The reality & future of music by Christians

We learned a lot of unexpected lessons while in Nashville. I definitely wanted to take some time to be able to pass on what we learned. The whole industry of Christian music that we've come to know, hate, love is in trouble.

Music labels are collapsing, radio stations are suffering, book stores see the repercussions. CCM magazine just printed their last print issue- EVER- and is now completely online. In this new age with the internet, file sharing, cd-burning capabilities, less restriction, etc., musicians and artists are having trouble competing. With many, the primary audience is teens and 20-somethings: the group using the Internet as their source of information & community. That is the case with CCM & Gotee records (which now is rumored to only staff 4 people). Many of the decidedly Christian radio stations are suffering monetarily- both because of the economy and also because everything is changing. Making & selling albums as we know it will be totally different. Some believe that the future of music will be giving all the music away for free & making money off the concerts.

One of our favorite groups is doing something totally innovative. They've made their own site where they produce 5 songs a month for a flat $5. You download the music and in turn being part of this site allows you to be engaged with the artist more- giving feedback, ideas and overall changing the definition of what it means to be a fan. This is innovative & an example of moving with this new wave of culture.

Those who decide to continue to feed into the Christian bubble will pop with this change. Those who decide to be innovative and think of music, community and marketing in a whole new way, will survive as long as they're moving with the times. Nothing says it better than this article by Charlie Peacock. Beware, it's extremely honest & maybe even grim. Basically he's saying everything is changing. If we've found artists we truly love, we need to support them. We need to be innovative in our support along with them. Otherwise, one day, we'll be looking back at this era of Christian artists. And maybe that isn't a bad thing. Maybe Jesus didn't like this era anyways. I'm just saying... this is reality. Things are changing.

I know some of the artists whose art I want to support. Some include Mars Ill, Philip Larue, Spoken, The Passion Band, Chris Rice, Dizmas and others. I love their art & it should stay around.