Victory Records gets dropped by Spotify then sues Streetlight Manifesto

Music News | Oct 22nd, 2015

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The ongoing drama of Victory Records continues. First the label sent out a press release (see below) of them getting dropped by Spotify for not getting paid royalties by the streaming service. If you can’t see the irony in this then you haven’t been paying attention to Victory Records lately. Streetlight Manifesto made light of this Spotify stuff and then news broke out that Victory is suing the ska band for 1…Million…Dollars. Victory Records is run by Dr. Evil now?

Victory claims Streetlight Manifesto violated their contract for not recording 4 albums on the label. This isn’t the first time the band and label have been in legal troubles and probably won’t be the last. I haven’t been following this that closely but know this crap has been going on for several years now. And it’s not just Streetlight Manifesto that had bad dealings with Victory either.

Courthouse News Service posted:

Victory Records filed the complaint on Friday against Streetlight Manifesto, through its “mercurial leader” Tomas Kalnoky.

In addition to acting as the “creative” force behind Streetlight Manifesto, which formed 13 years ago in New Brunswick, N.J., Kalnoky is the only original band member remaining, according to the complaint.

Victory Records released the band’s first album, “Everything Goes Numb,” in August 2003. The label says their deal required the band to deliver Victory up to four albums.

Kalnoky’s “incessant production delays” caused a three-year delay to the band’s second album, “Keasbey Nights,” according to the complaint.

“Kalnoky, a self-proclaimed perfectionist, once acknowledged in an update to the SLM website his band’s penchant for persistently delaying completing production of studio albums: ‘We are aware of our reputation to take forever to release records and miss our self-imposed deadlines,'” the complaint states. “Whatever the subjective basis for Kalnoky’s proclivity to procrastinate, it had the objective effect of holding albums hostage long after he had received the recording advances from Victory.”

Sounds like a giant headache but Victory once again sounds like a bunch of money grubbing cry babies. You can read the rest at the website here.

Now about that Spotify news…..

Here’s the press release Victory sent out few days ago:

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 (www.audiam.com). 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.

Streetlight Manifesto response to Victory Records/Spotify troubles:

I have a headache from just reading all of this..can’t imagine how the band feels.

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