Having entered a legal battle with Victory Records surrounding the terms of album releases and owed royalties, today (November 23rd 2016) an Illinois federal judge has released Floridian outfit A Day To Remember from their contract with the label, and awarded the band with $4 million in withheld proceeds from music and merchandise sales.

Following a two-week jury trial and a day and a half of deliberations, an eight-person jury returned a multipage verdict that largely favoured the band. The jury said that a couple of disputed recordings counted as albums for the purposes of fulfilling a contract signed when the band’s four founding members were teenagers.

The jury further granted the band the composition rights to its songs, while awarding the sound recording copyrights to Victory. Jay Bowen, an attorney for the band, has stated that the practical effect of the ruling is that the record label could continue to sell the band’s albums while paying royalties, but that the band members received the right to license the music.

You can read a full report regarding the verdict and outcome of the law suit and subsequent trial via the legal reporting website Law360 (here).

The band’s last two full-length records, this year’s ‘Bad Vibrations’ and 2013’s ‘Common Courtesy’, were both released via the band’s own imprint ADTR Records whilst the lawsuit was ongoing.

At the time of writing, it’s unclear as to whether or not they will continue to self-release their albums going forward, or approach another label now that they’re no longer tied to Victory Records.