Cranberries to quit MCA Records
The Cranberries are to terminate their contract with MCA Records, saying they can no longer swallow the label's "monolith" corporate style.
In a statement on their website, the Irish rockers said they still have one album to deliver for MCA but have opted to end the contract following advice from lawyers.
"Since we were signed in 1991 by Island Records, we have gradually seen our label dissolve from a pioneering independent spirited label into a corporate monolith that completely lost touch with the group's creative vision," stated singer Dolores O'Riordan.
She said, "All of the people we have worked with over the years have been fired or left the company, so the band felt it was time to move on to new opportunities."
The Limerick group have sold 38 million albums in the last ten years, including the smash hit 'No Need to Argue', but they say MCA in North America did little to help promote their last two albums in the past 15 months.
The band says they will produce a new album for an as yet undisclosed label by the end of this year.
MCA is a unit of Vivendi Universal to which The Cranberries transferred in 2000.
Meanwhile, Screendaily.com has reported that Vivendi Universal has begun talks on disposing of its US entertainment assets.
Last week, the European media conglomerate, which owns Universal Studios and StudioCanal, said had reined back its debts by ¤6.8bn to ¤13bn in the last six months.
