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Sunday Edition


02
Jul
2005
We Can’t Stand The Truth


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Last month’s article was about love…my love for the greatest music this side of heaven, and why I feel compelled to defend it. Amazingly, most of the many emails I received were urging me to identify the companies who are ripping off our artists. I could easily do that, but I like my house and don’t want to risk losing it in a court battle. Also, it’s not necessary to name these characters if you will ACCEPT the truth when I tell you what to look for.

ACCEPTING THE TRUTH

My articles are about truth. Those of you who are sincere about doing this business the right way can look into these articles and see the truth staring right back at you just like looking into a mirror. But there is a big difference in “seeing” the truth and “accepting” the truth. For whatever reason, we sometimes refuse to accept what we know as “the truth”. Perhaps we’re in denial. Or it could be downright stubbornness. Regardless, this I promise you. Until you are willing to accept “the truth” about your singing, you will not succeed. As long as you refuse to believe the truth about the scoundrels in our industry who are conning you into doing the “wrong” things, you will be just like the wicked witch who looks into the mirror and sees a beautiful princess.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GOOD COMPANIES

A good record company has artists with real success. There is a reason for this. A good record company takes the time to produce quality recordings. As I’ve taught you in previous articles, time is one of the key ingredients in the formula for a quality recording. A good record company helps its artists find and arrange fresh new songs. A good record company carefully plans a budget with the artist and develops a well planned strategy for radio releases and marketing. Most importantly, a good record company limits its roster of artists to a manageable number. No SG record company can properly handle a roster of 60 or 70 artists. You cannot do the things I’ve just described and give the artists the attention they deserve.
It makes no difference whether you are a major artist or just starting out making custom recordings, the company you record with must do these things for you. If they don’t, congratulations, you’ve just identified one of the bad guys.

Just because some companies have been around for a long time doesn’t mean they’re doing things the right way. In fact it could mean they are still playing on success they had many years ago. What is more important is what they are doing now. Look at their roster of artists. Is it a reasonable number? Are any of them achieving real success? Talk to artists who have left the company and find out why they left and how they were treated.

We recently signed a group that was formerly with one of these companies, a very high profile company. The story they told regarding this company was not really a surprise to me. After all, I’ve been preaching these truths month after month, and it’s certainly not the first time I’ve heard it. It seems this group signed on to do a recording with all the whistles and bells, you know, radio promotion, marketing, etc. The group paid their money but the company never did what was paid for. Instead, the group got an inferior recording, and a song put on a compilation with other groups that also got inferior recordings. They got no reports about their song, and were pretty much “Shuffled off to Buffalo” along with the dozens of other groups this company did nothing for,
[n]UNTIL……it came time to do another recording. Then the sweet talk started all over again.[/n]
Folks, I know these people like the back of my hand. They are not interested in you, or your ministry, or SGM. They are only interested in signing more groups. That’s the only way they can make money and keep their cash flow up. They take the cheapest approach to maximize their profit margin on each group.

The group I’ve just mentioned got “snookered” but you don’t have to. You can accept “the truth”. Once again I’ll give you 2 (two) undeniable, irrefutable, incontrovertible TRUTHS.

I write the next line almost every month, and almost every month someone emails me to say they got ripped off, and it’s because they didn’t follow this advise…OK…I’ll say it again…Sit down and study the next line and memorize it:

#1 DON’T DO BUSINESS WITH ANY COMPANY UNLESS YOU RECEIVE A LINE ITEM BUDGET.

Wait…maybe I typed too quickly. Let me say it one more time.

DON’T DO BUSINESS WITH ANY COMPANY UNLESS YOU RECEIVE A LINE ITEM BUDGET.

A line item budget is a detailed accounting of each expenditure, including, but not limited to: musicians, instrument cartage, studio time, producer’s fees, arrangements, orchestrations, background vocals, piano tuning, mastering and vocal tuning.
If you would like to see a line item budget just email me at: and I’ll be glad to send you a blank line item budget for you to review.
You have a right to know where every penny is being spent because it’s your money. Don’t listen to the sweet talk, “We’ve been doing this for 30 years and we’ve never given a line item budget, our artists trust us.” Yeah right… and I’ve got an ice company in Alaska that I’d like to sell you.
Any company with integrity will be glad to provide you with a line item budget.

#2 DON’T BE CONNED INTO RADIO PROMOTION UNTIL YOU ARE READY.

To be honest with you, I am baffled by people who send me emails telling me they’ve been reading my column for months but were still bitten by this scam. My only question is why they didn’t accept “the truth” they’ve been reading all these months.
There are literally hundreds of groups that have fallen for this scam, and since this column is about Truth…I’d have to say that the truth is many of these groups don’t want to believe the truth about themselves. They don’t want to be honest and admit that when someone tells them that their singing is simply not ready for radio, it’s the truth. They would rather believe someone else’s lie because it’s what they want to hear. Are you one of those groups? If you can, tell us about all the success you’ve achieved by “putting a song out there”. I’d be glad to hear it. Also, tell us if your date book is full? Are you now a national group? Are you selling lots of product? Which night are you singing at NQC? What is the title of your next single? Where is the company you signed on with now? You know…the same guys that were saying, “Oh Yeah, this is a hit! Give us your money and we’ll send this out to radio and the next thing you know, you’ll have your name out there”. I can tell you what happened. They got your money and you got “NUTTIN”.

My friends, this is truth. I pray you will clearly see it, and after seeing, ACCEPT IT.

I love the scripture that says, “Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right”. Philippians 4:8 (LSB)

As always, I welcome your comments.

God Bless You,

Nick Bruno
http://www.songgardenmusicgroup.com


Reader Comments

Much of this would clear itself up if the artists weren't blinded by the hope of stardom. The ego rush of hearing your song on the radio and seeing your picture in the trade magazines overwhelms all sense of honesty and logic. I'm just curious about one thing, if the artist is paying for everything, why is the record company putting its' label on the product?


Commented by Keith Prater On 07/02/2005
I agree with what Keith just said. If the artist has to foot the bill, then why not simply release the CD yourself on your own indie label. As long as you take the time to make quality recordings, some radio programmers should play it, even if it's internet radio.

If you get out there and sing for the people and you're good enough and you have well-written original songs which are recorded decently, someone will play it. Or you could start your own internet radio show.

Barring all that, at least that self-produced, self-released CD would make a killer demo for a REAL record company. If you get out and sing for the people, that real record company will take notice, probably even re-mix and re-release your self-financed CD. The next CD will be on them.

If you need some good, original songs to record, you don't need a record company for that either.
There are more than a few talented writers out there who would gladly send you a demo.

In Jesus,

Chris Becker


Commented by On 07/03/2005
The truth is someone can be the most anointed and talented person in this world, but with out money in their pocket, they are not going to get much from a record company or promoter. I know from experience you do get what you pay for and if you have little money to invest you get little in return. Not everyone has $25,000 to $100,000 to invest in a project or promotions. It is true you will not be ready for record promtion if you do not have money to back it. My project was what some record companies call a budget cd and believe me a local station let me know that they were going to play only the Artist that have spent top dollar on their project. Just because someone has an orchestra compared to your four or five instuments does not alway mean that they are more talanted or anointed then someone else. It just means they had the money to back it. Also it seems that record companies that promote worldly music, backs and puts more money in their artist than gospel. I came across a young man that is about 21 and he sings hip hop music(not gospel hip hop). According to him(I have not verified it, I am only going by what he told me)a record company invested $100,000 dollars in him without him spending a penny.

Okay this is only an opinion. I think that since it is mainly about business than treat it like a business. Artist should apply for a job with the record companies. Go for an interview and let the company review you portfolio and cds, make a decision to hire you are not. Then if they hire you pay you a salary. Then they will work hard to get you going because they are investing in you. They still could make a lot of money this way also. Please lets not leave the Lord out of your decision.


Commented by Betty On 07/03/2005
As long as you take the time to make quality recordings, some radio programmers should play it, even if it's internet radio.

Chris.. I know you didn't mean this as a slam against internet radio.. but I am positive that my "quality" standards for adding songs to the playlists on our internet station are higher than the majority of "air wave" radio facilities. Guaranteed. Just because it's "internet radio".. doesn't mean it has to be inferior.

I don't play junk.

Chuck
http://www.sglive365.com


Commented by Chuck On 07/04/2005
The all-time number one song in Southern Gospel music - Rise Again, by Dallas Holm - was recorded only with three vocals, piano, 12-string guitar, bass guitar, drums and some type of synthesizer in a live concert. However, the average musical skill of those five people (some doubled up on vocals and instruments) far exceeded that of the average instrumentalist or vocalist on most SG recordings today. It is not the size of the band that determines whether a recording is radio worthy, but the overall skill of the participants. The moral of this story is if that really talented singer was really that talented, he could make a recording with only a really talented pianist and do well. And he would not remain all alone for long -- that is, if the record company executives in this industry knew what they were doing.


Commented by keith_prateryahoo.com On 07/04/2005
The all time number one song in Southern Gospel was "Learning To Lean." It spent more than a year (15 months, to be exact) at number one. "Excuses" was number one for 10 months. "I'm Standing On the Solid Rock" was there for nine.

To put it in perspective, "Rise Again" was at number one for six months.

But your point is well taken about production quality and musicianship. Southern Gospel is driven by vocals, but sometimes the quality better musicians can bring to a recording is taken for granted. I think this is improving, though. Projects coming out of Daywind and Horizon/Sonlite sound noticeably better than they did ten years ago, for example. Spring Hill has always used quality music tracks.

Some of the other labels are unfortunately still trying to get by as cheap as they can and think having more artists on their roster makes them a "big" label.


Commented by David Bruce Murray On 07/04/2005
Chuck,
You're right. I didn't mean to impune the quality of internet radio. If it WEREN'T for internet radio, I'd never get to listen to SGM... we have no regular SG radio stations here in Iowa. I meant it as a continuation of the whole "indie" thing... i.e. if you have to, start your OWN internet radio station... then program some quality music.


Commented by On 07/04/2005
"Excuses" was the #1 song in SGM for ten months??
WOW...and......Nick Bruno produced that song.
Didn't he?


Commented by On 07/05/2005
A clarification that enhances "Rise Again" even further...there actually were NO drums on that recording. (Unheard of now, isn't it?) And no added instruments of any kind via overdub.

It may not have been the number one all-time, but it had an amazing run, it was exquisitely produced for a live recording, and the song itself endures yet today.

Somebody did something right.


Commented by On 07/09/2005
Well, it's possible "Rise Again" is the number one Christian song overall. It was probably even more popular in Contemporary Christian than Southern Gospel.

I just know other songs stayed at number one longer on the Singing News chart, so it would probably not be accurate to say "Rise Again" was the number one Southern Gospel song of all time.


Commented by David Bruce Murray On 07/10/2005
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