Spotify hat die Musik von Victory Records offline
genommen – nachdem sich das Label über ihrer Ansicht nach zu niedrige
Auszahlungen beschwert hat. Victory schreibt:
Victory Records’ catalog of music was pulled from Spotify
last night as a result of Spotify not properly paying publishing revenues due
to Victory Records’ artists in blatant violation of US Copyright laws. Spotify
also pulled down a very large number of albums that Victory is not the
publisher for proving that their internal systems are inadequate. We asked that
our catalog not be pulled, that we would amicably work with Spotify, and they
haphazardly removed our content regardless. 53,000,000 streams, as per
Spotify’s statements, were identified with no publishing royalties being paid
by Spotify.
Late yesterday, Spotify sent over a document giving them
mechanical clearance to use our music. We could not sign said document for a
variety of reasons, most importantly, that it would put us in direct violation
of our agreement with Audiam. Spotify knows we are in business with Audiam and
were essentially asking us to breach/ignore that agreement. The issue of
nonpayment for songwriters and composers is a widespread problem and not
exclusive to Victory Records’ artists. We understand your frustration with not
being able to listen to the music you enjoy (and most pay for via
subscription).
The bottom line is that artists and songwriters are not
being paid and fans of Victory’s artists cannot listen to the music.
Thank you for your support and we remain hopeful that
Spotify will do the right thing.
