A Victory To Remember.

An opinion piece written by Jack Murray

Labels. 

If I could type an audible sigh, you would have definitely heard one then.

I remember thinking that If I ever got signed that was it, I’d made it. That my music was out there. All the hard work finally paying off thanks to the fact I was signed. 

Hell, I thought that for a long time. In my early bands if someone came up to me and plonked a contract on the table I wouldn’t even read it, just sign it there and then thinking the answer to all my hopes and dreams was sitting in front of me.

It reminds me of Vito Corleone in the Godfather, when he says “I’ll give them an offer they can not refuse”. A big contract saying they’ll give you a bunch of money to record a music video and album, any broke musician (and that’s most musicians) will stop reading there and then, stick their name down while the boss behind it all is sitting in his chair, stroking a cat and smoking a cigar thinking about all the money they are about to make.

The morale of the story is I hate record labels. I hate the greed, the power they have, the lust to just squeeze money out of anything and everything. It makes me sick. 

In 2001, A label known as Victory Records signed a band called A Day To Remember, binding them to a five album commitment and rights to merchandising. 

Sounds good right? Yeah I bet that’s what they thought after playing shows practically every night for the past 3 years, being teenagers trying to make a living in music before viral internet was a thing. Trying to break mainstream with Pop-Punk/Metal music… They are perfect prey for Victories Vito Corleone, sitting in his chair, stroking his cat and smoking his cigar. 

And they delivered! Producing 3 full length albums, 13 when counting all the live records, bonus tracks and re-releases. 5 years worth of ‘the grind’ making money for this label. But that wasn’t enough, it never is. 

ADTR wanted to leave the contract, having delivered the album quota. But were stopped by Victory, causing a huge lawsuit to take place spanning over 6 years. On November 22nd, 2016 ADTR won the lawsuit, Victory Records were forced to pay $4 Million dollars for unpaid royalties and ADTR were allowed to keep ownership of their self released album “Common Courtesy” and any future releases. 

Talk about sticking it to the man!

Jeremy Mckinnon released this statement: “Thank you to the fan base for supporting us through this difficult time, we couldn’t have done this without you. This isn’t just a victory for us but also a victory for every band wronged over the years. Right doesn’t always win, but yesterday it did.”   

Theres a reason that labels are going out of fashion. They don’t care about art or music. They only care about what they can make out of your creation, how they can own you. 

Take A Day To Remember as inspiration, that it is possible to defeat any greedy record label and their Vito Corleone.