Fans of Def Leppard finally have the chance to stream and download the band's music. After holding out for years, the '80s band released their music to a number of streaming services Friday, including Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes and Amazon.
The band, best known for the classic "Pour Some Sugar On Me," had a pretty simple explanation for why it hadn't released its music on streaming before: They weren't hurting for cash, and they simply didn't want to. "We were doing OK and we weren't really missing anything," singer Joe Elliot told USA Today on Friday.
It's officially #DefLeppardDay! For the first time EVER stream & download our entire catalog globally.. AND we're hitting the road with Journey in North America this May.. AND playing Hysteria in its entirety on tour in the UK! It's gonna be a great year https://t.co/ZYjhEkXDnt pic.twitter.com/utwts3FRL3
— Def Leppard (@DefLeppard) January 19, 2018
Elliot added that they wanted to wait out "the digital streaming thing" to see if it really caught on and if the business-model was there to stay. "We just had to get our heads around it," he said. "[It's the] same suspicion anyone has about anything new.The promise of what it can be and what it is is sometimes massively different. ... You start reading all these stories about [Lady] Gaga and Taylor [Swift] and 10 trillion listens and then they get a check for 50 bucks or something."
In an interview with Billboard in 2012, Elliot was outspoken about the band's record deal and the prospect of streaming. Def Leppard and Universal Music Group needed to come up with some way of working out compensation for digital music.
"When you're at loggerheads with an ex-record label who...is not prepared to pay you a fair amount of money and we have the right to say, 'Well, you're not doing it,' that's the way it's going to be," Elliott told Billboard.. "Our contract is such that they can't do anything with our music without our permission, not a thing. So we just sent them a letter saying, 'No matter what you want, you are going to get "no" as an answer, so don't ask.'"
In a tweet announcing its music would finally be available digitally, the band said it would be touring North America with Journey starting in May.
The band said it also planned to play the 1987 mega-hit Hysteria in its entirety on a U.K. tour. The 12-time platinum album spun off massive hits like "Pour Some Sugar On Me," "Love Bites" and "Animal."
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