Metallica Fan Club, Ibanez Guitars, Victory Records and More Also Received Government Pandemic Assistance Ranging $150,000 to $5 million

Using newly released information from the U.S. government’s Small Business Administration, MetalSucks yesterday published a report detailing funds that a number of notable metal and rock acts received via the Paycheck Protection Program, the $660 billion government payments intended to keep small businesses afloat amidst the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Slipknot, Tool, Disturbed, Nickelback, Sammy Hagar, Sevendust and Papa Roach were just a few of the bands who received the loans, which can be completely forgiven if at least 75% of the funds are used to keep paying employees at pre-pandemic levels.

MetalSucks has continued combing through the SBA spreadsheet — which lists only 661,000 business out of the more than 4.9 million small businesses who received funding through the program — and we now have more information regarding other entities of note in the metal and rock worlds that received SBA assistance. Only businesses that took out loans of $150,000 or more were included on the SBA’s publicly released spreadsheet, and the exact amount of each loan was not revealed, but grouped into dollar ranges instead.

The list below includes companies from all across the music industry, including record labels, live venues, musical instrument and gear manufacturers, retail (instruments and records) and more, along with the size of the loan (grouped into monetary ranges per the SBA document) and the number of employees each company claimed to have on staff on its loan application.

It’s worth noting that applications for PPP loans opened in early April, meaning there’s a good chance many of these companies have already exhausted the funds, which were calculated to cover eight weeks’ worth of payroll at pre-pandemic levels.

Full disclosure compels us to reveal that MetalSucks also received a PPP loan, although ours was not sizable enough to meet the requirements for inclusion in the SBA’s publicly released document.

Companies that took loans between $5 million and $10 million:

• American Musical Supply, Inc.; 474 employees
• Sam Ash Music Corporation; 500 employees
• The Brooklyn Academy of Music; 466 employees

Between $2 million and $5 million:

• Paul Reed Smith Guitars; 373 employees

Between $1 million and $2 million:

• Downtown Music Publishing; 26 employees
• Whirwind Music Distributors, Inc.; 114 employees
• Moog Music Inc.: 157 employees
• Peavey Electronics Corporation; 81 employees
• Hoshino USA Inc. (Ibanez); no number of employees listed
• Korg USA Inc: 84 employees

Between $350,000 and $1 million:

• Metallica Club, Inc. (a California corporation whose owners includes James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich); 20 employees
• Q Prime, Inc. (management firm that handles Metallica, Baroness, Disturbed, Volbeat, Muse and more); 36 employees
• Equal Vision Records, Inc.; 80 employees
• Kemado Records Inc.; 19 employees
• Knitting Factory Records, Inc.; 25 employees
• Sub Pop Records; 60 employees
• Third Man Records, LLC: 30 employees
• The Music Syndicate, LLC; 26 employees
• Abkco Music and Records, Inc.; 35 employees
• Alto Music of Orange County, Inc.: 58 employees
• Crush Music Media Management, Inc.; 30 employees
• Downtown Music, LLC; 42 employees
• Music Video Distributors; no employees listed
• Rock Ridge Music LLC: 6 employees
• Allparts Music Corporation; 40 employees
• Chicago Music Exchange LLC; 84 employees
• Strange Music Inc.; 37 employees
• Kiesel Guitars; 49 employees
• Schecter Guitar Research Inc.; 51 employees
• Mesa/Boogie, Limited: 75 employees
• EMG Inc; 58 employees
• DiMarzio Inc.; 60 employees

Between $150,000 and $350,000:

• Sumerian Records, LLC; 19 employees
• Metal Blade Records, Inc.; 15 employees
• Victory Records, Inc.; 24 employees
• Cleopatra Records Inc.; 15 employees
• Hopeless Records, Inc.; 13 employees
• Kings Road Merchandising, Inc.; 33 employees
• Alto Music of Dutchess County, Inc; 21 employees
• Save the Music Foundation; 10 employees
• The Music Zoo, Inc.; 12 employees
• Grover Musical Products, Inc.; 20 employees
• Sammick Music Group; 34 employees
• Kyser Musical Products; 11 employees
• Amoeba Music, Inc.; 26 employees
• Berkeley Music Group; 10 employees
• House of Blues Music Forward Foundation; 16 employees
• Music Man Inc.; 18 employees
• Ace Products Enterprises Inc; 20 employees
• Aguilar Amplification LLC; 20 employees

You can view the full SBA report here.