Dave's Top Eight

1. Jerry Reed...Revisited by Darrell Toney (reviewed 6/07) (5 Stars)
2. Sounds Like Sunday by Janet Paschal (reviewed 5/07) (5 Stars)
3. True To The Call by Kingdom Heirs (reviewed 3/07) (4 1/2 Stars)
4. Revival by Gold City (reviewed 10/06) (4 1/2 Stars)
5. Get Away Jordan by Ernie Haase & Signature Sound (reviewed 2/07) (4 1/2 Stars)
6. Breakin' Chains by Three Bridges (reviewed 5/07) (4 1/2 Stars)
7. Big Sky by The Isaacs (reviewed 4/07)
8. Skywriting by Mercy's Well (reviewed 7/07)

Click title to purchase at CBD.com...click artist name to read Dave's Review. A CD will automatically fall out of the Top Eight after twelve months if no CD surpasses it before then.

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January 20, 2007

SG Could Be A Leader

Situation: People with portable listening devices want to put music on their devices as simply as possible.

The recording industry can help make this happen in the following ways:
Solution 1: Offer standard CDs. The consumer can then rip files to a hard drive, convert them to MP3 or another format, and transfer them to a portable listening device. This requires no effort on the part of the music industry other than continuing to release CDs as they have been doing for years, but it's a time consuming process for the consumer. Also, this method requires the purchase of a full length recording in order for a consumer to get the songs they want. Rarely does a consumer want every song on a CD.

Solution 2: Offer songs for download online a la carte. This has been completely embraced by the music world at large, but Southern Gospel is lagging behind the trend, as is typical for a smaller, traditional genre. At this stage of the game, EVERY SG record label and/or artist should be offering their songs for sale individually via their website, iTunes, Wal-mart's music download service, and others. This is a no-brainer.

Solution 3: Offer audio/data CDs containing MP3, WMA and/or iPod audio files in addition to standard CD audio. These CDs will play on a standard CD player, but the data files can also be quickly transfered to a portable listening device. Very few artists in the music industry are doing this...none in SG, as far as I know.

Solution 4: Offer data CDs containing MP3, WMA and/or iPod files from several albums or so of previous releases. For example, a group could easily put 100 songs in MP3 format on a single data CD and sell it for $25 or so. No one is doing this.

Solution 5: As Daniel Mount has suggested, offer data DVDs containing the entire catalogs of artists from the past. I'm not completely sure what Daniel had in mind, but I'm thinking high resolution, remastered audio complete with data to display original artwork and liner notes, PLUS smaller resolution files designed for portable devices in MP3, WMA, and/or iPod format. No one is doing this.

Solution 6: Offer a subscription service...for a few dollars per month, an artist or a label could offer their fans a certain number of downloads. This would require a steady output of fresh music or a large back catalog of titles to work...which many SG artists have when you consider all their custom recordings and label projects. I'm aware of some artists in the general music industry who have tried this with mixed results, but none in Southern Gospel. Of course, Napster, Rhapsody, and others have offered subscription based services for the music world at large with good success, but again, SG titles are difficult to find on their services.

I'm looking for individual artists and record labels to truly begin exploiting the popularity of portable listening devices any day now.

Southern Gospel, as a small genre, would be the perfect world in which to experiment with these new potential revenue streams that no one else is attempting. Large genres are hesitant (somewhat understandably) to make any sort of moves that would set a precedent, but Southern Gospel really has nothing to lose...a minimal investment with a single artist to test the waters, then an expansion of the ideas that prove to generate revenue.

posted by David Bruce Murray @ 12:18:00 PM


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