Metallica have announced that they might not put out their next album through a record label.
In a recent interview, drummer Lars Ulrich said:
"We’re free and clear of our record contract. The world’s our oyster. We can basically do whatever we want. And we’re going to start figuring that out. We’re writing music and we’re going to be recording very soon. At some point we’re going to want to share that with people that are interested in listening to it. So we gotta figure out ways we want to do that. We could come up with something wacky".
"This whole thing about who can come up with the coolest [release strategy] so it can be written about on 12 different blogs for six hours — I mean sure, that’s all pretty cool and hip. But at the same time you have to remember we have a very global audience".
"We have fans in India and the U.A.E. and Russia. In a lot of these places there are still more conventional ways of getting music to people. We have to think of the whole globe to try to find the right balance".