Post
by brent » Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:41 am
The argument could be made that no amount of money is too much to see one soul accept Christ. I understand that. It is a valid point. However, winning souls is not based on economics and can cost nothing but time. I share the Gospel freely, one on one, with printed materials and in group discussions. It doesn't cost me a dime. People have accepted Christ. If everyone single person did this, expensive means would not be as necessary. But we don't. I get it. God allows us to use ingenuity, and has told us to be as smart about saving people as the devil is killing them. Music is a tool that can get into people like nothing else can, and the lyrics can minister where a preacher, relative, co-worker, friend cannot. So I see the need, support the need. I was not busting your chops because you saw the need or had the desire. God knows and blesses your motives.
However, I can make a case for only those with money to burn to be in the promotions business. I have seen people taking the money from their families budgets to pay for shows that were planned with the best of intentions, but the worst common sense. In fact, I think the lack of common and business sense is what makes most businesses fail. People do not know who their customers are, what the customers want, and how much the customers are willing to pay, and where the customers are to be reached with advertising.
I work with churches and people who have no clue what they are doing, reinventing the wheel, thinking their ideas are good ones. I was NOT trying to make you feel stupid, only trying to see if you have thought it out. If I had a dollar for every non-revenue making Christian concert, I would be rich. Heck, if the artists throughout the history of CCM would have been paid for every show they played, if their checks would have cleared, if the promotors would have fulfilled the tech riders, the artists would have been better off. I just see too many pastors, evangelists, churches, youth ministries, promotors conflicting with local school plays, parent/PTA(O) nights, sporting events/play-offs that are home and away, holidays, and other large draw events like Billy Graham and Joel Osteen crusades, only to see them waste their money. Heck, I was at the Farewell show in Oklahoma, walking down the hall with Bob and Wayne, while they were fuming, discussing whether they would do the show or not. We had already sponsored some, and bellied up again to have a show. Petra has been SKUH-ROOOOOD plenty of times by plenty of "God wants me to do this and he will provide the money" people. You know what? Petra, and others, have continued to not let the fans down, do the show, and pay their way home. Now, that is just wrong that they should have to do that.
My post was not about making people feel inferior or hurting their feelings. Promotions now, even in the secular world, is not a money making venture for a small operation, without lots of experience and relationships, and the ability to comfortably average out losses over time. It is something you do for ulterior motives. It is what you can do if you have some money to play and stand to part with.
Now, here is a story for ya. TRUE story. I was called in by a friend to Premiere Productions here in KS. The studio produces ALL of the media for Nazarine denomination. When I say ALL, I mean ALL. They are the only private fiber optic hub owner in this market. They host for other major companies and ministries. They design the product packaging and advertising for major airplane, boat, motorcycle and golf club manufacturers. They are the big time. Whatever the owner touches, turns to gold.
I was brought in to consult two filthy rich Sprint execs, who attend a dead mainline denominational church, and were NEVER exposed to CCM. They heard CCM for the first time, thought they had been dropped a gold mine out of heaven with Bob Hartman's mission to take it to the church, and wanted me to help them do it. Ok, I was sitting there with so much to say. I was bursting. I thought, cool, I have a label to do with as I please, and really do things differently, with an open door to a denomination, and CCM will never be the same. We will not make music with the Nashvegas machine. But then I had to be honest with them. Here these millionaires were, with no research, just a fondness for some young girl they heard rockin for Jesus, thinking they were going to meet a need and change the world. The fact that they had no exposure to CCM didn't surprise me. There is very little of it here in the KC area. I told them about the history of CCM and Christian rock. They had no idea that it was a big machine industry, that there are large networks, labels, publishing companies, award shows, blah, blah, blah. The icing on the cake was their concept of return on investment. They thought I could make an artist happen, from conception to stardom with $40k and that they would be rolling in the dough. WHAT? I showed them an article where the costs of one Top 10 Guaranteed single are laid out. How about $500k per song in the secular world? I could of course make a record for $40k, but there is more to it than making a record. Then we got into touring expenses, support, yadda, yadda, yadda. You see my point? People who may be smart in one area of life, may have no clues about their passions, and need a reality check. These guys made more money in a month than I make all year, but I still told them the truth, just like I told you.
So, my motives are what they are. Sorry you got offended. What I learned from these guys is that they were not offended. They understood how they could not have known about all of this, because it is not their "thing". Because of their positions at Sprint, they understood marketing, advertising, etc. They told me that the industry has done a poor job marketing it's artists, goods and services here. I agreed. That has been changing since then. We have three FM stations playing CCM now, and two talk/teaching stations on FM. The one bad hill-billy station is on AM where it should be. haha. Anyway, the point is...if you know your numbers, and you are resolved to do it, you should not be offended if someone challenges you. Someone, maybe not me, will eventually hit you with something you have not considered and it may save you from a lawsuit, bankruptcy, etc.
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Sure you know that already. This is the worst time to begin such a thing. The people with past success aren't doing so well now. If you watch when the successful people schedule things, you will find that they try not to compete with secular events. Christians will not miss a killer professional football game to go to a concert for the most part. There might be some band nerds that will, but by and large, mature Christians go and do what everyone else does. Even when they don't the local economy and traffic is still affecting everything around the area.
) I wouldn't recommend that everyone go out on a limb like we did, but 