I was sitting in church the other Sunday listening to a guest speaker, and as I was listening, it seemed that everything he was saying was hitting me, as a Southern Gospel artist, right between the eyes. So, before anyone gets too defensive, this article is speaking as much to me as it is anyone else.
Our guest speaker said that we pitifully try to harvest, when we haven?t done much planting. We just had a big discussion on this web site last month about sinners in the church. The fact is that one of the main places sinners should be getting saved is in the church, but we don?t seem to be doing a very good job of getting sinners to the church. This same principle applies to us as artists as well. We tend to get a booking and just expect that when we do our part of ?showing up,? then the rest of the world will do their part and ?just show up? too. One look at just about any Southern Gospel concert will tell you that this just is not happening. Very few groups can be counted on to draw enough people to pay their flats, let alone pay for any of the other expenses involved in promoting a concert.
I have said before, when I put on my ?promoter hat,? that it isn?t fair for the promoter to be struck as the only one responsible for the success of a concert. If Southern Gospel artists want to benefit from the rewards of the concert, then they should do their fair share of making that concert a success.
Crowds do not happen on accident. People don?t just show up at concerts. I do believe that promoters have the responsibility to do everything they can to bring a crowd in. Advertising in newspapers and radio are always effective. However, I have seen promoters do everything they can to get a crowd, doing all the right things, and still not have enough people show up to pay the group. Because of that, I want to look at what the groups and artists can do, and should do, to help carry their portion of the concert.
Just about every concert I go to, I put my name on some group or artist?s mailing list. I have often wondered what they do with these lists when they get them home. Do they make good kindling for the fireplace? Do they make good wallpaper in their living rooms? They must be doing something with these lists, bcause I very, very seldom receive any communication from these groups when they are about to be in my town. In fact, I can?t count the number of times that an artist or group has been in my town and I didn?t knows about it until after they had already been here and gone. I know, it costs 22 cents to mail a post card. I cannot help but think that it would be a very wise investment for groups or artists to send post cards to people on their mailing lists, informing them that they are coming to perform in a concert near them. Surely the people liked them and would come to see them again, if they went to the trouble of putting their name on that groups mailing list. Most promoters use a mailing list, but how much more personal it would be to receive an invitation to the concert from one of the groups going to be there.
One more thought about what groups and artists can do to help promote any concert that they are about to perform on, is to call the radio station in or around the city where they are about to perform. When I was on the radio, my listeners loved to hear interviews with the artists. They especially loved the spontaneous interviews, when an artist was in town that night, and took the time to spend just a few minutes with the audience. What was even more impressive was when an artist would drop in at the radio station. I would get calls for an hour after the artist had left, with people still wanting to talk with them. You know, a phone call, and ten minutes out of your time could reap you a much larger attendance at your concerts.
We have been expecting a harvest, when we haven?t planted any seeds. We have expected to just show up and have a harvest. Talk to any farmer and you will find out that getting to the harvest is a lot of work. Psalm 126:6 says ?He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him?.
If we want the harvest, we have to do the planting. We can?t just continue to go to the field and expect to see a harvest, when we haven?t planted any seed. Remember, the more you plant, the more you will harvest.
I recently heard a very wise man in the Southern Gospel industry say that when he quit depending on other people to promote him and started doing all he could to promote his group, the concert attendance grew rapidly. I am throwing this challenge out to every artist and group that is traveling. Start doing all you can to promote yourself and see if your concert attendances don?t start increasing.
Author: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Written: 05/31/2003
| 
Category: Monthly ArticlesEditorials
Comments: 58
RSS Feed
| (What's an RSS feed?)
|
Ads Sponsored by Southern Spin
I agree with Deon. It is very hard and expensive work to promote a concert. I am not complaining, however over the last 19 years of promoting, it has cost me a lot of money out of my pocketbook. This means many are going to churches and putting in a dollar or five thinking they have helped. If they knew what it cost to have a top notch concert, they would probably try harder. One person comes to mind. He said he was one of the biggest supporters of Gospel Music at concerts. He handed me his offering of 3 dollars. That bought 2 gallons of fuel. Thanks
Excellent article Deon!
Putting on a Gospel music concert at a church kind of reveals one of the ugly sides of Christianity. That is that Christians are among the cheapest people on earth -- especially when it comes to appreciating those who provide them value services in a ministry setting.
Deon,
Gunsinger, I wrote this article from the exoerience of wearing both hats, that of artist and promoter. If you ever try it from the promoters end and find yourself paying out of your pocket a few too many times, you will understand that the artist has more responsibility than just showing up and singing. My point is that the really successful groups out there are doing their share to promote themselves.
Deon,
Deon,
Gunsinger, I have to ask, have you ever promoted a concert? If you have then you should know that after a promoter works his hands to the bone, if that artist doesn't draw, then it's not the artist who loses his shirt, it's the promoter. Bill Gaither is a great example of someone who has promoted himself.
I have no way of knowing if having a band or not affects drawing power. I do know that I will not go to a concert if I know the artist will be singing to tracks. If I wanted to hear that I would just buy the CD. I would prefer hearing a single pianist live than a huge orchestra on tracks. Even then, I hope the pianist is skilled and practiced.
I don't understand some of these comments. Obviously some of you have never done anything but show up to a concert and find a seat. Deon is just trying to make you realize it takes a little hands on on the groups side to make it happen. I've done both and the more you do the more you learn what to do and not to do. I know everyones got their opinion and thats fine, but if you don't have commonsense than it tends to get a little hard to voice an opinion. I'm not trying to be rude, but if some of you could hear yourselfs you might realize how weird you sound. I just think its alot of work for a group to get a following. It takes more than just showing up. If you get on a personal level with these fans than you will see a difference. Some of you act like the fans and promoters owe you something when in fact you owe it to the fans and promoters to be the very best you can be in all areas. If you stay on good terms with the promoters, guess who might just call you back for another booking. Think about it!!!
Deon,
Deon,
To the unknown writer,
Gunsinger,
WhereHeLeads,
Gunsinger,
Deon,
Gunsinger said:
This is a great article. There are alot of things in this industry that proves people always leave their success to someone else. The artist leaves it to the promoter, the promoter leaves it to the artist. The artist blames it on radio, radio blames it on the artist. The artist blames the record company, the record company blames radio. And the list goes on. Instead we need to be looking how we can work together to plant seeds. Artists need to realize that just booking a date won't secure a crowd and a promoter needs to realize that just booking an artist won't secure a crowd, but by working together both benefits.
WhereHeLeads,
rb,
Good article Mr Unthank,.. AMEN!
Gunsinger says:
Gunsinger,
WhereHeLeads,
Gunsinger said:
Gunslinger,
To All,
Gunsinger said:
Gunsinger said: I promise you that the artist are working very hard to help promote!
All this discussion about who does the promoting has either pulled us away from the real reason we are here, or reflects the true nature of SGM. Is everybody in it for the money? Is this just a business? I would hope that it is not.
Keith, I certainly didn't intend for my article to be taken as an end all for making an artist successful. I could not possibly talk about everything at one setting. This is one area that I believe is lacking. You certainly made some good points.
This topic sure has brought out alot of responses. After reading all comments, I have this opinion. Promotion of a concert should reside with the promoter. The promoter desides what type of assistance he requires of the artist. The promoter is the boss. If the artist doesn't hold up their end such as ( promotion of the concert that the promoter has outlined, Proper presentation of the artists material or unprofessional action during the concert) then the promoter has the option, not to book that group again. I have learned over the past 2 years, that even though I beleive that everything I invest in my group is for a ministry reason. I have had to realize that almost everyone in SGM, treats this like a business. And a business it is. Promters can't have singings without the bills being paid. And Artists can't travel to venues without the bills being paid either. But I do believe that the promoter should be in charge of the singing and the booked artist should have the responsibility to aid the promoter in anyway possible to insure the sucess of the concert.
R. Papizan said:
This article and following comments tells me that the bottom line should be cooperation between the artists and promoter. As an artist, I appreciate and lean on my promoter but know to not entirely lean on them for the end result. In farming situations, it is common to work together "on halves". That means that both parties split the benefits because they have both given their all toward the final outcome. I guess, it just takes two.
Deon,
TES wrote: I think most folks will agree with me that TALENTED live musicians prevail always... and they are a drawing card.
Growler said:
Tes,
WhereHeLeads,
TES,
TES,
Having a live band does help a group as long as they follow three rules: all the musicians need to be well trained, the music they provide needs to be mixed properly with the vocals, and the musicians must be as spiritually trained as the singers. Of course, the problem is that pulling off all three of these successfully is very difficult. There are few that success at it. However, you do not necessarily need a big or boisterous band. A piano, bass and drums done tastefully, along with the vocals, can be very inspiring.
Deon / WhereHeLeads,
Tes,
drm,
DRM is probably right that it is hard to find enough intrumentalists with the right demeanor and skill to make a good SG band. On the other hand, it is the responsibility of SG groups' leaders to guide the musicians in the direction they should go, to instill in the band proper musicianship. One two-hour rehearsal a week will not help the band know who does the turn-around or what key the song is in. Even highly skilled professionals will use lead sheets or written out parts to give them reminders of the events of a piece of music. Are the groups' leaders providing these to the band members? Do the leaders have the skills to do so?
I can't believe that none of you musicians missed good argument FOR musicians that I gave. I stand by my reasoning that only the musicians are the one who notice when it's not a live band playing, however, the diversity and spontenaety (sp) that live music gives is a real plus. I know that musicians hate to hear this, but I believe that the ideal situation is to have a keyboard player and tracks, or maybe even keyboard and drums with tracks.
All I know is that I enjoyed going to SG concerts a lot more when groups used full bands. I miss the days of hearing the Original Hinsons, Gold City, Nelons, and McGruders with full bands. I rarely go to SG concerts anymore...I can enjoy their music at home or in the car...it's the same as hearing them in concert with tracks.
You're right, Deon, tracks would be better than bad musicians. I do have to ask, though, why should it be harder to find competent, dedicated musicians than it is to find singers? And I must disagree with one statement, I am not a musician yet I definitely notice when there is not a live band. Of course, to me the current crop of sound tracks is too elaborate anyway. What's wrong with just singing to a piano? It worked for years.
Tony has a good question: why is it so hard to find competent, dedicated musicians? It's because SG groups do not appreciate good musicians. Many of the SG groups who complain of not having enough money to pay musicians are traveling around in $100,000 busses. That's not showing off?! Of course, if the groups expect their musicians to play for free, they are going to end up with "bad, stubborn, or show off musicians." That's because the good musicians value their craft too much to waste it on folks who are not willing to pay for it. It's a sign of the bad state of the industry when more money is being spent of busses, sound equipment, recordings and, yes, promotion than on good talent.
jt,
Don't assume so much, first, Deon never said he didn't prefer a live band. And there are lots of other people that have no preference at all. Your arguments sound more like a disgruntled band member who wishes he had a job.
It doesn't matter to me whether a group has a band or not. That's not why I listern. My two favorites are The Martins and The Crabb Family. See one does and one doesn't.
I think this issue is entirely off focus on the article. This was an interesting analogy on sowing and reaping and promoting. Good article.
WhereHeLeads,
Sorry to tell some of you (I like them myself) but The Crabb Family doesn't use a live band. I know they have some musicians on stage, but it all playing over tracks. I say this from knowing not just speculation. There is alot of groups that do the same and we think just because there is somebody on stage with an instrument in their hands that they are awesome. I heard a group on GMT the other night that had a great band, but you could not stand to hear the vocals. Whats better,tracks with good vocals or good band with bad vocals. If you can't sing it doesn't matter what you have.
Someone said: jt,
Page 1 of 1 Comment Pages
