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Paul McCartney signs new deal with Capitol

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 18 August 2016

Paul McCartney has signed a new worldwide record deal with Universal’s Capitol Records, covering all of his post-Beatles work. The deal sees him return to his original US label as a solo artist.

“This is genuinely exciting for me”, says McCartney. “Not only was Capitol my first US record label, but the first record I ever bought was Gene Vincent’s ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’ on the Capitol label”.

He moves his catalogue from independent company Concord Music Group, through which he was once signed to Starbucks’ Hear Music label. You remember that was a thing, right? While McCartney works on a new solo album, Capitol and Universal Music Enterprises are drawing up “a comprehensive plan for the artist’s catalogue”, due to be unveiled in July next year. Capitol CEO Steve Barnett is pretty excited about it, I can tell you.

“Paul McCartney’s association with Capitol has long defined so much of our historic legacy, and all of us here are extremely proud and honoured that he has chosen to come back home”, says Barnett. “Paul’s indelible contributions to our culture are second to none, and his constant evolution as an artist and performer continues to inspire and enrich the lives of countless millions of people. We are overjoyed that Paul will be creating new music for years to come, and that Capitol will be helping to present it to the world”.

You’d think being that excited in a quote would leave Universal overlord Lucian Grainge with very little chance of topping it, but you would be wrong.

“It would be simply impossible to overstate what an honour it is to welcome Paul back to Capitol”, says Uncle Luci. “It’s a homecoming of one of the greatest musical artists of all time to the label that first helped bring his incredible music to the world. Paul’s astonishing career has shown no limits – in creativity, in commercial longevity, and in its impact on people and cultures in every corner of the globe. We are THRILLED at both Capitol and UMG to be able to contribute to the next chapter in Paul’s extraordinary career”.

I don’t think there’s now time for the full quote from UMG’s EVP US Recorded Music Michele Anthony too, but I can tell you that she is “BEYOND THRILLED” about this whole thing. And why not? It’s very exciting. Paul McCartney was in The Beatles, you know. And he once did a song about frogs.