Concerts On The Rebound, Southern Gospel Promoters Associatio

May

2007

Concerts On The Rebound

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I am very pleased to share some good news with everyone concerning gospel concerts. I am just completing our first quarter concerts survey for 2007 in order to get a feel of how we are doing. By that I mean all aspects of concerts from attendance, fan comments and, of course, financially to arrive at the results. We talk to SGPA promoters throughout the country and I am encouraged by the results. We still have work to do but we are making progress.

Attendance is up and losses are down. The past three years have been very trying for promoters. The losses have been astronomical. Some promoters were forced to discontinue but still faced huge debts. Over the past three years an average of 68% of all SGPA concerts lost money. But, as I said, the latest figures are encouraging for the first quarter of 2007. We see that 41% of concerts are unsuccessful. That is still 41% too many, but at least we have tipped the scales.

What is making the difference? Several things: (1) Most everyone in the industry finally agreed that we had a problem. Then we began to address those problems. Promoters, artists, and agencies now have the communication lines open. Everyone is making changes and adjustments. (2) We are finally addressing the over-saturation problem. There are fewer singings in any given area than we have seen in a long time. Artists and agencies are working hard to place singings farther apart and we are seeing the results.

Speaking as a promoter myself, we had to make changes. Also, we had to make sure that all of our bases were covered as far as advertising. People will drive greater distances to a concert so we must advertise to a larger area. More and more promoters are booking with their head instead of their hearts. We must book artists that draw people, not because we like them.

I spoke with one promoter who complained about his losses. I noticed on five of his programs he had one group on each of the programs. Every promoter that I had spoken with said this particular group just did not draw. I asked him if they drew for him and he said not, but he liked them. Duh! I told him to buy their CDs for $20.00 and listen to them.

Many times we, promoters, try to find somewhere to place the blame for unsuccessful events when the blame falls squarely on us. But in the four years that I have served as SGPA President, I can truly say that I believe our industry is truly headed in the right direction. I cannot speak for every branch of our industry, but from the promoters’ standpoint - it really looks brighter.

I invite you to visit our website at http://www.sgpromoters.com. UNITED WE STAND!

Jim Hefner
Southern Gospel Promoters Association
http://www.sgpromoters.com

Reader Comments

You say that SG concerts are on the rebound but here in the Dallas area, the hit that the AGM took had to have been tremendous. I have tried to say for years that the Dallas SG market is really 'sg'. That event should have scared Dallas area promoters to death. I applaud Harold Marshall for his success but even the success that He has had is less Dallas based and more from the outside area. I would guess about 1/3rd or less of his crowd would be from Dallas. In Dallas, unless your name is Bill Gaither, good luck getting a crowd.

There is a market to be had in the Dallas area but it is going to take someone with the ability to take the financial hits, the patience to build a crowd and not expect the crowd to show up because XYZ group is in town, and some quality regional groups to re-introduce churches to SG all over again. Often we are asked if we wrote a song that we sung that is 5 years old or newer (i.e. Under God). This only shows how uneducated about SG the churches in Dallas are.

It will also need to ramp up the air play in the area. Until KCBI began their Sunday afternoon play of SG the radio airplay was on the AM side of the dial and even then I couldn't handle the poor selection of groups being played by the djs, and I am a huge fan of SG.

Finally, it will also take some compromise from the agency side of things. I have seen the very popular Booth Brothers, my personal favorites, and the Perrys play to some very small crowds in Dallas. Yet the agencies still want top dollar, even when the groups are 20 miles up the road with Gaither the day before. So are we now reduced to charging our parishioners to go to their own church on Sunday Evening?

I would like to hear from others their ideas about what should be done to ramp up SG in Big D.

Commented by SG Maverick On 05/18/2007

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