People become attached to certain artists as a result of a myriad of factors about the artist and all this gets “bundled” into how they “experience” that artist. Here are some of the factors involved in that experience:

• How the artist looks, dresses, and talks on stage
• What topics the artist chooses to talk and sing about
• What others around me think and feel about the artist
• What happens at concerts
• How often I get to see and hear, or hear from the artist
• How much the artist seems to feel and think like me
• How, whether, and how much the artist talks to me offstage
• Does the artist answer my calls, emails, etc.
• Does the artist have a web presence that is interesting to me or that I can participate in
• What do I know about the artist’s “private” life and what do I think about it
• Are there places, other than concerts where I encounter the artist: do they teach music, produce CD’s, write books, use social networking, etc.
• Does the artist ever engage me in person outside, or alongside, of concerts.

All these aspects (and more) of “experiencing” an artist fold together to create an image held in the mind(s) of those following an artist to determine how much the artist’s ministry is valued.  And here’s the really important part: the value of that entire experience represents how well the artist’s ministry succeeds. Bookings, CD sales, concert attendance, and sales of other products, are all really just “souvenirs” of that experience.

Most artists do not fully understand the quality and quantity of the kinds of experience they do or could offer. They simply look at their success as a function of how many CD’s they sell or whether they get “good bookings.”

Artists can “grow” their ministries by learning how to look at themselves broadly, and understanding the real breadth and depth of experience they offer.  Deeper and more meaningful experiences for followers means a more fulfilling experience for the artist.  And this will result in a more stable funding for the ministry as more followers find more value for more “souvenirs” of their experience.

For $10,000 per title, a major label can buy the opportunity to force consumers to buy album-only downloads on iTunes. (Indie labels, including SG, need not apply–this is only available to major releases on major labels.) Read more details here, here, and here.

See this for what it is. A brash attempt on the part of the major labels who are bankrupt of new marketing ideas to force consumers who are now used to “choice” to have to buy ten songs at once to get any of the songs on their favored new releases.

Methinks this attempt to return to the good old days will be rejected by consumers. Worse, it may drive those who have been actually purchasing song downloads back to their “free” P2P networks to, in effect, “steal” the songs they want.

The forcing of consumers to buy-songs-they-don’t-want cat is out of the bag. That cat will never be recaptured. This is a bad idea that can only hurt the companies and artists involved. On the other hand, it will probably hasten the resolve of all who are moving forward to create the strategies of the future.

But, since I’m always open to debate… suppose your two favorite SG artists had new releases and one of them was only available as a full album download while the other was available either way, individual songs or full album. What would be your first thought? Would your buying choice be affected?

At the same time, we have silos of consumers “giving” us attention for free and we usually just squander it. Let’s take concerts for example. The traditional “look” at this has folks showing up to see you sing, maybe talking a bit after the concert at the record table, and maybe buying a CD or two. Then they leave, you leave, and “see you next time” ends it.

But look at this more closely. Someone has made a choice, among all other things they could be doing, to come and see you. They have paid the ticket price and they have “paid” you attention. In addition they have given you their permission to show them something, tell them something, inspire them, talk with them, etc. They have paid you their attention and given you their permission. FOR FREE.  It has COST YOU NOTHING – in fact, you are getting paid to be there.  Now if these are things we usually have to go out and buy, just how do you react when it’s given for free. Maybe if you took advantage of all the FREE gifts of attention and permission, you wouldn’t have to buy any.

Why do I call this squandering? Because you have just had a whole bunch of people offer you their attention and permission to inspire them and you have (1) not given either of those things back to them and worse (2) you are willing to walk out the door at the end of the night, let it all just end, without inviting them to “go with you” or to continue the relationships established there –  tomorrow, next week, next month.  Just a “See you next time!”  True, they may fondly remember the event. True, they may take you “home” with them in the form of a CD. But you do not take them home with you! You have not returned the attention back to them and given them permission to continue to be “in contact” with you.

No invitation to them to continue and deepen the relationship has been offered. What if…at the end of the evening you said

“We’ve all just had such an incredible and spirit-filled time this evening…we just don’t want to let it end. We don’t just want to leave here tonight and say ‘goodbye.’  We want to STAY in touch with every single one of you. We want you to call us, email us, send us Facebook messages. We want to keep up with how your doing. We want to know if there’s something outstanding in your life — good or bad. We want to pray for you and have you pray for us. And we want to be able to call on you when WE are in need. So, we’re really asking you here, do not let what got started here tonight–end. Come to our website to email or call us. leave us your address. And here’s our promise–no call or email will ever go unanswered. We value the relationship we’ve all begun here tonight and we pledge to continue it if you do. There’s nothing more important to us than you. You are the reason why we are here.”

And then did it.

All this tends to be credited (or blamed depending on your point of view) on scriptural warnings about wealth, love of money, and greed. (One could wonder as to why other scriptural passages like the parable of the talents have not taken precedence.)  Against this poverty mentality background, it is no wonder that lots of artists and other business entities in the genre live “on the edge” or just barely get by, and some even “wear” it like a badge.  While the issue of money is discussed often and everywhere and “dumbs down” almost every endeavor, rarely is the question “are we really that poor?” asked and put to the test.

You would think that the Gaither success story over the past 15 years would have put the issue to rest.  Yet even some artists who have been participants in that success are still careful to observe the poverty mentality rules when working on their own outside of the tour.  Which begs the question as to whether the shared belief in this mentality is actually functionally true or whether it just functions “like the truth” because we believe in it and follow it.  I would argue the latter.

Beliefs are powerful.  There’s an old story about a jeweler who had a small line of matching items that were not selling after months of sitting in the store.  The owner, before going on vacation, left a note for one of his clerks to change the price of that line of jewelry by one-half.  The clerk misread the handwritten note and doubled the price. When the jeweler returned he discovered that the whole line had sold out.

If a promoter follows a pattern of putting on concerts in gyms with poor sound and lighting, he is going to draw crowds that are only comfortable with very low ticket prices and looking only for “bargains” at the record table.  When the Gaither tour comes to town, however, people are willing to pay higher ticket prices for a great venue and buy all the CD’s and videos that they value.  Bill has valued himself, the artists, the tour and the people.  He shows that the genre’s fans do value the artists highly and, even more, they value seeing those artists framed in a setting that is “as good as” those of other genres.  And they value seeing themselves in that setting equal to fans of other types of music.  They value the artists, they value themselves, and they value the appearance of equality with other artists and fans of other music.

So what exactly is value?  Value is the perceived worth of something compared to price or cost.  We know that value is relative — it depends on who/where you are in life.  If you are poor and hungry you value eating.  A little higher up the ladder you may value the quality and nutritional value of food.  Further up you may value fine restaurants.  Value moves us toward having our needs and/or wants, met.  It means we will choose to move toward things we value and not others.

But value is also co-determined by whoever is offering the thing of value.  The “presenter” sets a price based on the value of the offered thing to him.  In so doing, he begins a “discussion” with the buyer.  But in the southern gospel business, those with something to offer tend to shortcut this discussion by starting with the question “how much will someone pay?”,  where he devalues the buyer.  Then he offers something “cheap” because of his perception of the buyer.  The offer is degraded, the event is degraded, the artist(s) are degraded, and the value of the music is degraded.  The “industry” is degraded.

Then, in this context, we try to offer ministry and expect people to think it is valuable! Hmm.

I jumped in the car and headed downtown, mercifully catching all the traffic lights just right, and actually finding a parking spot right in front of the store.  I was in-the-door at 8:58 PM.  Since it was right at their closing time, I went straight to the checkout desk to ask for the book rather than go hunting for it.

I walked up to the counter where there were two guys, one standing up and the other sitting behind looking at his watch. I asked for the book by title and author.  Standing guy thought for a moment, turned to sitting guy and said “I believe we sold out of that a couple of days ago.”  Sitting guy nodded his head and said “Yeah, sold out.”  “Your website says it’s in stock” I said, ” I checked just before I came.”  Standing guy gets on his computer, studies a minute, and says “Yes, it does.”  He turns to sitting guy while shrugging his shoulders and sitting guy says “Yeah, we only upload inventory once a week. And it’s been about a week. We’re sold out.”

Realizing I was not going to get my book again tonight, and after flashes of internal disappointment and anger, I quickly put on my best “marketing mentor” face and said “I know you guys probably just work here but you might wanna pass this along to the owners.  This is a perfect example of why retail stores are struggling. I chose your store out of loyalty, to buy this book. I went out of my way to drive into downtown, hoping I could find parking, skipping Amazon and the Mall, and checking your website for availability.  At a time when retailers stress, strain and struggle to get consumers’ attention, I gave you mine and you have squandered it.  You’ve lost a customer and it will cost you money to replace me with another one. I was a customer already giving you my attention, for free, and you did not deliver. Simply conversing with me accurately via your website would have kept me for another day.”

Sitting guy, in an almost apologetic voice responded “You can always call us to check and we’ll set aside a copy until you can come in.”  And I said, “I’m thinking that your young, local, “social media” active customers are waiting for you to get it right. They’re not thinking about making a phone call.”  I nodded a quick “thanks” and walked out of the store.

And then I had another thought, turned around, walked back in, and back to the counter.  “If you worked for me, in a situation like this, I would be very disappointed to know that you did not ask for the customer’s name and how to contact him and, maybe, offer some kind of incentive to ‘keep’ him as a customer.  Instead, you let a disgruntled customer just walk away with no attempt to “keep” him and no way to follow up.”  With that, I left. For good.

Standing and sitting guys said nothing.

If you’re reading this article, you are probably involved in some kind of  “marketing” endeavor: with fans, with customers, with a congregation, with readers (of your blog), with concert ticket buyers, or some other grouping of people. And you are making some kind of effort to “get” and/or keep their attention for your enterprise.  Attention is very hard to get these days and you should know that it is your most valuable asset. You “pay” in the form of money or time to get people’s attention. “Your” people are very busy and they don’t just give their attention easily. When they do, you should recognize they have given you something very valuable–they are now paying attention. You’ve asked for it and now you have it–they are paying you (attention).

When people pay for something, they expect to get something back that they want. What are you giving them for what they paid?

Do you know exactly what you have of value you can give them in return for their paying you with their attention?

And, once getting their attention, what do you do if you don’t have what their attention has paid for–what they want? What’s your “plan B” and how will you keep their attention if you don’t have what they want?

And consider this. Your attention back to them just may be what they want most. Not your CD. Not your tickets. Not your articles. Not your sermons. Maybe not even your singing.