Michael Sweet vs Girder Music

Interesting happenings with Stryper and Girder Music. From Michael Sweet's FB page...

Quote :

So 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

I understand his frustration but in all honesty what happened was perfectly legal. What's everyone's opinion on this? I really feel that if the band were that concerned about people licensing and reissuing their music, they should have bought the masters themselves so they'd have full control over everything.

Still, out of courtesy, Mr. Girder should have contacted MS first and discussed this with him. This stunt IMO sounds similar to JPB's difficulties with his music being over-released.

I can certainly understand Michael's frustration.  
However, he had to have known this was a possibility, and to rant and rave on the internet about it doesn't really paint him in a great light (it looks kind of like he's throwing a tantrum).
If it was this big a deal to him and the band, why didn't they retain the rights to release the music they created?  Where they in such dire-straights financially when they released these albums that they had to surrender the rights to reissue the recordings for more than a decade?

Mr Girder is in the business of releasing sought after Christian rock.  He has a business (just like Stryper does) and he has to make money at that business to keep it alive.  Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm not really sure how what he did was wrong.

Turns out from what Scott Waters AKA Ultmetal said, Mr. Girder DID contact MS's peeps.  Which places everything in a different light...and I owe Mr. G. an apology.  Sorry, fella.

The only way to truly guarantee that this can't happen to your band is to self-release your albums so that you act as both label and artist.  You own the rights to the music this way.  You own the masters.  There is no one else trying to profit off your intellectual property.

Of course, you might not have the same following that would make your music more sought after.

I am not interested anyway. "Gold Disc" is an overpriced gimmick. I already own those and there is no need to buy them again. Since they are fairly recent they do not need to be remastered. 

I have only one "gold disc" and that's Die Happy, only because I never owned it and I thought the new cover art was cool.

As for this Stryper stuff, while it may be legal, I see it as a cash grab. 

Don't get me wrong, I like what Girder is doing and I buy stuff from them from time to time. But these albums are a hard pass for me.

This comes down to publishing. It is SO important, if you are going to publish your music, to do it yourself. I own a publishing company through BMI called "Corduroy Boy Productions". The entire catalogues from Lordchain, Step Cousin, Search For Sight, 3 Story Igloo and Unchained are owned by us.

Ted Kirkpatrick bought the entire Tourniquet library from Frontline Music. Jimmy Brown told me his music wasn't for sale. It stinks not to own your own music. I've told so many bands I've worked with not to sign their life away to a label/publisher. Some of them didn't listen and paid a heavy price. 

John Fogerty  was sued by Fantasy Records for sounding like... himself. They owned the CCR catalogue and John was sued over "Old Man Down the Road" because it sounded like the CCR song "Run Through the Jungle" which were both written by John. Isn't that nuts?

KellyM wrote:

This comes down to publishing. It is SO important, if you are going to publish your music, to do it yourself. I own a publishing company through BMI called "Corduroy Boy Productions". The entire catalogues from Lordchain, Step Cousin, Search For Sight, 3 Story Igloo and Unchained are owned by us.

Ted Kirkpatrick bought the entire Tourniquet library from Frontline Music. Jimmy Brown told me his music wasn't for sale. It stinks not to own your own music. I've told so many bands I've worked with not to sign their life away to a label/publisher. Some of them didn't listen and paid a heavy price. 

John Fogerty  was sued by Fantasy Records for sounding like... himself. They owned the CCR catalogue and John was sued over "Old Man Down the Road" because it sounded like the CCR song "Run Through the Jungle" which were both written by John. Isn't that nuts?

I'm not even a recording musician and have heard several times about the woes of artists signing the rights away to their recordings.  I remember Fogerty being sued for his solo work sounding too much like CCR and could not believe the incredulity of the record company.
  I remember one band talking about the group getting 10 points (out of 100) for each of their sold records.  Meaning that if their was $10 profit on a record/cd they would see $1 of that, but only after enough records had sold to recoup the cost of recording and production and marketing of the record.  Oh yeah, and the entire band would have to split that $1.  Just nuts.  Tyla (from the English band "The Dogs D'Amour") said after getting ripped off in the 80's and 90's that he would never have anyone make more money off of him and his music then he did.  So after his contract expired he started recording and selling all of his music on his own label.  He sold a fraction of what he did with The Dogs, but claimed he still made more money than he ever did recording with a more famous band on a semi-big label.