Chevelle hasn't made any money from selling more than 6 million albums in its career, according to frontman Pete Loeffler.
Someone makes money from album sales, but as is so often the case in the modern music business, that's generally not the artist.
Speaking with WEBN Cincinatti's KiddChris recently, Pete explained that he and his brother, drummer Sam Loeffler, just handed in the final album of their deal with Sony/Epic. After a year of not being able to tour, Pete says the band is strongly considering going independent.
"Contracts are a bitch, and we signed some raw ones," Pete said. "We need to start making some money off of our catalog, which is 10 albums deep, plus all the side stuff. We haven't made any money off of record sales, albums sales. It's all gone to the major labels. A lot of people make money off of us; we just don't make money the way the deals are structured. We just aren't excited to get back into any kind of contract. If we find a new home at a new label — wherever that is — it's got to be a special deal where you get something for your hard work.
"It would be nice to do something different and actually make a buck off an album for once. It just hasn't happened for us. We've sold 6 million albums for Epic Records and they've made $50 million."
Chevelle's 10th studio album, Niratias, arrived March 5 and quickly hit No. 1 on the Rock Albums chart. It's the band's third album in a row to top the rock chart.
Pete says the band is mulling the idea of self-releasing its next album or perhaps starting its own label to service their music. While Chevelle has made plenty of friends at its label, the business side of the relationship has been too "lopsided."
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