Youtube: The Best Tool You’re Probably Not Using Enough

"I'm perfectly happy for my videos to be on YouTube, whether I'm getting paid for them or not. If they're on YouTube, people will see them.” – Moby

For the music artists we work with, especially with ministry being the main goal of what they do, being seen and heard is important. Actually, getting your music and your message to the people of the world is why you started doing it right?

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?

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.

True Outreach or Shameless Promotion?

So where is the line?

How far are we willing to go to get the word out about our music or art? You know, the creative thing we feel God has given us to do?

I am absolutely a socialmedia-holic. To me it's one of the great inventions of our time, and allows us to reach millions from the comfy seat of our computer.

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.