Update – October 20th 3:25pm:
There’s now some hard numbers and data regarding the dispute to back up Victory‘s claims here.
Update – October 20th 1:24pm:
A few artists have chimed in, including former Victory Records artist Counterparts and I Declare War frontman Jamie Hanks:
Pulls product from website for stealing. Hasn’t paid a band royalties in a decade.
— buffdaddymeatboy (@jamiehanks) October 20, 2015
Yo it’s the last day to buy the wedding singer shirt from merch limited. Or you can buy Spotify and try and listen to our old records up 2 u — Counterparts (@counterparts905) October 20, 2015
go download the fucking Victory releases from Kazaa or Bearshare man idk
— Counterparts (@counterparts905) October 20, 2015
Original Story:
Victory Records‘ catalog has been withdrawn from streaming music service Spotify due to what the label is describing as a ‘blatant violation of U.S. copyright laws’ committed by Spotify. The label issued the following statement:
“Victory Records‘ catalog of music was pulled from Spotify last night as a result of Spotify not properly paying publishing revenues due to Victory Records‘ artists in blatant violation of US Copyright laws. Spotify also pulled down a very large number of albums that Victory is not the publisher for proving that their internal systems are inadequate. We asked that our catalog not be pulled, that we would amicably work with Spotify, and they haphazardly removed our content regardless. 53,000,000 streams, as per Spotify‘s statements, were identified with no publishing royalties being paid by Spotify.
Late yesterday, Spotify sent over a document giving them mechanical clearance to use our music. We could not sign said document for a variety of reasons, most importantly, that it would put us in direct violation of our agreement with Audiam. Spotify knows we are in business with Audiam and were essentially asking us to breach/ignore that agreement. The issue of nonpayment for songwriters and composers is a widespread problem and not exclusive to Victory Records‘ artists. We understand your frustration with not being able to listen to the music you enjoy (and most pay for via subscription).
The bottom line is that artists and songwriters are not being paid and fans of Victory‘s artists cannot listen to the music.
Thank you for your support and we remain hopeful that Spotify will do the right thing.”
This is not the first time Victory Records have clashed with a digital music giant. Label founder Tony Brummel famously tried to score preferential treatment with iTunes back in 2006.
