An interesting post from Michael Sweet on Facebook...
https://www.facebook.com/TheMichaelSweet/posts/pfbid02ENZKgJLwEGfSPbfmJZ7FgmXoAgKUZAzMUwazP5qALrobmC4ATT3r2nD3RBBPV92Wl
QuoteSo this guy who is supposed to be a friend goes to our old label and buys the rights to release our catalog.
What's the problem with that?
1 - He never came to us to see if this was something we were planning on doing.
2 - We're releasing a few albums this year (side projects and a new Stryper album) and he's over stepping our plans. It's just something you don't do, especially if you call yourself a "believer" and a "friend" and it's unethical.
3 - He licensed and "remastered" our albums and we didn't approve this and we haven't even heard them. He never spoke to us about it and if he had we would have said "no". That's something that the band should have the rights to, not anyone else. It's our band, our brand and our right. Legally he can do it but it's just wrong. All it does is hurt us financially. We're doing our best to survive and when someone does this it just makes it harder for us to survive.
If you want to support the band and help the band continue on, don't support people like this. I won't name names but it isn't hard to figure out. This guy isn't helping us, he's hurting us. All I can ask is that you don't buy any of these albums and you wait till we (Stryper) release legitimate, official merchandise. Please don't support other people who are living off of our name and legacy.
Thank you🙏
What's everyone's opinion on this? My take is that while he may have concerns about this situation, Girder Music didn't need his permission to do this and the band will still profit from the licensing in some way. I think that if this were such a big issue, the band should have purchased the masters themselves so they had full control over everything.