Paramore Is a Free Agent, as Band Wipes Online Presence Clean After Completing Atlantic Contract
Paramore is a free agent. That, and not a band breakup, is the reason most of the group’s online presence has been suddenly wiped clean, sources tell Variety.
The band’s longtime website, paramore.net, now leads to a “404 Not Found” message, which alarmed many fans of the group. It’s not due to a split. The site was taken down on the day the group’s 20-year deal with Atlantic Records was up, sources say.
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Besides the website going kaput, most of Paramore’s social media accounts have also been wiped clean. The group’s Twitter and Instagram pages — with 5.3 million and 3.5 million followers, respectively — show zero posts, and its Threads account appears to have been deleted; only the group’s Facebook account still included archived posts as of this writing.
The only thing remaining on Paramore’s Instagram account is a “story” apologizing for canceling a headline appearance at iHeart’s AlterEgo concert coming up in Southern California. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, Paramore can no longer attend and perform at iHeartRadio ALTer EGO on January 13,” the statement read. “The band apologizes for any inconvenience.” (Fall Out Boy was announced Thursday as a replacement headliner at the multi-artist iHeart show.)
The cancellation further distressed fans who wondered if it was a sign of a breakup, after the sudden social disappearance. But sources say the iHeart cancellation was truly a case of scheduling conflict issues for key participants.
Atlantic reps referred inquiries about the band to Paramore’s rep, who had no official comment.
Paramore has a busy year of touring ahead, mostly on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Europe. The group joins Swift with the very first European date May 9 in Paris and then stays with the tour for more than three months, all the way through a European finale Aug. 20 in London. (Gracie Abrams then joins Swift as opener for a final round of North American dates in November and December.)
Prior to joining the Eras Tour four months from now, Paramore has a handful of festival dates lined up in Central and South America for March.
Speculation that Paramore was breaking up and would be leaving an empty space on the Eras Tour was so rampant in the last 24 hours that Swift fans had immediately begun speculating who might fill the band’s slot for that tour’s three-month European run.
A sort of conspiracy theory formed around Maisie Peters as a possible Euro opener for Swift. A print profile of Peters in the December U.K. edition of Rolling Stone had even stated: “It’s little wonder, then, that she’s been snapped up as support for Swift’s European ‘Eras’ tour next year.” But that sentence had been removed from the web version of the story, leading Swifties to speculate: What did Rolling Stone know about Paramore and when did they know it?
Peters herself cleared that up Friday morning in a post on X (formerly Twitter): She’s not on the Eras Tour — in place of Paramore or anyone else. “Girls i’m afraid that whilst i shall hopefully be shrieking all too well at wembley this summer, it shall be shrieked from the stands!” the young star posted. “I am not an eras tour opener! Alas the rumours are just rumouring!:
Paramore’s contract with Atlantic has been a source of some public confusion over the years, since Hayley Williams was being recruited as a solo artist, and her signing with the label predates what some accounts of the band’s history cite as the formation of the band.
The Atlantic contract was actually a solo deal with Williams, who was signed in 2003 to a much-vaunted “360 deal” in which artists share not just revenue from their album sales but concert, merchandise and other earnings with their label in exchange for ostensibly greater comprehensive career support. However, the nature of the deal caused dissention within the band and was cited as a reason for brothers Zach and Josh Farro to leave in 2010. Zach Farro rejoined in 2017; with Williams, he and guitarist Taylor York, who joined in 2009, are the official current band members.
In a long-since-deleted blog post, Josh Farro wrote in 2010, “After many meetings between Hayley, her manager and the labels they decided to sign her to Atlantic Records. We didn’t understand why Hayley was the only one signing the contract since we were told this was a ‘band,’ but we were too young to grasp all of this. … All the while we still questioned whether or not we were an actual band, but Hayley continued to insist we were, despite our being ignored and pushed around by the label.”
Paramore’s most recent album, “This Is Why,” came out just 11 months ago, on Feb. 10, and was well-received, appearing in recent weeks on many best-of-2023 lists. (The album track “The News” appeared on Variety‘s list of the best songs of 2023.) After Paramore appeared on many of Swift’s Eras Tour dates in the U.S. last spring and summer, the group wrapped up its 2023 touring with a run of headline shows in Australia at the end of November.
Additional reporting by Jem Aswad.
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