The Gospel Truth
01 Jan 2009
The Southern Gospel Music Artists Association
This may not be the time of year to be thinking about baseball – especially since this is Super Bowl month. I like football, I do, but I love baseball more. I love the New York Yankees. I know that some of you don’t love them and don’t love that I love them. That’s OK. You love your team and I’ll love mine. The game of baseball itself is what we love – no matter whom you’re cheering for.
Last year, I was able to attend my last game at the “Old” Yankee Stadium. It was a nostalgic time for my family and me. The Yankees are moving into their new stadium this year. I can’t wait to attend a game. Since I grew up in New York City, there’s always a connection. There’s always a family member or friend who knows someone who knows someone who can get me really great seats at Yankee stadium. In fact, I could get the best seats in the house on opening day at the NEW Yankee Stadium, front row box seats, and be sitting next to George Steinbrenner himself. We’d look around and admire the new seats, the new field, and the shiny new dugouts. That would be wonderful…but the truth is that I came to see the players. The new stadium will cost around 1.6 billion dollars, but the only reason I would make the effort to get there is because, eventually, I want to see someone play baseball. What is Major League Baseball? It is the players. There is no MLB without the players.
Southern Gospel Music Is About The Artists
In the same way, there is no Southern Gospel Music without the artists. I could get the best seats in the best concert hall in the world, but the bottom line is that I want to hear someone sing Southern Gospel Music. That’s why I’m there. This is an important element that seems to be getting buried in all the activity we call Southern Gospel Music.
Take a look and notice that:
The purpose of the National Quartet Convention is to make money for the owners.
Radio Promotion is designed to make money for the promoters.
Custom Recording companies exist to make money from the artists.
All of our magazines and periodicals sell advertising to make money.
Promoters promote concerts to make money.
Is any of this bad? Not necessarily…it is the free market system at work.
But we need to remember that it’s the Southern Gospel Artist that is the center of all we do. It’s the local groups and the national groups. It’s the soloist traveling for love offerings and the big name artist with a huge staff of people.
Now take the artists out of the picture and what do you have? NOTHING!!!
No NQC, no radio promotion, no recording, no magazines, no SG radio, no concerts…you have NOTHING…ZERO…NADA…ZIPADEE-DOO-DA!
Now here’s where I get confused:
If SGM is nothing without the artists…why aren’t the artists running the show?
Isn’t this a classic example of the tail wagging the dog? The artists in SGM have little to say about the direction THEIR industry is taking.
For example, in 1965 major league baseball players formed the Major League Baseball Players Association. The primary objective was to bring an end to the reserve clause, which bound players to their respective clubs. This clause put the control of the players in the hands of the owners. In 1970 the players negotiated the right to arbitration to resolve grievances, and in December 1975, the players finally won the right to free agency, which is why a player in 2008 can sign a contract for the obscene amount of 180 million dollars.
While I agree with most of you that 180 million dollars is way too much money to play baseball, the flip side is that if the owners are making a cajillian dollars by using the talent of the players, and are willing to pay exorbitant salaries, then I say “ Dear Lord, please give my grandson Garrett a 100 mph fastball and power to hit 100 homeruns a year from both sides of the plate.”
I want to state clearly that I am not a proponent of unionization but I do believe in the principles of fairness and equality. And it is true that in many cases unions always seem to take things too far in strong-arming companies and owners, which results in higher prices for the consumer.
This is what happened in MLB and many of the discrepancies between the players and the owners had to be settled in a court of law. Please understand that I am certainly not suggesting such an adversarial relationship between artists and industry leaders. We are, after all, first and foremost, brothers and sisters in Christ, but there are situations where like-minded individuals should band together to protect their interests.
THE SOUTHERN GOSPEL MUSIC ARTISTS ASSOCIATION (SGMAA)
The concept of a group of individuals banding together as a group to insure that their interests are not overlooked is something that I believe those of us who love Southern Gospel Music might consider.
You see, we all rant and rave about changing this and that and wax eloquent on how to improve SGM…all of which makes for good blogging and commentaries but really does nothing to improve anything.
It’s time for SGM artists to unite and take control of the industry. The time is right for the Southern Gospel Music Artists Association…the SGMAA.
We’ve had other associations, still do, but they have always been comprised of industry personalities, (record label heads, producers, radio promoters, booking agents etc.) and have been and still are impotent when it comes to moving SGM forward. They are all talk and no do. They meet about this and meet about that and talk about this and talk about that and at the end of the day nothing gets done.
Artists who are united can make the difference.
It’s time for a SGM Pension Fund.
Great SG artists who have devoted their lives to SGM should not have to grovel about for a living in their golden years, or die penniless like my lifelong friend Jim Hamill.
It’s time for SGM artists, all SGM artists, professional and amateur, to have access to health and life insurance.
It always breaks my heart to hear about having benefit concerts to help SG artists who suffer medical calamities and don’t have health insurance or surviving spouses who are destitute because there is no life insurance.
It’s time for SGM artists to have a funeral benefit so families don’t have to go in debt just to bury them.
It’s time for SGM artists to have the support of fellow artists in exposing churches and promoters who fail to adequately pay them.
How many times have we heard of SG artists being ripped off by churches and even promoters? If we had a national database identifying these churches and pastors and promoters we could put an end to it.
A well-organized SGMAA comprised of ARTISTS and led by ARTISTS could do all these things and more.
To many of you this may sound like a pipe dream, but I assure you, I have never been more serious. Imagine the things that can be accomplished when all SGM artists are united.
We are dealing with a fragmented industry. Every different segment is out to get all they can. Each segment (Radio, Recording Companies, Magazines, Promoters, Booking Agents etc.), goes about their business with reckless abandon and total separation from each other in a frantic attempt to out do the other.
The end result is that the Artists take it on the chin.
We can discuss all the things that are wrong with SGM. Everybody in America can write articles ranting and raving about this, that or the other. But nothing will ever change until the artists take control of their own destiny.
In the SGMAA every artist, from the most popular professional group to the newest “Newbie” will be on equal footing.
All it will take to get this started are a few artists who are willing to get together and get the ball rolling. It will require finding a good attorney who is well versed in this area and who has no interests in SGM.
There are lots of details such as elections, fund raising, a code of ethics and guidelines and rules, to name a few. All these things can be worked out in due course as artists begin to convene and discuss these matters.
Trust me folks, we have some top-drawer artists with lots of smarts who can get this set up.
The important thing is to open the dialogue and get the ball rolling.
I’ll be glad to serve as point man at first and help in putting the right people together, or in any other capacity, but at the end of the day it will have to be you artists who breath life into this organization.
For anyone who doesn’t know how to reach me, my email is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
I want to hear from you artists, pros, weekend warriors, newbies, soloists, doesn’t matter. There are lots of good ideas out there and I want to hear them. This will work. All we have to do is do it!
As always, I welcome your comments,
God Bless You,
Nick Bruno
http://www.nickbruno.com
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[12] Comments
Brother Nick, I'm with you 100% on this one. 
Sounds like something that needs to happen. Great article.
Yeah Nick!
Written: 01/01/2009 
Author: Nick Bruno
Category:
The Gospel Truth
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