Victory Records

First and foremost, it should be noted that majority of us are rock fans whether its post-hardcore or metal or punk, most of just love rock music. Victory Records has signed many bands that a lot of people enjoy Hawthorne Heights, Atreyu, Taking Back Sunday, Silverstein, Aiden, and A Perfect Murder are some of the more popular ones.

I know a lot of people have been saying this, so Ill restate it one more time: You, Victory Records, are taking advantage of your bands talent and popularity. Lets use iTunes (the number one provider of online music) as an example. After doing a music store search for Hawthorne Heights I found three songs, all of which are from compilations; thus, they are not very popular and could be classified as B-Sides or Rarities. Hawthorne Heights is probably your most popular band right now, which really makes me wonder do you, the record label, really want your bands to succeed? Why is there nothing from The Silence in Black and White or their new album, If Only You Were Lonely? Surely having these albums on iTunes would be a lot smarter than sending your street team to literally raid music stores, right? (More on that after the next paragraph.)

I then did a search for Atreyu and found only one of their albums, and its the Fractures in the Facade of your Porcelain Beauty EP; there were songs from compilations as well. Then I tried Silverstein I obtained some results, but there was not one song by the Silverstein thats signed onto Victory Records! Maybe its because you dont like iTunes or whatever, but Im pretty sure its not just iTunes that lacks any material from your bands.

Straying away from the digital music area, Id like to cover one more thing. To summarize what Im about to say: Music is music. Victory Records music is not the best music and should stop thinking it is. This is not only extremely egotistical but disgustingly low. Recently, an e-mail went out to all Victory Street Team members, stating bluntly that you should raid stores; take Ne-Yos (Hawthorne Heightss main competitor) CDs and put them where they cannot be noticed, and put Hawthorne Heights CDs in front of the New Releases system. It really doesnt take an idiot to figure out that this is not only low and stupid, but it also proves that music is no longer about quality, but about sales and image. You did a good job at proving this.

(For the complete letter, see:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=32236&blogID=93877238&MyToken=dec27efa-099c-493a-b1ff-b6f65f34f132)

We love Victory Records bands music, but talk about taking advantage of your bands popularity. This petition and those who sign it demand that you stop being egotistical and blatantly greedy about your bands CDs. Your track record isnt that great, but the bands you sign make great music. Allow them to make the best of that talent without having to try and destroy other bands careers because of it.