The 5000 Music Group

I received some promotional Material from The 5000 Music Group a few months ago but had not found the time to present anything on them on this blog and then I found the following article from the Mid-America Union Outlook paper April 2008. The article is entitled Discipling Musical Missionaries by Van Hurst Here is the first part of the article:

Local churches throughout Mid-America are blessed with musicians whose ministry is of such a spirit and quality that Adventists everywhere could be blessed by them. But how would they record and market their music?

Chris McConnell has a plan. He and his wife, Candice, have founded the 5000 Music Group—a new kind of music company to locate, develop, record and promote Adventist musicians. Making this possible is the wonder of digital music, downloaded and marketed over the Internet.

The need is great for what Chris and Candice offer. Until now, no matter how skilled a musician, it has been difficult to get the music out to those who would appreciate it. Record companies are understandably reluctant to take a chance on an artist and commit to a contract for recording, producing, marketing and distribution. Frustrated with the process, some musicians mortgage their homes to self-record and produce a CD, then try to book concerts to promote and sell their product. Often they end up stuck with thousands of CDs that nobody wants to buy and no store will sell. Not because the music isn’t good, but because it isn’t known.

That’s where the McConnells can help. Their 5000 Music Group offers Christian musicians and fans a variety of resources and opportunities: Directly • presenting the teachings of Jesus Christ through music • Embracing new technologies and revenue streams • Being inclusive and supportive of developing artists • Fair profit sharing between the company and artists • Sharing profits with other worthy causes • Being and promoting Christ-like role models The McConnells’ Web site, the-5000music.com, features a variety of professional and independent music and is looking for more.

I wish him success as it is difficult to start any new business and probably doubly difficult in the music business. Visiting the website I was hoping to find some groups from our Adventist Colleges but unfortunately their were none. I wish I could have found someone on the site that I could say I liked a lot but most did not seem ready for prime time. Which is kind of the problem Christian bands have today as they need to perform to build up their abilities and finding that experience is often difficult. It is solved by larger churches with worship bands who have given us some of the best music of recent years from England’s Delirious? and David Crowder and Chris Tomlin and even one of my Northwest favorite Telecast (who I see is releasing their third Album on the 29^th of this month)

If you know a Christian band give them your local congregation support, host a community picnic and give your local artists a chance to perform. I have no doubt that the talent is out there and hopefully the 5000 Music Group can help them record and offer downloads and more. Myspace is great to hear music artists but sometimes they need a little more help on the road to success, even if success is not measured in record sells but in spreading their enjoyment of music.