Streetlight Manifesto Ask Fans To Boycott Victory Records

Sheila
Misc
2 minute read

In a letter posted on their website, Streetlight Manifesto have requested that if their fans want to support the band, they should purchase their products via their personal webstore or at a show, and not by purchasing in stores or online via iTunes/Amazon/3rd party distributors. Now you may be wondering why a band would encourage this type of behaviour, well, we'll let Streetlight Manifesto explain:

It is and has been for quite some time our position that Victory Records is an artist-hostile, morally corrupt and generally dishonest company, with whom we have had the displeasure of being associated due to a contract that was signed years ago.

They went on to add:

We’re writing today to ask you to please boycott all Streetlight related items by not purchasing any of our records or merchandise from Victory’s website, any traditional CD stores, online third party retailers or any digital distribution service (iTunes, Amazon etc). Victory has a long-time reputation of pocketing all of the proceeds from a band’s music and merch, with shady accounting and generally bully-ish behavior. […] We want the money made by our record and merch sales to help fund the band, not a company we’re ashamed to be associated with. We don’t care about SoundScans, or charts, or success as it’s measured by an industry we can’t stand; we just want our hard work to go towards something better than the record labels that destroy the spirit of independent music.

According to their statement, their contract with Victory Records ends this summer. This isn't the first time a band has had issues with Victory Records; Hawthorn Heights and A Day To Remember have also faced troubles.  They also mentioned in their statement that they are currently in the final stages of recording their new album, and that it should be available this summer.