With just a few days remaining until the release of the highly anticipated Streetlight Manifesto – 99 Songs of Revolution album, we have seen a few interesting developments take place during these past few days.
It all began with a news update on the band’s official page. The band made this statement on their website,
“If you want to support Streetlight Manifesto by buying a CD, shirt, hoodie, poster, etc etc, PLEASE do not buy anything from Victory Records or their website. Use our online store or come out to a show and support the band by buying merch there. We cannot condone or agree with the actions or ethics of our record label, nor do we want to support them financially through revenue made under the guise of helping Streetlight. Hey douchebag lawyers: This is not libel or slander. We’re just letting our fans know how best to support the band if they should choose to do so by buying stuff. That is all.”
In an updated statement made shortly afterward, the band writes,
“As a bonus, let’s play “GUESS THAT QUOTE”!!!1! Here it is:
‘I absolutely believe that allowing people to cherry-pick the tracks they want from each album cannibalizes full-length album sales and is ultimately detrimental to the artists who created the music. It is important for people to experience the entire album. Not just a track(s).’
You probably guessed it, so we’ll just go ahead and give you your prize:
Another full, high quality mp3 from our new record! Apparently, Victory chose this as our first single for us, which we found out by seeing it iTunes. Awesome! Thanks guys!~”
This is not the first time that we have heard about rifts between the band and the label. When their last album Somewhere in the Between was released, the band made a video for the song We Will Fall Together. The band writes,
“So a while back our video for “We Will Fall Together” was taken off of YouTube by the powers that be (ha) because of ‘Copyright Infringement’, or whatever, you can only imagine the real reason…Anyway, the good folks at HD Fest have put our vid, in a much higher resolution, up on their site. Go watch it again or something, while we prepare video number two 😉 “
and also for the song Would You Be Impressed? that features cartoon animals getting hurt to satire Victory’s treatment of the band. The issue surrounding this particular case was that Victory did not want to make a second video for the album.
The band made the following statement on their website,
“The creation of this video was funded entirely by the band, after our label refused to help us make a second video for our record. Our record label forced YouTube to remove our last music video from our account by claiming that using our own recorded music was a ‘copyright violation’. If this video disappears from our account, we just want everyone to understand why. If you dig our band, or any band for that matter, make sure your support goes straight to the band and not to the companies that often times reap the benefits of the band’s success without actually ever helping the band. Thanks.”
It appears that any copyright violation has been settled as the video can still be seen here.
We have not heard of any other issues between Victory Records and Streetlight Manifesto. Keep checking back to Dying Scene as more information becomes available.