CCM Magazine RIP

[brent]

CCM Magazine is belly up dead. They are going to an on-line only format. Do you care? I don't think that magazines have any value any more anyway. I know that my trade magazines are web driven now. In the old days, the news was late by a few months because of printing and mailing, etc. We can't tolerate that delay anymore. We need it new and now.

I wouldn't care if Salem went belly up. They have 97 radio stations. Sixty-one of those stations are in 23 of the top 25 markets in the nation. But they are pushing their artists with corny, generic progamming that has no local identity. But then again, radio is much like the magazine. It is not as important as what it once was.

I do miss the great art, the FILM photography and good writting of a print publication. It is like the album cover. It is something that will not appreciated by the majority of future generations. They do not know what they are missing.

[Jonathan]

Count me among those who won't miss CCM Magazine. I thought it's been gone for years. Same thing with radio. If Christian radio ended today...I should clarify...if Christian "hit" radio ended today, I would shed nary a tear.

[yamasaaaki har har]

CCM Magazine is belly up dead.

hooray

[executioner]

There is nothing like running down to the store and buying a new cassette/CD from your favorite artists and opening the package and reading the linear notes. I also love sitting there and reading the lyrics.

[crossways]

Well, I miss CCM magazine, but I have been missing it for YEARS now.

I have long since cancelled my subscription.

They just went to pure fluff, IMO.

No in-depth articles, just lists and surface stuff. I do like a good print magazine. Right now I read Worship Leader, it does a pretty good job writing relevent meaty articles.

I will say that one thing that hurts CCM mag. is that they couldn't stay current with a monthly magazine. Things just happen too fast now, and people knew about a lot of info long before it got printed.

I think one tell-tale sign was when Sixpence None the Richer broke up. That was out and it was maybe two issues before CCM could print about it.

They would need to do at least a weekly pub. to try and stay current and I guess there is no way they could afford that.

[St_Augustines_Pears]

Well, I miss CCM magazine, but I have been missing it for YEARS now.

I have long since cancelled my subscription.

They just went to pure fluff, IMO.

No in-depth articles, just lists and surface stuff.

Yep. I used to read CCM magazine every month, but the quality kept sliding downwards. Call me petty, but the final straw for me was when Petra announced their retirement, CCM barely gave them a quarter page article. When Audio Adrenaline (a band who lasted maybe 1/3 the time Petra did) announced their farewell, CCM gave them a 2-page article with color photos and a complete discography. I stopped buying it after that.

[separateunion]

Well, I miss CCM magazine, but I have been missing it for YEARS now.

I have long since cancelled my subscription.

They just went to pure fluff, IMO.

No in-depth articles, just lists and surface stuff.

Yep. I used to read CCM magazine every month, but the quality kept sliding downwards. Call me petty, but the final straw for me was when Petra announced their retirement, CCM barely gave them a quarter page article. When Audio Adrenaline (a band who lasted maybe 1/3 the time Petra did) announced their farewell, CCM gave them a 2-page article with color photos and a complete discography. I stopped buying it after that.

You can't fault them for that. Petra had been irrelevant from a sales point sense for a long time. Most people didn't even know they existed anymore. Audio Adrenaline, on the other hand, has been a very popular group from their first album to their last. They sold out huge shows night after night. Petra was lucky to have a show every couple of weeks.

Now I'm not ragging on Petra or saying that AA is my favorite band. I've never really liked them from a taste stand point. I like Petra way more. But Petra is like a lot of 80s bands that are still around, but no one really knows it anymore because they have become irrelevant to the music industry. Not necessarily to the fans, but to the casual listener who wouldn't buy one of their album. Outside of a small handful of people, no one really cared that much that Petra retired.

Think of it like the old football player who has played way past his prime and is sucking it up on the bench and has become a forgotten name. Think Eddie George vs. Barry Sanders. Who do you think got more coverage when they retired? That's the way news coverage works. It may not be a necessarily good thing or even right, but it is what it is, and you can't fault the news for being what it is.

[crossways]

Well, I miss CCM magazine, but I have been missing it for YEARS now.

I have long since cancelled my subscription.

They just went to pure fluff, IMO.

No in-depth articles, just lists and surface stuff.

Yep. I used to read CCM magazine every month, but the quality kept sliding downwards. Call me petty, but the final straw for me was when Petra announced their retirement, CCM barely gave them a quarter page article. When Audio Adrenaline (a band who lasted maybe 1/3 the time Petra did) announced their farewell, CCM gave them a 2-page article with color photos and a complete discography. I stopped buying it after that.

You can't fault them for that. Petra had been irrelevant from a sales point sense for a long time. Most people didn't even know they existed anymore. Audio Adrenaline, on the other hand, has been a very popular group from their first album to their last. They sold out huge shows night after night. Petra was lucky to have a show every couple of weeks.

Now I'm not ragging on Petra or saying that AA is my favorite band. I've never really liked them from a taste stand point. I like Petra way more. But Petra is like a lot of 80s bands that are still around, but no one really knows it anymore because they have become irrelevant to the music industry. Not necessarily to the fans, but to the casual listener who wouldn't buy one of their album. Outside of a small handful of people, no one really cared that much that Petra retired.

Think of it like the old football player who has played way past his prime and is sucking it up on the bench and has become a forgotten name. Think Eddie George vs. Barry Sanders. Who do you think got more coverage when they retired? That's the way news coverage works. It may not be a necessarily good thing or even right, but it is what it is, and you can't fault the news for being what it is.

No I disagree with your analogy. In sports they are ALWAYS doing huge articles and TV features on important athletes that have retired, but were once important to the sport.

I garuntee you that more young sports fans know who walter payton, Jerry Rice, and the original LT are.

Go to ANY youth group and take a poll to see who knows anything about Petra, Larry Norman, REZ etc. I would bet less than 10% do. I understand they aren't still popular, but they once were, and more important these are bands who PAVED the way!

It isn't the fault of the average fan, it's CCM.

Look at the secular world. They are constantly doing induction shows, specials, Behind the Music specials about important musician/groups from the past. Genesis isn't all that popular anymore, but people know about them and give credit where credit is due.

As a result there is a residual effect of a few new fans, and that helps them to continue in some fashion.

Look back a few years ago when CCM mag did the 100 most influential songs or albums...somethiing like that. They had the token Petra and Larry Norman album...but focused on groups that not only hadn't been around for more than five years, aren't around even today, and gave singers like amy Grant multiple spots!!

CCM seems to chase the fads created by the secular market, rather than planting firm roots and letting solid groups develop.

[separateunion]

No I disagree with your analogy. In sports they are ALWAYS doing huge articles and TV features on important athletes that have retired, but were once important to the sport.

I garuntee you that more young sports fans know who walter payton, Jerry Rice, and the original LT are.

Exactly. Because for the most part, those athletes were at the top of their game and relevant, in a popular sense, their entire careers. They didn't sink into obscurity and languish on the bench for years. Thus my comparison of Eddie George and Barry Sanders. Think of AA like Barry Sanders, Walter Payton and Jerry Rice and Petra like Eddie George, Steve McNair, and Vinny Testaverde. Those latter three players were good in their day, but unless you follow the sport incredibly closely, you wouldn't know they still played (except for George, although he did fade into obscurity).

Go to ANY youth group and take a poll to see who knows anything about Petra, Larry Norman, REZ etc. I would bet less than 10% do. I understand they aren't still popular, but they once were, and more important these are bands who PAVED the way!

Again, exactly my point. Is it a shame that younger people (holy crap, I'm saying that and I'm 24) don't know some of the earlier Christian bands? Yes. Can fault be put on the industry for 80s bands falling off the map? Perhaps partially, but it's not really any different than most of the 80s bands that Petra was similar to who struggled to reinvent themselves with a shift in what was musically popular.

Why would CCM do a huge feature on Petra's retirement if only 10% of youth group kids know who they are? That's just asinine!

It isn't the fault of the average fan, it's CCM.

Perhaps partially, but Petra didn't help themselves by struggling to find a sound during the 90s. You can't deny that much of their work during the later decade of their career was subpar and uninspiring.

Look at the secular world. They are constantly doing induction shows, specials, Behind the Music specials about important musician/groups from the past. Genesis isn't all that popular anymore, but people know about them and give credit where credit is due.

1. Way bigger fan base. Even with a huge loss of their old fan base, they can still be moderately popular. Petra never had the opportunity to have a fan base of such a size that they could afford to lose a huge chunk.

2. Many of the older bands that are still popular (Aerosmith, U2, etc.) are able to morph their music with the time and stay relevant. Look how many bands fell off the map because they weren't able to (Poison, Def Leppard, etc.).

Look back a few years ago when CCM mag did the 100 most influential songs or albums...somethiing like that. They had the token Petra and Larry Norman album...but focused on groups that not only hadn't been around for more than five years, aren't around even today, and gave singers like amy Grant multiple spots!!

What does how long you're around have to do with being influential? Nirvana was around for about 5 years total, and they are arguably one of the most influential bands of the last 25 years!

And you have to be kidding me about Amy Grant. Whether or not you like what she's done with her personal life, she not only has the highest selling Christian album of all time, but she also proved that Christian music could be successful in the mainstream. She also managed to remain successful for a much longer period of time than Petra. Petra has zero platinum selling albums. Amy Grant has at least three. Seriously, now.

CCM seems to chase the fads created by the secular market, rather than planting firm roots and letting solid groups develop.

Yes, they do, but that's how the business works. It's sad, but you can't have your cake and eat it to. Either you have a business that promotes bands and you get crap, or you don't and you have good bands that no one knows about. It doesn't seem that making money while promoting decent music is a workable combination.

You really do have to take your fanboy glasses off and look at the situation from an objective perspective.

[Vic]

Well, it all goes around in a perfect circle back to CCM and the Christian Music Industry. No exposure, no awareness. No awareness, no popularity. No popularity, no sales.

From my country here in Kenya, I get to see a lot of Material on older bands such as Uriah Heep, Aerosmiths and a host of many other secular bands, But Christian? Not at all.

Its interesting that right now I have opened a site for Six Pence non the Richer and I can recognize almost all the songs despite not buying even one of their albums. My question is why not Petra?

Truth be told, the Crhistian Music Industry is openly hostile to Petra and other older music acts. Despite the limited distribution of their-very-much-older releases, any Petra material is always snapped up quickly from the shelves. I know this coz I snoop around CD stores.

[separateunion]

CCM is completely messed up in almost every way, so it's no surprise that old bands are quickly forgotten. Charlie Peacock wrote a great diatribe on the current state of CCM, but I don't have a link.

One thing he pointed out, though, was that a lot of bands realize that the Christian music industry is failing and that is why bands are moving to mainstream labels or going indie (i.e. Jars of Clay, Relient K, Switchfoot, Skillet, Kevin Max, etc.).