catapult magazine

The internet, Courtney Love, Ani Difranco and certain technological advances present challenges for a music industry that’s still structured according to a fifties and sixties model.

Labels typically act as loan companies that help artists pay for studio time, as long as it promises a return. This gives the label, which often cares only about profit, too much say in the final product. But now there are more Mobys, artists who can record anything they need to in their bedrooms or basements without needing a big budget or financial support from labels. Labels are still needed for mass-marketing, of course, but look what the marketing machine turns out these days: phonies like Alicia Keys while the real deals like Wilco get cast off.

The question is not IF the music industry has become irrelevant or WHEN it will crash and burn; the real question for Christians is how the industry should be structured now? Christians should be way ahead when it comes to reforming the industry, since Christian musicians and many Christian music listeners have been complaining about the limitations of Nashville’s CCM industry for decades now. What should an alternative to CCM and the broader music industry look like?

Definitely will not be there in March. I am lookint at the calendar and we will be busy that month. Boooooo!

That’s too bad. We’ll catch you this summer, maybe, Jabird. I’m working on trying to get a campsite out West this year in addition to a meeting in the East.

As far as meeting with Bill and others, that is definitely my plan. I want to hear from people who have been banging their heads against the industry for awhile (and I know Bill bangs his head; I’ve seen him do it in concert). I don’t want to go into this only to learn what other sisters and brothers already know about the difficulties and complexities of the situation.

Also, laurencer, I thought we had agreed that we were going to set up a *cino booth at the conference? Isn’t that still on? This is another “first ever” conference like the Trinity thing. I think we should be there in full force.

Grant,
Have you heard back from Ken Heffner about the booth? Let me know if there is anything I can do to make that happen. Know that I really look forward to meeting up with all you there.

I will be with Bill Mallonee soon and will mention spending some time with you all. I am sure that he would love to.

Note that I just went to Calvin’s website and it appears that the info about the Festival of Faith and Music is all up now. It contains workshop info, who’s playing and how to register.

Ken Heffner did email us back and said we can put up a booth at the Calvin Faith and Music Conference (can someone find the link for that?). I’m wondering if I should pay the fifty bucks now to insure I get in or if I should pay it when I get there.

Grant.

As the Festival of Faith and Music approaches, I am thinking some more about the idea of a musical community and am wondering to what degree Calvin might be interested in something like a “student’s studio”. The academic community is so wonderful precisely because it seems to be the last vestige of freedom before entering the pressures of the marketplace and the work-a-day world. With Calvin’s focus on bringing pop culture into the classroom, why not also train budding musicians and artists the process of making music as Christians in an academic setting?

Is there anything good about the big labels? Is Interscope records considered one of the ‘big six’ labels? I just read an interview with Jimmy Iovine (head of Interscope). I liked his perspective on music. He seems to want to feed people the good music. He produced John Lennon, Patti Smith, Tom Petty and U2 before he became a label executive.

Island records seemed like another large scale label with integrity but I think they went broke.

Or is Interscope a pawn? I would be interested in their policies towards artists.

Grassroots labels vs. Major Labels

Is it possible there is a difference between artists with mass audience appeal and artists that appeal to a certain community?

Mozart had a lot of universal appeal because his music reflected a large pallet of influences from turkish music to italian opera.

Perhaps there was a composer during the same time period who wrote organ pieces for his church in rural Luxemberg all their life. We don’t hear about these people probably because they were communicating a musical language that was very specific to there culture.

So maybe the grassroots labels are for Lafayette Indiana music or scateboarder culture. And the musicians that reflect a broader set of influences sell more cd’s, take less of a percentage per cd (it takes more middlemen to market and distribute internationally), and relate to both communities.

Here is an invigorating musiculture story from my former hometown.

In the small northern BC town named Smithers lives a self taught musician named John Hartman. Currently he works as an aircraft controller at the local airport. He also plays mandolin and in a local band and is constantly searching for new artists. One of the artists he found was a Vancouver folk singer named Karyn Crystal (I’m not positive that is how her name is spelled).

John liked Karyn’s music so much that he hatched a plan to get her to perform in Smithers. He got in contact her and offered an expenses paid trip to Smithers to play a show with his band as her backup band. Seemed like a far-out idea but she agreed to do it and they set up a date. John and his band set about learning all of her songs and rehearsed them for two months.

At the end of the two months Karyn flew up for the concert date. She and the band worked out a few kinks in the music and got ready for the show. The local Pentacostal church (largest building in the area besides the hockey rink) hosted the performance and they filled the place with Smitherites. Karyn and her new band played a great show that totally brought the house down! It was such an affirming experience for Karyn that she had to work hard to convince herself to go back to Vancouver.

How’s that for foiling the record label models.

hey this is my first time ever to this site. i just read this topic and loved some of the ideas. the vision of some of the people here is refreshing and i think it has potential.

the church i’m in now started out as being modeled after L’abri to some extent. it had a printing press, candle shop, and accommodations on it’s land (called the Farm), as well as a deli it ran in the community. it was mostly college students and some older “adults” who ran it all, fostering Christian growth and reaching out into the outside world with results.

looking at the church now, you can’t really tell it’s roots. it’s like a lot of other churches are now. 5 elders do most of the work for the couple hundred people that show up Sunday morning as consumers. it’s sad for me at least to see the loss of community and “Bodiness”, but lately i’ve been wondering how practical and possible it is to maintain that type of communal interaction in today’s world (and i mean in more than just living together, but actually Living together). in seeing the progression of how my church changed, the only explanation seems to be that the “kids” “grew up.” they got married, had kids, and had to find REAL jobs to support themselves. the time they had to dedicate to the community and to their spiritual brothers and sisters diminished until it was all they could spare to make it to church for a couple hours twice a week.

i’m just wondering how the ideas people you guys have can continue past the age of 35. idealistically, i wish it could work out. we see in Acts that the early church managed. these days, however, it just… doesn’t seem to work.

Ryan,

no easy answers there, buddy. One should reckognize first that the early church was semi “forced” into their situation (while done out of love) by being driven underground in many cases. While the Acts church evengelists preached openly, the body itself was often hidden and so had to create a way to sustain itself.

Second, I think Pauls words to Timothy are best noted here…if at all possible it is best not to marry. Now I am married and love having a wife and family, but I also know that my singular focus has been hampered by a spouse, children, bills (that come with the territory), job (with it’s responsibilities) and so forth.

Now I am not saying that it is impossible to have both worlds, but am saying that it takes a special kind of person who can manage both efficiently.

Now as for whether our vision for the music business revolution can sustain such metaphoric bumps in the road is a good question…and one that I think has to be prepared for so the answer can remain a resounding YES.

By the way, I envy that you grew up in a L’abri church. I think that would have been quite an enlightening experience. Will be dusting off my Schaeffer in the next month or so.