Stones Sign One-Album Deal

The Rolling Stones have signed an exclusive one-album recording agreement with the Universal Music Group in a new and uncharacteristic move. The album, produced as a soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s film Shine a Light, is due in March. It will be released both physically and digitally in the U.K. by Polydor records and across Universal Music’s labels around the world. The deal follows the Stones’ “A Bigger Bang” world tour, which ended at London’s O2 arena last august and broke records as the highest grossing tour of all time.

The Rolling Stones have signed an exclusive one-album recording agreement with the Universal Music Group in a new and uncharacteristic move. The album, produced as a soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s film Shine a Light, is due in March. It will be released both physically and digitally in the U.K. by Polydor records and across Universal Music’s labels around the world. The deal follows the Stones’ “A Bigger Bang” world tour, which ended at London’s O2 arena last august and broke records as the highest grossing tour of all time.

British record label EMI, to which the band has signed in the past, seems confident that the Stones will maintain the historic relationship, despite a current and “revolutionary” overhaul within the corporation. In recent months, EMI has lost two of its highest profile artists in Radiohead and Paul McCartney, and it plans to lay off up to a third of its workforce due to falling record revenue, among other issues. The change has raised speculation as to whether the label will continue to put out the Stones’ post-1971 output, an agreement that dates back to 1991.