The Music Never Died

“Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

It’s a story I hear often from artists and songwriters, especially late in life. They had the music in them growing up, they had started to pursue it, and they even had found some success. But then life got in the way. Job, marriage, children, health issues, and other things forced them to put music aside for the time being. 

Then years went by. Sure, every once in a while they’d think about it, play an instrument, sing a song at church, but for the most part, the music was just a thing they “used to do”.

But it never completely went away. It never left their mind, their heart, or their soul.

The music never died.

Get Real!

“Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.” - Jack Welch

Think you just have to have that record deal?

Hoping someone magically hears your song and wants to publish it?

It's time for you to GET REAL!!

One thing that continues to amaze me in this day and age where there is so much information available to folks online is how everyone is still looking for "get there quick" schemes in their music careers.

We have kids coming out of high school enrolling in recording programs expecting to become world famous recording engineers. 

Artists email me daily wondering where they can get a record deal, as if they are doled out in the same way someone gives you a Facebook “like”.

Songwriters email me songs, or sometimes just lyrics asking if I will publish them. Like there is a machine here in Nashville where we just feed it in and it comes out stamped “Published!”

Building the New Music (Ministry) Business

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. - Henry Ford

As a creative Christian music production company, we have found success the old-fashioned way.We connected with Christian artists who had a great need: to reach a new level of success in music ministry.

If you read this blog at all regularly, you know we talk about things that can help Christian artists find that success in ministry. But how did we come by this info? How did we magically know what to say to give you inspiration, ideas, and direction?

Can You See The Forest for the Trees?

Sometimes I think as artists trying to "make it", whatever that means, we don't focus on what is most important. All we see is words like "record deal", "gigs", "studio", "winning a contest", or "being discovered."

In many ways I think this is short sighted, and really, old-fashioned.

How Excellence Conquers the Industry vs. Ministry Debate

What debate you ask?

Every week, someone asks me how to get a record deal, thinking that MUST be the way they start down the path in Christian music ministry. (By the way, asking for one is one of the ways you probably WON’T get a record deal…)

So the debate is, if I want to have a worldwide ministry, won’t I need to be signed to some big company in the music industry? Otherwise I will wither and die, playing my guitar to old folks in assisted living centers, and for my mom who loves my stuff. Oh yeah, and on Youtube (watch me stare into the camera uncomfortably).

Tell you what, let’s leave the industry aside for a moment and talk about something else that’s much more likely to become part of your music and ministry than a record deal, and that’s excellence.

It's All About You (Finally Right?)

Although you may not be so crazy about it being you after reading this.

This for all Creative Soul artists, or any artist really, who has put out a CD, or music product, to retail, wholesale, trunk of your car, iTunes, or elseways.

This is for those people who are pulling their hair out (yes, extensions and toupees count!) trying to figure out why their CDs are NOT jumping off the shelves (as if there are any), getting play on the radio (as if it was very possible and anyone was listening), or finding open ears on the world wide web.