That brings his work under his own name into the same package as the group catalogue.
It also takes in Unblackened, the live album released in 2013. A live album collects performances recorded in front of an audience, rather than in the studio. The deal adds further live releases, compilation projects and EPs. An EP, short for extended play, is longer than a single but shorter than a full album. A compilation gathers previously released tracks into one collection, often from across several years.
For fans, this means the old records have a new business home. The songs themselves do not change. What can change is the administration around them, from keeping every version available on streaming services to placing tracks in films, adverts and video games.
What makes this stand out is the scale. Eleven studio albums plus solo material, live recordings and compilations is a large body of work to move in one transaction. It gives one company control over a long run of recordings that were previously spread across different release campaigns.
MNRK has not set out any reissue plans or changes to how the music will be released. For now, the confirmed news is the change of ownership itself. Eleven albums. Two decades. One new owner.
