In 1981, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were riding high after the success of their breakout album Damn the Torpedoes. With the band now firmly established as rock superstars, they began work on Hard Promises, their second album on Backstreet Records, distributed by MCA.
But after recording the album, Petty found himself in an unexpected fight over how much fans would have to pay to hear it.
Because Petty and the Heartbreakers were now such a big act, Hard Promises was on track for “superstar pricing” by MCA, which would give it a $9.98 price tag instead of the usual $8.98 that most albums sold for.
Petty wasn’t having it. Not only did he threaten to name the album Eight Ninety-Eight, but he went head-to-head with the record company.
“If we don’t take a stand, one of these days records are going to be $20,” he said at the time.
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Petty felt he owed it to his loyal fan base to keep his album prices low.
“A lot of fans have been with us for a long time and I think they trust us,” he told The New York Times in 1981. “MCA has done a great job selling our records, but they couldn’t see the reality of what it’s like on the street — they couldn’t see that raising the album’s price wouldn’t be fair.”
The Florida rocker also clarified that he didn’t see MCA as an “enemy,” and he blamed the pricing situation on a miscommunication.
“My beef with MCA was that they originally told us Hard Promises would be $8.98 and then changed their minds,” he explained. “But it would be wrong to single them out; every other company would like to push record prices right on up there. I’m not usually as concerned with record company business as you might think; I like to devote my time and energy to being a musician. But sometimes there’s a communications breakdown and, when that happens, you just have to stand up for yourself.”
Petty knew that taking a stand was risky and he hadn’t been at all sure that he would win the price war.
“I never really was sure that we’d win that one, but I hoped we would, if for no other reason than I didn’t want to be the guy that brought records up to $9.98,” he said in a 1981 interview posted by Medium. “I thought it was…I didn’t want that hung on us, because we had no part of it.”
“Legally they can charge whatever they like for the records,” he added. “I didn’t really have any rights other than to say, ‘I’m not going to give you the record.’ That was about all I could do. I was happy the way it turned out, so…another battle, another year. I don’t want to fight with the record company a lot — it really isn’t my idea of a good time.”
Hard Promises was released in May 1981 and sold for $8.98. It was another Petty hit, featuring the singles “The Waiting,” “A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me)” as well as the album track “Insider,” a gorgeous duet with Stevie Nicks.
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