6 Lessons Every Business Can Learn from Metallica

Metallica is arguably one of the greatest and most successful metal bands of all time. The band have had three number-one albums and numerous chart-topping songs. The fact they have been leading the charge since 1981, and still going strong speaks volumes.

Regardless of your musical tastes, their success is undeniable but as we know, music is a business and Metallica is a business. However, irrespective of their legendary, God-like status in the music world, the challenges, and lessons of starting, running and scaling a business did not and have not escaped the metal hall-of-famers.

Build With A Vision

Lars Ulrich, hailing from Denmark and the drummer and founder of the band, was initially destined to become a professional tennis player but when his family moved to the United States, he quickly became obsessed and absorbed by a musical movement happening in the United Kingdom called the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). From this, he wanted to start a band and placed an advert in the newspaper seeking band members to join him on his mission.

It was the vision and obsession of Ulrich that was the catalyst for Metallica’s birth, and it was this vision that was the magnet that attracted McGovney and Hetfield as the founding members of the band.

Like with a lot of successful businesses, it is usually the vision of the entrepreneur that the business is created within. It is this vision that will later create a higher purpose for the business and allow the opportunity for a deeper sense of belonging and alignment from its team and customers as the business grows.

Create Your Own Market

Despite the influences being from a musical movement happening elsewhere in the world, Metallica created a very new and unique sound which later became labelled Speed Metal or Thrash Metal.

This differentiation from the mainstream pinned the band into the underground scene, and it was there where they began to cultivate their own fans and attract admiration from elsewhere within the music scene.

This genre of Speed Metal or Thrash Metal was a new and manufactured micro-niche that was an amalgamation of various existing genres existing at the time creating an emerging and fresh sound for the musical world to hear and witness.

Go Where The Opportunities Are

Metallica originated in Los Angeles, and it was only when they identified a new talent to join their band by the name of Cliff Burton that it was apparent that the band needed to move from LA to the Bay area of San Francisco. This was to not only solidify the position of their new member but to be where their new sound could be appreciated and where there was an outlet for their music to be heard on a larger level.

In a post-pandemic world, being in the right 'location' is less of a factor. This is due to businesses and teams becoming more remote and not dependent on geography. However, having the right network and publishing in the right channels can now be considered the environment and location in which businesses gain fans, generate hype and ultimately, become successful.

It Takes Time To Get The Right Line-Up (Team)

As with any business, people tend to come and go and it is rarely the case that a company will have the right people from the outset. In addition, retaining great talent is a huge challenge and the departure of talent can be the result of many factors.

These are the challenges that Metallica has faced throughout its career. Due to Metallica being a four-piece band, it could be argued that the departure or loss of a member is magnified and closely compared to that of a start-up or small business.

They first cut one of their founding members for someone with more talent, then they cut another member because he partied too hard and was a destructive and toxic vein of the Metallica collective.

The entries and departures were not always within the control of the band though. In 1986 the band lost their bass player in the most horrifying and upsetting circumstances. The death of Cliff Burton after an unfortunate bus crash in Sweden plunged the band into turmoil and disarray. However, the drive and determination to carry on in the spirit of their deceased team member proved that Metallica, as a band and as a business, was doing something on a higher level and deserved the commitment and resilience of its members to keep going.

Later in 2001, they then had a long-serving member leave due to internal differences. This, again, forced the band to question their mission and set out on the search of finding a suitable replacement.

However, when the vision and mission are so clear along with the foundation on which the business [or band in this case] is based, there is always room for continuation and progress.

Like with a pre-seed start-up, a scaling business or a large-scale enterprise, the line-up will change. People will come and go and it can seem like a relentless revolving door but the mission carries on.

Attract and Form Partnerships

When it comes to partnerships in business, they are for the strategic benefit of the company in that they can reach a wider audience by dipping into the world of another. Red Bull and GoPro, Nike and Apple, BMW and Luis Vuitton are all examples of successful partnerships in business and brought customers from one sphere to another.

Metallica was no exception to this. In the summer of 1990, Metallica began writing its fifth studio album. This was going to be no album like any other they had ever written and subsequently would launch them into the music mainstream. For this album, however, they stepped out of their comfort zone and partnered with star producer, Bob Rock. Rock had produced albums for the likes of Bon Jovi and Motley Crue, enjoying wild success within the music production circles. This partnership proved to be Metallica’s best yet with them launching straight to number one in the album charts in the summer of ’91 and a world tour stretching two years with 224 shows across three continents.

In November 1999, a concert took place which was one never undertaken by a heavy metal band in the history of the genre. Metallica teamed up with Michael Kamen and The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and, for two nights, merged the worlds of classical music and heavy metal.

They Were Not Afraid To Experiment

Throughout a business’s lifetime, there are periods of uncertainty, doubt, introspection, and disorder. These times can cause businesses to look at themselves and ask the question ‘who are we?”, “what do we want to be known for?” and “why exactly are we doing this?”.

These questions can sometimes result in a business turning to experimentation and venturing into territories unknown within their sector, or even outside their sector. And some of these experimentations have not been successful; for example, when Colgate launched Kitchen Entrees, or when Coca-Cola launched ‘New Coke’ in 1985, and when Pepsi launched Crystal Pepsi. The list of companies experimenting is endless, but we do not often get to hear about it within the realms of experimentation unless it goes badly wrong.

Metallica went through a seemingly similar period in the mid-’90s with their sixth and seventh studio albums, ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ respectively. These albums were seen as experimental due to the shift in musical style, band look and subjects mentioned within the songs.

Now, it could be argued that the very nature of experimentation is looked upon as a necessity within the music industry, and indeed the arts. However, such a bold and seismic shift could have had a cataclysmic effect on the band and they may never have recovered. Luckily for Metallica, their hardcore fans saw the experiment for what it was and now some of those songs from the two albums have actually gone on to become cult classics amongst Metallica fans.

Conclusion

Irrespective of personal taste or musical orientation, Metallica’s success is widely looked on as being unrivalled within the Rock and Heavy Metal genres with a career spanning over four decades. A career and lifespan that most businesses would be over the moon about achieving.