Spotify Pulls Victory Records Catalog

Pay The Man

SPOTIFY has pulled the music catalog of hardcore rock indie VICTORY RECORDS off its site last night; the label claims SPOTIFY has not properly paid publishing revenues to its artists "in blatant violation of US Copyright laws." The streamer "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," the label statement continued. "Fifty-three million 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 ... we remain hopeful that SPOTIFY will do the right thing."

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