How Def Leppard became a ‘cool legacy band’ thanks to streaming services

The ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ hitmaker has suggested that without the likes of Spotify and Apple Music, the glam metal group’s music might not have reached so many generations.

“I went to see the Stones in ’89 on the ‘Steel Wheels’ tour.

“It was great but as I kind of like to do, people watch, I’m wandering around going ‘Look at this lot.’ Half the audience weren’t born when ‘Sticky Fingers’ came out, never mind the first album, you know.”

The 63-year-old rocker always aspired to have the same enduring legacy as the ‘Satisfaction’ hitmakers, and he credits streaming platforms with doing just that.

Joe told Goldmine magazine: “And then I see dad, son, grandson and they’re all singing ‘Miss You.’ You Know, eight, 28, 58, and I’m thinking, I really hope this happens to us down the road. Different circumstances; there was no Spotify back then. So that was father to son to grandson sort of thing, you know? But I think Spotify, Apple, it doesn’t matter which streaming service it is. They have all helped establish us as a cool legacy band.”

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Interestingly, the band waited to put their entire back catalogue on streaming services.

Part of the reason they waited was that they were holding out for a “fair deal”.

Joe explained in 2018: “We needed the right deal for the band. We weren’t going to be victims of the industry. We signed our deal with Mercury many, many decades ago when there was no digital part of the record deal. So when [our contract ended] in 2009, we were free to do whatever we wanted to do. We were so busy touring and not worrying about the back catalogue – because people were still buying CDs – that we weren’t sure about [embracing] streaming.

“We came to the conclusion that it’s not going to do us any harm, but the deal had to be right. These things just don’t happen overnight.”

The ‘Kick’ group wanted to ensure all of their music was available on each platform.

Joe said: “We didn’t want certain albums on one service and others through another one. So negotiating everything with different places just takes time, It’s not like a make-or-break thing, whether we do it or not. So we didn’t and just went off on our own.

“We were able to come to the decision that it was the right thing to do and have it all come out at once. So now you’ve got everything from the very first EP we did back in 1979 – which is what got us our record deal in the first place – all the way up to the last album that came out in 2015.”

Leppard is one of the biggest-selling groups of all time, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Joe and co released their 12th studio album ‘Diamond Star Halos’ in May, which became a Top 5 record in the UK.