Music should be free

Just finished reading all about Lilly Allen who took a stand against file sharing of music and got crucified on the web for doing so.

I have very little respect for today’s top 40 and “Idol” type shows – it’s all designed to sell advertising and make people think they really are ‘talented’. However real artists and very talented folk sometimes take years and years to perfect their craft – release a song and then people want it for free.

Give me an example of one song – just one, that is on today’s top 40 that will be around in 5, 10 or 20 years time never mind in 3 months time. There is no such thing as an overnight success. People can spend years perfecting their craft and then they’re expected to give it away for free? I think iTunes selling a song for $1 is an insult to an artist.

What worth do you put on a song? Being involved with a number of artists as I am I’ve seen so  many emails from folk who say “Man that song saved my life” – what price do you put on that? If an artist chooses to give away a song fine. If not don’t presume their music is free.

File sharing or ‘making a copy of a CD’ to give to a friend is stealing – you’re nothing but a shop lifter. Ok I agree the music companies have ripped us off over the last thirty or so years and we get albums with ‘throw away’ tracks – I believe that is starting to change.

If you find an artist you like – support them it’s the only way we’re going to get music we like and not something rammed down our throat by a record company or a silly ‘talent’ show on TV.

Mick Illustrationby my favourite artist Sebastian Krüger http://www.sebastiankruger.com/

Cult check list

I met up with old friends over the Christmas New Year period. When I say old I mean really old. We go way back!! One of the couples had been involved with a religious organisation and had recently left and told me why. Not wanting to offend i said “You realize they show every sign of being a cult?”  To which he instantly replied “They are a cult!”

Folk from their former Church were forbidden to associate with them. When a leader starts telling you who you can and can not associate with then the warning signals speak loud and clear. Jesus spent most of his time with ‘the sinners’ and the church of the day disproved so guess not much has changed.

Increasingly a number of great religious movements seem to have lost their way. In this day an age when ‘Pastors’ are referred to as CEO’s (as in a number of Pentecostal Churches) I have to smile. I know enough of the Bible to recall the verse that talks about : “To some he gave the gift of …” But CEO? Please, give me a break! I have many friends in the Pentecostal movement and other religions and there are many sincere folk on the other hand I do wonder about the direction of some. Well ok quite a few!

Concerted efforts at influence and control lie at the core of cultic groups, programs, and relationships. Many members, former members, and supporters of cults are not fully aware of the extent to which members may have been manipulated, exploited, even abused. The following list of social-structural, social-psychological, and interpersonal behavioral patterns commonly found in cultic environments may be helpful in assessing a particular group or relationship.

Compare these patterns to the situation you were in (or in which you, a family member, or friend is currently involved). This list may help you determine if there is cause for concern. Bear in mind that this list is not meant to be a “cult scale” or a definitive checklist to determine if a specific group is a cult. This is not so much a diagnostic instrument as it is an analytical tool.

‪

1. The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader.
2. Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
3. Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
4. The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel. ‪  The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself. The leader is on a special mission to save humanity.
5. The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.
6. The leader is not accountable to any authorities.
7. The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary.
8. The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members..
9. Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.
10. The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
11. The group is preoccupied with making money.
12. Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.
13. Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.
14. The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group.

Twas the month before Christmas

Twas the month before Christmas

*When all through our land,*

*Not a Christian was praying*

*Nor taking a stand.*

*See the PC Police had taken away,*

*The reason for Christmas – no one could say.*

*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*

*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*

*It might hurt people’s feelings, the teachers would say*

* December 25th is just a ‘ Holiday ’.*

*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*

*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*

*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*

*Something was changing, something quite odd! *

*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*

*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*

*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*

* At Lowe’s the word Christmas – was no where to be found.*

*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny’s and Sears*

*You won’t hear the word Christmas; it won’t touch your ears.*

*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*

*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*

*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*

*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !*

*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*

*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*

*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*

* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*

*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*

*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*

*So as you celebrate ‘Winter Break’ under your ‘Dream Tree’*

*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*

*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*

*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS ,

not Happy Holiday !*

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christ is The Reason for the Christ-mas Season!

The Monks Story

Seth Godin tells the story about the Monks copying the Bible by hand and then the printing press in Germany is invented by Johannes Gutenberg. I can just imagine how it went.

“What’s Johannes up to?”

“Don’t know. Messing around again in the yard with some crazy machine thingy.”

“He needs to pray more and practice his calligraphy. His calligraphy is crap.”

“I know, I’ll speak to him about it.”

Enter Johannes a few days later.

“Father Achilleus, I’ve invented the printing press.”

“A print thingy what?”

“A printing press.”

“Ya that’s good Johannes. What’s printing?

“I would like to print the Bible for you – there is no longer the need for you to do all that calligraphy”

“And how do you do that?”

“Well I make up the pages with letters using metal”

“And what do you do with these metal letters – Johannes have you lost your mind who can carry around a whole Bible of metal letters?”

“No no you get an oil based ink and you put it on the metal letters.”

Johannes Johannes, you are such a joker … putting oil based ink on the metal. That’s good.. ha ha the metal would be slippery then, would it not?.. Johannes, ha ha, even more difficult to carry around.. ha ha.. Johannes , you’ve been out in the sun too much.”

“But Father Achilleus, this will change the world…”

“Excellent Johannes, Your metal letter printing thingy is wonderful… ha ha… I’m busy now I have to finish the book of Revelation before Father Benedict gets here. It’s going to take another two weeks”

“But Father Achilleus?”

“Ya ya that’s good Johannes. Excellent – come back when I’m not so busy and tell me how it goes. If it works I’ll have a look.. by the way, Johannes, … your calligraphy is crap, you need to practice more”.

Of course the first book ever published was the Bible – the world suddenly changed. Mass communication became possible.

Today we have the internet. – the world has changed again.

Problem is we have too many monks still wanting to do their calligraphy. Today’s monks are people stuck in the 20 Century working old the ways.

“The old ways are safe, tried and true”. I hear people say. If you continue to hold onto that, you’re going to go the way of the dinosaur, General Motors, Pan Am and others.

That’s why the music industry is in a mess. They’re still doing their distribution and marketing the old way (still doing calligraphy)

The publishing industry is starting to reinvent itself with books now being distributed  electronically and sales of the Kindle starting to grow rapidly. While still not anywhere near physical sales, E book publishing has grown by 40% over the last year and all major publishers are gearing up to handle electronic books.

Many business are struggling and stuck in the last century. So are Churches and a lot of other organisations. Senior management is freaked out as they clutch to the old ways of doing things. They may try something new but try to make it work or to fit in with the old way of doing things.

The internet is more than a printing press. You have colour pictures, video, sound instant communication, file sharing, not just to the local area in which you live but to the world, 1.7 billion people in fact that are connected to the internet. www.internetworldstats.com.

Imagine a store front or a church or whatever on the corner of a busy highway with plenty of parking space, easy access and 1.7 billion people going by every day.

Imagine, whatever industry you’re in, someone trying to sell something or getting an idea out, but doing it ‘the old way’. Seth Godin tells the story of how he has self published books, used the internet and new ways of doing things and has used the old traditional ways, paid advertising, billboards, bookstore distribution etc. When he used the old way his books did poorly, using the new way he moved thousands of copies.

Take music for example. I’m going to pick on the music industry because it’s the most obvious, however the principles apply to just about every business or organisation.

Record companies no longer control music. Real music started it’s decline when the record companies realised they could create music by way of boy or girl bands and sell it the same way you sell cars or perfume.

The record companies had distribution tied up, fed radio stations what they wanted to sell and they became fat and lazy. Then darn; home computers took off then the internet arrived.

We no longer needed a record player or cassette now we had CD’s and they could be copied. BTW: The only reason we have CD’s is because music sales started to decline and the industry wanted a new system to force us to replace our old music in the new format. With the internet we could exchange music with friends. Instead of trying to work with the new system the Record companies have and are trying to force us the public into staying with the old system. (The Monks want to continue doing hand written copies of the Bible). Now we have MP3 players and iPods.

Any garage band can record music and within a few clicks have their music exposed to the world. They can give it away, or do anything they like with it.

The change has affected other things as well. I can remember how we couldn’t wait for the next issue of Rolling Stone to come out. Even Time magazine was a great weekly buy. Who cares about Rolling Stone anymore. The ‘buzz’ you got from buying a copy of Rolling Stone has shifted over to magazines like Wired, Fast Company and others. Even MTV used to be great, now who cares?

I read a report the other day which said that things are changing so fast that 25 year old programmers are terrified of the 13 and 15 yr old kids coming along with more computer savvy than they have.

So what does all mean? It means that whatever you’re doing, what ever business you’re in the paradigm has changed. Your CEO, the middle managers who have been doing business the old way better realise that there’s a new printing press and it’s called the internet. You, the middle managers, the CEO can either hinder growth and innovation and thereby kill your business or you can grab the 21^st Century by both hands and work out new ways to do your business and grow.

Be warned however. People are very savvy these days. I’ve seen appalling uses of the internet and the new media that is available. Just because you or your organisation is connected to Face Book, Twitter, using SMS on mobile phones, or the latest apps on your iphone, whatever, make sure that those who are using it know how to use it. I had one client’s staff member who thought it would be smart to join several groups that offered hundreds if not thousands of twitters to the company tweet account. Suddenly everyone on the companies tweet list was getting spam six or seven times a day.

People will drop you like a hot potato if they feel you are spamming them, using them or they realise you have the tools but don’t know how to use them – and any 13 year old can tell you how to use them correctly.

The internet as we know it is only 14 years old  We’ve only just begun. (origins of the Internet reach back to the 1960s, I actually love this because in an ageist society (in the west) it means a Baby Boomer invented the internet).

Imagine what it is was like when other industries were only 14 years old. Ships, Flight, Printing, Cars, Telephones, Radio, TV, Recorded music, Computers, Video games.

We live in exciting times. New rules apply to just about everything, to you, your situation, your business, your non profit, your church, your local store. You can either jump on board or you can sit back with the Monks and let the world go by.

Will you make mistakes? Yes, but I leave you with the words of Thomas Edison after hundreds of attempts to invent the electric light bulb and being called a failure, he said: “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. He also said:

“There’s a way to do it better – find it.” and
“Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something”.

If he were today he’d be having a ball. The internet has changed all the rules, new ones need to be invented – go for it. Let me know how you get on.

Make Poverty History? It’ll never happen.

I was having a meeting yesterday with a large world wide very well known charity, discussing future marketing and advertising possibilities.

In a break a junior staff member and I got talking and he had some really great and innovative ideas. I brought up the ideas when the meeting continued and gave credit to the young man for some excellent thinking. Everyone appeared pleased.

We broke for lunch. When I came back I discovered the ideas had been totally squashed and the young man had been reprimanded for talking to me and not going through the ‘internal’ marketing committee first.

I sat there dumb founded. Middle management people who should not be there protecting their turf at the expense of the growth of the charity and there by restricting the ‘good’ work they do.

Make Poverty History? It’ll never happen. Too many people and too many organizations are making too much money from it.

These guys deserve to be out of business and life’s too short to waste my time working with them.

If Video killed the Radio Star, computers buried them!

I’ve been invited to a re-launch of radio station that has done a radical change of not only of  it’s logo but also it’s name. They have new studios and they’re excited about the changes and so they should be.

However I can’t think of any reason to go. This station has changed it’s name and look several times over the last few years.

While ‘make overs’ for a business that is not getting it’s projected market share or a product that needs a re-vamp, done well, make overs work wonders. Logo changes can also work well. Woolworths supermarkets in Australia have just done it very successfully. However, changing the entire name of the business so often has the opposite affect. It’s unsettling. People start to ask questions.

To give them the benefit of the doubt I tuned in. I quickly realised why they’ve changed their name yet again. I also did a quick run around of people whom I knew would most likely listen to the station.

Most of them said they did. I then asked what they listened to. They came back with a specific announcer or certain segments. None actually listened at to any of the music programming. One person did admit to one or two songs from a particular singer but that was it. Not good for a station that claims to be a ‘music station’.

Why don’t they figure this out themselves? If they’ve done any market surveys they’re obviously asking the wrong questions. It’s been proven over and over again that people tend to give researchers the answers they think the researcher wants to hear and NOT what they really think. Coke with ‘new coke’ and more recently Cadbury’s chocolate are classic examples of this.

SO – their problem is not the name it’s their programming. It’s boring radio, not that there is a lot of good radio these days.

When are station mangers and those that control stations going to realise that radio programmed by a computer is as dead as the very machine it comes out of? Besides the computer is only playing ‘stuff’ that major record companies have ‘fed’ the stations based on top 40 charts that are derived from the buying habits of 10 year old girls.

So I guess the name change the new slogan is all very exciting for those involved but for us listeners out here if ‘Video killed the Radio Star’, computers have finished them off and indeed have finally buried anything or one that comes close to being a Radio Star.

I see another name change coming…..

Chocolate Wars

Cadbury’s Chocolate

In what appears to be a repeat of the Coca-Cola fiasco of some years ago with the introduction of New Coke, in one foul swoop, Cadbury’s have repackaged their brand, reduced the size of their blocks of chocolate, changed the recipe and increased the price. Changing the ingredients, their slogan ‘a glass and a half of fresh full cream milk’ is now more like ‘a glass and a half of vegetable fat’. What the current executives have effectively done is destroyed the very unique ‘Cadbury’s experience’ of having small chunky, rich full cream milk chocolate squares slowly melt in your mouth leaving you craving for more.

Founded in 1824 by John Cadbury he and his sons (who were Quakers) gave the world great chocolate. John and his sons would be turning in their graves now.

What annoys consumers is that the company didn’t say it was changing it’s products, it just did it. At least Coke had the guts to announce the new flavor. In marketing terms this simply amounts to contempt for long term fans of Cadbury’s products.

What is baffling is how someone in a company can make these changes and think it’s a good idea? In the short term a good idea for increased profits, share prices and director bonuses. What these seemingly ‘normal, rationale’ human beings, sitting in their glass offices surrounded by what must be ‘yes’ people, actually think they can get away with what appears blatant corporate greed. total disregard for the public, displaying their utter contempt for their customers, hoodwink the public and get away with it.

This is like the classic tale of a major dog food company. At a cost of millions, they brought in a new dog food product. Bigger tins, better packaging. After several months sales plummeted. The CEO berated the sales team and sent them back out to sell this wonderful new product.

Sales eventually came to a trickle. Again the CEO blamed the sales staff, the marketing staff the advertising company. Finally at one meeting with all the sales staff present the exasperated CEO demanded results. The room with a hundred or so execs from around the country stood in silence. He demanded to know why the sales team wasn’t achieving results and why sales were declining.

Then one brave man stuck his hand up and said “Sir….”. “What” barked the CEO. “The dogs don’t like the new food”. They ditched the product and went back to their original formula.

Unfortunately, marketing shows that quite often, companies who do this with popular brands never again achieve the position they once held.

To the Cadbury executives: This is the 21st Century. You can no longer operate a company based on a 20th or 19th Century model. Get ready to join, GM, Pan Am and Enron.

The CD as we know it is dead – gone the way of cassettes?

For those of us who grew up visiting the ‘Record Store’ running our hands over a  record cover, was in some weird way getting as close to our favourite artist as possible and was always the highlight of any week. Those of us who can remember, vinyl albums saw the introduction of tape recorders followed by 8 tracks and ‘WOW’ cassettes; then something weird happened. CD’s arrived. I had a gut feeling back then that said “This is not good” (demise of album cover art work). I remember a record store owner telling me in 1983, “Flash in the pan this format. It will never last!” “That’s a record store that’s going out of business”. I thought. Now some 25+ years later, we’re both right.

Sales around the world of CD’s have dropped dramatically in the last year. Virgin has closed its stores in the USA. Independent stores in the UK have gone from 2,200 in the 80’s down to 305 today. In Australia, JB Hi Fi is dramatically cutting back catalogue and consolidating its range. Sanity music is almost a DVD store these days with a small ‘Top 20’ range of CDs.

With over 13 million songs available last year for sale, official sale figures show 10 million of them failed to find a single buyer. 80% of revenue came from 52,000 tracks.

It took only 64 sales to make No. 16 on the UK mid week charts a couple of weeks ago. No. 3 on the charts sold less than 500 copies. I know of one CD that was No. 1 in Australia last year with ‘official’ sales in one state being under 20 copies.

Latest figures also show a decrease in illegal downloading and file sharing. What is taking its place? Legal downloading and streaming.  DVD’s and computer games are taking a bigger share of the entertainment dollar.

For those in the music industry the landscape has changed and will continue to change. iPod sales are declining; people no longer want to carry around their entire music collection. Amazon and iTunes are set to go head to head. Microsoft has taken on Google (about time) with Bing getting 8% of the US market. MySpace is starting to look very tired these days. Point being, major changes are taking place everywhere, as soon as one technology is announced another is ready waiting in the wings. (I don’t want to stream music I want my favourite band or artist to play in my lounge room projected in HD 3D with surround sound).

For the artist: True musicianship is back. Therefore, be true to yourself, develop your music, grown your fan base and hang in there. Develop ‘album concepts’ do some creative thinking and develop unique products that enhance your music and are a part of who you are. Engage your fans in social networks – your fans will love you for it.

In closing. A friend of mine got picked up by Café Del Mar, the album went to No.1 on iTunes and he’s an ‘overnight success’ – only took him 45 years. BTW: The album is yet to be released on CD.

The future is truly exciting.

Love Song reunion Concert and the Jesus Movement

It was great to see Love Song together again this month. The first time in 30 years that all the original members have played together. Great to see Chuck Smith introduce the band and with tears, tell the story how it all began in this little church in Southern California.

If the music seemed a little dated, well it was, back then it was rock music, today it’s not that far removed what we know as country music. However the words are just as true today as they were then.

For all those who think that Hillsong invented Contemporary Christian Music this may come as a shock. Guess what – they didn’t! CCM really started with Jesus Music in the 70’s, the pioneers being Larry Norman, Barry McGuire, Love Song and Andraé Crouch. The ‘church’ did not understand this ‘new’ sound. Some called it evil and the devil’s music and it was banned in many churches.

There were times when Andraé rolled up to a church and when the pastor realised he was black Andraé wasn’t allowed to play and was sent home. It was Love Song that helped break down the barriers and bring electric guitars and drums into a worship service.

Larry Norman and Love Song’s albums were originally released on a secular label. There wasn’t a Christian music industry. In fact back then it wasn’t called CCM it was known as Jesus Music and there’s a vast difference between the two.

As more and more Hippies got saved, it took someone like Chuck Smith at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, to open his doors and heart to these scruffy long haired people. As Chuck Girard from Love Song relates in the early days at church” This dear old lady came up to me one day and said “Son I sure am glad that Jesus has cleaned you up on the inside, but I can’t wait for Him to clean you up on the outside”.

The Hippies had fallen in love with Jesus and were inspired by the scriptures and this new found faith. They had an exciting message to share with their friends and the only way they knew how to, was with what they had, a voice, guitars, drums and scripture.

What happened back then was very unique. Young people flocked to churches and the whole Jesus movement began. The ‘new’ music wasn’t coming from a piano or traditional church organ; it came from guitars and drums. It wasn’t ‘church’ music, although everyone did embrace the traditional Hymns. They didn’t throw the old songs out, they just created some new ones and they were all mixed together. In fact some of the old hymns became really ‘cool’ to sing. Not much later a whole industry grew up around the ‘new’ music, which led to what we have today, CCM.

As I said before, what we have today has very little to do with Jesus music. Most CCM today leaves me running to the nearest elevator to get some relief. As the years have gone by ‘the church’ has gone in a direction of making it’s music ‘cool’ or ‘hip’ to ‘appeal’ to the masses. The result is that we now have a whole generation that has grown up within this culture, not knowing how and where the seeds of this all started and once again, those in the church started creating what I would term ‘church’ music.

You have church kids listening to the world and trying to create a contemporary sound and expressing words about the world in which they live (the church). The whole point has been missed. It has nothing to do with what music you’re playing, what coffee you’re serving in the foyer how big your TV screens are or how slick you and the church look.

Just look at any ‘western’ church service, they’re all singing the same songs, all have the same stylish clothes, all have the same haircuts (guys with a comb over except it goes across the face) almost all in the ‘worship team’ are under 35. The whole scene is quite incestuous and from the outside you look at it and scratch your head?

Here’s the difference – back then, you had secular musicians getting saved and their influence was their new found faith and love for Jesus.

They turned their back on the secular music world and the ‘in scene’ – there was a wholesale dumping of everything that was ‘of the world’. In the process, unknowingly and innocently, they created something entirely new.

Today’s CCM is the reverse. It’s all about ‘the look’ the charts, what the latest chorus to sing is, who’s cool and who’s not. How many units did the last album sell?

In what appears to be an obsessive drive to appeal to the world, you have western Christians singing about their faith but copying the world in all aspects from music to presentations, to fashion and trying to ‘create a contemporary atmosphere in their churches’ ultimately creating something that for many people outside the church looking in there’s confusion between spirituality and entertainment.

They’ve created something that church folk get excited about but the world sees it as entirely bland and meaningless if not a little embarrassing and very little to do with spiritual issues.

What attracted young people and ‘the hippies’ was Jesus, getting saved, prayer and their new found faith. It had nothing to do with a place that played ‘their’ kind of music or ‘felt’ like the coffee shops or clubs they had been attending. Church was church and it was exciting to go and sit on the floor and have a bible study and maybe sing a simple chorus with an out of tune guitar.

Seek Ye First became an anthem sung in two part harmonies. People didn’t sit and be ‘entertained’ they WERE part of the music. It came from within the congregation not round the other way as it does today. Jesus people understood the difference between a worship song and a song that you could sing in church as a musical item. That has become totally blurred today.

I know many church leaders who are trying and have tried to ‘recreate’ the Jesus movement. Spoke to one today as I was writing this, who enthusiastically told me “We’re recreating the Jesus Movement Halleluiah brother!” I thought as I listened “If you only knew what I’m writing about.” Hello! You can’t recreate it.

Firstly it was something that ‘just happened’ around the world and secondly, it happened outside the church. Sadly you can’t tell them, (church leaders), they just don’t get it. They can’t see the forest for the trees. Ask anyone who was a part of the Jesus movement what I’m talking about and they’ll get it instantly.

Ask anyone in the church and you get comments like “Cynic, backslidden, you’ve got no idea, you need deliverance, you’re living in the past, you’re a trouble maker, you’ve got stinking thinkin’, you need to attend more bible studies, etc etc.”

In fact someone did come up to me with a fierce look in their eyes obviously ready to cast out demons and told me I needed deliverance. I shot back without even thinking “I have had deliverance, you should have known me before I did.” I said it before I even realised what I said and it stopped them dead in their tracks.

One of the often used terms I hear from Church leaders is “Fake it till you make it”. See; the Jesus movement didn’t have to fake anything – it was real.

Jesus people didn’t and don’t need a book to tell them how to have a “Purpose driven Life, or Church”, they just got on and lived every moment of every day and many are still living it unfortunately they just don’t fit into and are generally not wanted in what is now called ‘the church’.

The established church took the Jesus People’s innocence and their music, alienated most of them and turned what they brought to the church into an industry. Now many church leaders are desperately trying to recreate a Jesus movement, those of us who were part of it just look and smile.

This new move will not start within the church, it can’t, the church today won’t allow it, just as it didn’t allow it in the 70’s and it didn’t when Martin Luther tried to reform it or when Saint Francis of Assisi tried to live and walk the Christian life and again right back some two thousand years ago to a scruffy band of fisherman and their leader who were not accepted by the established church.

The church needs to change, otherwise there’s a whole generation who are going find that at the end of the Mosh Pit there is nothing but a whole lot of wasted physical activity, good for an aerobic workout and very little if any ‘good on the inside’ certainly not enough to sustain a faith in God and to face the trials that come with everyday life.

Barry McGuire’s “Pay the Piper” and “Lear Jets” was originally aimed at the world, sadly today, those very words are easily applied to the church.

Before I get a flood of emails criticising me, let me say this: I find today’s church scene VERY exciting. Today’s ‘western’ church is culturally where the church was in the 50’s and early 60’s. So if you’re in a church, get ready for a new wave of folk to come in and turn the place upside down. Open your arms and just love em and watch what happens.

As Chuck Girard said at the beginning of the historic concert, “People refer to the Jesus Music guys as ‘the Legends’ or the ‘pioneers’ only to be dismissed as old, irrelevant and washed up. These ‘legends’ are actually ‘the fathers’ and the church needs to listen”.

The church has done all it can to ‘bury’ the fathers – I was reminded recently by my friend Craig Helms of a comment by Larry Norman who said “Churches killed the true Jesus Movement, which was a movement on the streets, by absorbing those who got saved into church structures”.

As Chuck Smith said at the end of the Love Song concert, “Maybe this is the start of something new, maybe as the song says, we need to ‘return to our first love’, “Welcome back to the things that you once believed in, Welcome back to what you knew was right from the start.”

The future looks amazingly exciting!

So you want a Music Career?

The internet has changed everything. A new model for artists and music has not yet shown itself. I talk with professional musicians all the time and everyone is wondering “How do we sell our music and make a living at what we love doing”?

Things you need to realise:

1. Music is now free. Get used to it. Record companies are still trying to sell us cassettes when we can download music onto our computers and iPods.
2. The Days of the big record companies controlling everything are gone.
3. Have a great web site.
4. Make your music available. People want to hear it.
5. Get on My Space, You Tube, Face book and Twitter. Get someone to run it for you if you don’t have the time.
6. Build your fan base.
7. Get your fans excited and they pass on the excitement to their friends = concert sales merchandise sales.
8. Your fans are the one that will support you. Sure they’ll download your music for free, but, if you’re good enough they’ll buy your music and any merchandise you have because they love you and want you to do well. They’ll buy the CD to display in their home, even if they never fire up their CD player.
9. An artist has to continually reinvent themselves – keep it fresh and have some passion.
10. Record companies ‘sell music’ – they don’t care if it’s Spice Girls, Jonas Brothers, André Rieu, they’re in the business of pushing a 3 minute sound bite with a cute look. Fans want something that’s real, something that moves them there’s a big difference.

The internet has changed everything. A new model for artists and music has not yet shown itself.

Record stores are closing and those that are still going are slowly becoming “top 40 shops”. Realise that 11 year old girls control the charts. Record companies ship thousands of albums out of a particular artist, just to get that artist into the charts – all done on sale or return.

I’m aware of one artist that recently had a number one record in the charts and actual retail sales for that album that week were in the hundreds. The reason for being No 1 in the charts – shipping out thousands of albums to retail outlets on sale or return.

We’re living in a time when the music world is being turned upside down and it’s exciting. I think we’re going to see some great new artists starting to emerge.