This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply. Victory Records has issued a statement on their current lawsuit with A Day To Remember after frontman Jeremy McKinnon spoke with Kerrang. It can be found below. I warn you, it’s hard not to read it in Donald Trump’s voice. Victory Records has issued a detailed response to a recent article in Kerrang! Magazine referencing the litigation filed against it by the band A Day To Remember. Victory Records is compelled to provide the following information to the public, specifically in response to untrue statements made by band leader Jeremy McKinnon. Victory did not file this lawsuit, A Day To Remember did so in order to avoid their remaining recording commitments to Victory. In fact, Victory was blindsided by the lawsuit that the band began to surreptitiously prepare as early as 2010. The core issue in the lawsuit is how many “Albums” A Day To Remember delivered under its agreement with Victory Records. Not once before filing the lawsuit did ADTR claim to Victory or to the public that they had satisfied their 5-Album recording commitment. They never asserted that Victory’s efforts concerning the marketing, promotion and distribution of the albums was anything less than stellar. During the years ADTR considered itself a Victory artist, they never complained about royalties. Including the recent article in Kerrang!, virtually every press outlet that has covered ADTR’s album releases since 2006 have reported the number of full length studio albums ADTR released in total – this includes the three albums released by Victory (2007’s For Those Who Have Heart, 2009’s Homesick, 2010’s What Separates Me From You), Old Record (a 2008 re-release of a previous ADTR album on Indianola Records as part of a separate agreement), 2013’s Common Courtesy (the “Fifth” album), and now Bad Vibrations (the “Sixth” Album). ADTR’s inherently absurd claim that they delivered 13 “Albums” in the first two years of their agreement with Victory defies common sense, logic and reality. Victory continued to pay A Day To Remember royalties even after the band filed this lawsuit. Victory ceased paying royalties when ADTR interfered with Victory’s merchandise sales to Hot Topic which was well into the lawsuit. Victory asserted a “Set-off” counterclaim in the lawsuit, which in this situation permits the withholding of payments that may be otherwise due based on ADTR’s material breaches of their agreement – which includes selling merchandise and music via ADTR.com, to other retailers, and refusing to deliver two commitment albums to Victory. As a result of these breaches, Victory sustained damages in the millions of dollars. In August 2011 (two months after ADTR filed the lawsuit) Victory made its first of many settlement offers to resolve this dispute. They were all rejected by the band. ADTR rejected Victory’s settlement proposals again in 2013 and instead self-released Common Courtesy. This was a very obvious indicator that they never had any intention of settling their lawsuit. Expand - View Original
Haven't read that ADTR interview where he allegedly says "we put out 12 albums in 2 years" or whatever. I've always been intrigued by this case and I still can't believe this is going on.
This case is kinda a clusterfuck because ADTR are trying to classify things that shouldn't necessarily be considered 'albums' as 'albums' (ie. EPs and separate releases of LPs) Original complaint for those who wish to read: UPDATE: A Day To Remember’s lawsuit against Victory Records confirmed - News - Alternative Press
The claim from the band members, so far as I can tell (the Wikipedia article links to an AbsolutePunk interview which is now a dead link) is that they released three studio albums (Homesick through What Separates Me) and two live albums which adds up to five albums worth of material, even leaving aside EPs and B-sides and so on. I mean, to be honest, I think Victory are correct in so far as ADTR are suing because they want to move to a major label; the thing is most labels do not get this protective of contracts. I'm confused as to how the band can release Bad Vibrations with distribution from Epitaph and this not infringe on Victory's copyright; if self-releasing is okay then Victory basically have nothing to hold over ADTR except (increasingly diminishing) royalties.
I've asked almost every Victory band that has toured through my area about the label, nothing good was ever said...
I think Standby Records is going to come close within the next few months. The floodgates have opened.
Cue the Victory statements coming out while ATDR is on the biggest tour of their life and weeks from an album release...
I don't think this reflects all that well on ADTR. Much as Victory sound like a bag of crap (I've read some of the other articles posted to the old site), it does sound like ADTR are just trying to jump ship. That being said, given how big they are and the fact they seem so sure they could get major label backing, I'm sort of surprised that one hasn't bought them out of the Victory contract. Although, given the stories about Victory, they'd probably demand $100m, the moon and a garage full of cheap prostitutes.
This basically started everything. On Davey's Facebook page, quite a few people commented with similar stories about what Neil did to them and their bands.
I don't get the Trump comment. I am only vaguely familiar with ADTR and have heard negative Victory stories, but this just reads like one side of the story to me; nothing stands out as crazy, vindictive, or otherwise noteworthy.
Knowing Victory's history and being familiar with Tony's rants is key here. This is actually fairly tame for him. The whole situation is so garbage- I don't care for ADTR anymore but the fact that they're the next in a long line of bands to be mistreated by Victory is a bummer. It baffles me that they stay in business and that bands keep signing with them.
This is a long read but a pretty detailed account "Tell-All" from a former-Victory employee Victory Record’s ex-employee releases detailed, tell-all manifesto