| Victory Records | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1989 |
| Founder | Tony Brummel |
| Distributor(s) | RED |
| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois |
| Official Website | www.victoryrecords.com |
Victory Records is a Chicago-based record label founded by Tony Brummel. It is a privately held corporation. It also operates a music publishing company called "Another Victory, Inc." and is the distributor of several smaller independent record labels.
Victory Records has deals with major music distributors, which include Best Buy, Amazon, Trans World, Hot Topic and more. Music by bands signed to Victory Records can be purchased on iTunes; a few Victory albums have also been released on the Australian iTunes.
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Originally focusing on hardcore punk or post-hardcore bands, Victory later expanded to emo, pop rock and metal. The label has had multiple records exceeding the 250,000 sales mark, including gold records The Silence in Black and White by Hawthorne Heights and Taking Back Sunday's Tell All Your Friends and Where You Want to Be. Recently, Victory has expanded their roster to an even wider variety of genres, including nu-metal and alternative.
In early 2002, 25% of the label was announced to have been sold to Universal Music Group.[1] However, later that year the deal was terminated by Victory.[2] Victory is currently partnered with and distributed by Sony's RED Distribution.
Most of the bands on Victory Records have had positive relations with the label. Close Your Eyes and Ill Niño have mentioned this multiple times in interviews. Endwell and Emmure stated that Victory Records has always helped them.[3]
On Thursday September 29, 2011, Erik "Hi Fi" Kish, frontman and guitarist for early Victory Records Rockabilly artist Hi-Fi and the Roadburners passed away from a motorcycle accident from the previous evening. Hi-Fi and the Roadburners played an early role within the Victory Records roster as they were often a supporting act on the early Victory Hardcore roster.[4]
Former Victory band Thursday has had a conflict with the label, citing issues with royalties. The band also cited an incident involving the Victory Records marketing staff producing whoopie cushions for the promotion of their 2001 album Full Collapse, against their wishes.[5][6][7] Thursday stated in the DVD accompanying their compilation album Kill the House Lights that they chose to go to a major label (Island Def Jam in 2002) and after fulfilling their contract, Tony Brummel and Victory Records welcomed Thursday "back with open arms."[5] Ska group Streetlight Manifesto is leaving Victory after their next album after numerous conflicts.[8]
On August 7, 2006, the Victory-signed band Hawthorne Heights announced in a "manifesto" on their website that they were leaving the label[9] and filed a lawsuit against it, accusing Victory of fraudulent accounting practices and for "severely damag[ing] the band's reputation and relationship with their fans."[10] Brummel allegedly issued public statements in the band's name criticizing hip-hop and singer Ne-Yo (whose CD In My Own Words was Hawthorne Heights' most prominent competition on the Billboard 200 charts),[11] as well as urging street team members to conceal copies of Ne-Yo's CD in record stores.[9][10] On September 13, 2006, Victory records countersued Hawthorne Heights, accusing the band of breach of contract and libel.[12][13]
In October 2006, a Chicago judge dismissed two of the three main claims in the band's suit, ruling that the trademark and copyright violation allegations were unfounded.[14] On March 5, 2007 a federal judge in Chicago ruled that Victory Records does not hold exclusive rights for the band's recording services and that the band can record for any label. Specifically, the Judge stated: "The agreement contains no exclusivity provision, nor does any of its language appear to prevent [the band] from recording elsewhere during the life of the agreement".[15] The judge later reaffirmed this ruling on May 17, 2007, stating that Hawthorne Heights is still contractually bound to deliver two albums to Victory, but may record albums which are released elsewhere.[16]
In January 2008, Victory filed a lawsuit against Virgin/EMI Records alleging that "Virgin/EMI improperly induced platinum-selling band Hawthorne Heights to repudiate its contract with top independent label Victory Records", including allegations that Virgin/EMI funded the initial phase of Hawthorne Heights' lawsuit against Victory. The suit sought actual damages of $10M and punitive damages of $25M.[17][18]
By May 2011, the label started reaching mass criticism for signing groups that were deemed low-in-quality compared to many of the bands they signed in the past.[19] The bands that the label signed during this time that received the most negativity include The Bunny The Bear, These Hearts and most particularly, Design the Skyline, whom were labeled as "the worst band ever" by many critics sources.[20][21][22] Design the Skyline and Victory Records even received death threats following their signing.[23] Although, Victory refused to comment on their signing, they continued to promote the band regardless of the negative acclaim. The band however, did comment on their controversy early-on in an interview, stating; "We really don’t mind. We can honestly see why people give us negative feedback for one, the way we look and the fact that we got signed to a mainly hardcore metal label with just one song; we stick out like a sore thumb. And not to mention how young we are."[24]