Dear Christian Music Industry (Part 8)
Dear Christian Music Industry,
Have you been by any of the “heavy hitting” bloggers pages lately? Oh, come on CMI. Do you mind if I call you that? CMI? I feel like we are friends enough now right? Anyway, I know you have been visiting a bunch of these “heavy hitting” blogs recently. You know how I know? It’s this new little thing that your marketing people are doing called the “Blog CD Giveaway”. Yep, I know it’s you. I know that you are the one’s contacting these bloggers with massive amounts of readers and asking them to talk about and give away the new records you are releasing. They are everywhere. Autographed copies, pre-release copies, copies with t-shirts, copies with posters. There’s a number of ways that one lucky reader of these popular blogs can take home something special from either their favorite artist or a brand new artist they have never heard of. It’s a good move CMI, and I support it. Well done.
I do have one question about this tactic though. And I’m not even being as sarcastic as I normally am with you. Are you ready? Here it is. How come you recognize blogging as a valuable form of marketing to the masses yet you still are struggling to get your artists to blog themselves? There’s an easy way to get your artists to blog well and all you have to do is ask.
I will give you one guess, Christian Music Industry, who would write about your artists new records with more passion and more excitement than any blogger you will ever meet. Do you want to know who it is? It’s the artist themselves. I know, it sounds silly. Why would an artist talk about something that they have spent the last year and a half giving birth to? Surely they aren’t going to be able to convey a message more convincing than a popular blogger, right?
Maybe look at it this way. I could show you pictures of friends kids, and I could talk about them all day and I could even get you to tell me that they are cute and you like their dimples or something, but think of the difference between that and me telling you about my kids. What if I showed you pictures of my kids? Told you about how they jumped off the couch and got a concussion? Showed you their first day of school pictures? Wouldn’t you be more convinced of my passion for my own kids?
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all about other people telling the world how cute my kids are, but if I am going to ask people to talk about my kids and tell people how great they are, wouldn’t I be doing that myself as well? Wouldn’t I create a platform where I could join in the conversation and give people the real inside stuff? The stuff popular bloggers might not know about?
As always, it’s great to talk to you Christian Music Industry. Let’s get coffee soon.
Brody
Have you done a focus group study on this yet?
Haha! I love these open letters
I am with Brent.. This was a great letter.. Probably one of my favorites.
Beautiful.
I think everyone in the industry secretly reads these letters. I agree. I wondered the same thing. I started seeing tons of cd giveaways pop out and it made me think what the heck are they thinking???
FYI mercyme should host a blog giveaway. It would be massive.
Nice. I love what you’re doing, Brody.
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I couldn’ta said it better myself, Brother! And THAT’S sayin’ something…
Sincerely,
CHIEF RUNNING-TONGUE
EXACTLY!!!
Working in the other CMI (Country Music Industry) I would agree that it would be to the artist’s advantage to have a blog site. However, just like many of us common folk, some artists have no desire to post photos of their kids for the world to see or over share their daily life. They may still want some structure of intimacy and privacy.
Also, I think having a manager or label making an artist blog can be much like telling them what to wear on stage or what song to write next. They do what they do, right or wrong. We can only suggest, which you credibly have, what may be the best thing for their career.
Keep up the fine work!
I am CEO of one of the largest -CMI- companies. And I think you are right. Except for one little thing…. No one wants to blog. Just because you can sing does not mean you can write.
I appreciate your candor but am going to have to call it what it is.
Someone desperately trying to get a business off the ground who is frustrated that not enough people are noticing for there to be enough profit to feed your family.
Sorry… Its just got to be said.
Instead go straight to the artists we “back” and get them to agree. We see the value in what you do, however its must be coupled with a willing and “able” artist. Unfortnately (and the reason I am writing as anonymous) not very many of them are smart or very capable for that matter. We sort of heard them around like cats and do what we can to sell their music.
Really you are just presenting a sort of spin on what MTV does with all their “artist-reality” shows. You kind of want to watch because they are such train wrecks but are really not all that interested in them as people…. Same thing with blogging artists except when they write and their writing is bad you just want to leave and when you do you have less respect than when you first came.
Again…. Its just got to be said.