The Hard Reality of Booking

No matter how you slice it, look at it, prepare for it, or think about it, if you are in this for true music ministry, you are going to have to get out in front of people and minister.

This means you are going to have to figure out how to book yourself for events, or (even harder) find someone to do it for you.

Now, this is NOT a blog that will tell you definitively how to book yourself. But maybe we can help you at least get to thinking about how you will get yourself on the road to, uh, getting on the road.

As music creators we all enjoy the creative parts of being a musician, composer, or artist. But what happens after we have that shiny new product? What do we do with the hundreds of CDs sitting in our living room or garage? What happened to our fire that was so evident as we were in the creative process?

Is Live Music Ministry the Only Answer?

We've heard it whispered in circles. The rumors are that even the record labels are saying it to everyone unashamedly. You may have even experienced it yourself.

There are no sales.

The days of the CD supporting labels through sales in stores, or online (as if it ever did online) are over, especially for new and independent artists.

Be honest, how many have YOU sold online? 50? 100?

And radio is even worse. The days of having a chance to compete with label artists in Christian radio may also be at an end. With sales waning, the larger labels have worked even harder to sew up all the radio play. (Hint: They had it anyway.)

And any physical distribution there may still be left in the rapidly shrinking CD bins at Walmart, Target, and Barnes and Noble are the distinct domain of the bigger labels.

So what do we do?