Oasis ready to release new album via deal with Sony BMG

British band Oasis have reportedly signed a new record deal with Sony BMG Music Entertainment via the band's own record label Big Brother Recordings. Big Brother will release the band's new material while Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Germany's Bertlesmann Media Group, handles distribution of the new album and the band's back catalog in all markets, and the two companies will share profits. Music newspaper NME additionally reports that all signs indicate the first album as part of the new arrangement will be released this fall.

The band has been associated with Sony BMG in some form or another since its first album was released in 1994. Creation Records, the band's first label in the United Kingdom, handled distribution and release there, while Sony handled the same duties in other markets, including the United States. When Creation folded in the late 90s and Big Brother was set up, the same arrangement was kept. The band's last album of new material was released in the U.S. by Sony BMG's Epic Records, while the band's final album under the old contract, a "best of" compilation, was released by Columbia Records.

Oasis' management reported that the band is excited about the deal and the prospects that it gives the band in "building on the band's already considerable international success." The band's management reported that the new deal "allows the band to take advantage of all the opportunities presented by the new business models available today as well as remaining totally in control of their own destiny." Other band's at the same level of international success as Oasis, like Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails, have pursued different business methods than more traditional record labels.