Jonny McBee, singer for metalcore band The Browning, has accused Earache Records of owing them royalties and keeping their music off streaming platforms. Earache put out two of their albums, Burn This World (2011) and Hypernova (2013).
The accusation came in response to a tweet made by Earache calling for support for musicians since they’ve been unable to perform on stages the past six months. Earache’s tweet has since been removed. McBee also included a screenshot showing that Earache has blocked him on Twitter.
McBee initially asked why Earache continued to keep Burn This World and Hypernova off the internet, later elaborating to say they’ve been removed from the services for the last four years with no reason given. The Browning switched to Spinefarm Records in 2016, who released their last two albums and uploaded them to streaming.
In further tweets in the thread, McBee also brought up the unpaid royalties allegation and talked about needing the money. He mentioned that he’s lost a lot of money due to COVID-19 and wanted to be able to finish building a small house for his family to live in.
Later, McBee continued to say The Browning toured 250 days a year for many years so he could promote those two albums. He stated that he’s had many fans who grew attached to the records during middle school or high school reach out to him, and that he wished he could let them relive the nostalgia.
Apparently, The Browning first brought up these allegations early in 2019. “For whatever reason they decided to take them down, and as we don’t see royalties from those anyway, they are doing nothing but shooting themselves in the foot to spite us, and to spite you, our fans who enjoy those albums.”
The Browning continued, “We have tried to reach out to no avail, and they have blocked us on both the band pages, and our personal pages on social media. There is not a lot we can do about it, as they have the legal precedent to do what they want with the albums they own.”
Former Earache band Decapitated also faced a similar situation with the label back in 2016. Decapitated alleged that “Earache would rather waste time and money being obstructive and uncooperative instead of simply paying their bands what is due.”
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