TIMING IS EVERYTHING WHEN IT COMES TO RELEASING ALBUMS

Jun. 16, 2010 - Greetings Gospel Reggae Artists, things have been hectic over the last few weeks with our Central American tour and our upcoming South American tour, so I apologize for not writing frequently. This Morning the Lord woke me up with a message for all artists. The message is simple--CONSISTANCY. We all strive for it in our relationships, marriages, with our finances and in our walk with God, but we often overlook it when it comes to our album release schedule.

While part of the success of an album depends on the quality of the release, I think a lot of us ignore two other crucial aspects; timing and the Lord's favor. A lot of Gospel Reggae artists out there sound like Kenny Roger's "The Gambler" because they "Know When to Hold 'Em." But there comes a time when delaying the release of an album or dragging your feet on a recording is a detriment to your ministry and musical career.

WAIT TOO LONG AND YOU'LL BE STARTING OVER AGAIN WITH FANS

Things aren't like they were ten years ago when there were only ten Gospel Reggae artists on the scene. Now it's not just a mission, but regrettably there is a sense of competition. Many artists are fighting to be heard by a small audience in an oversaturated market. They are trying desperately to get their message out there and there are very few avenues in which they can be heard. If you want to be heard then it would stand to reason that you will need to keep saying (or singing) something. So if you disappear from the scene for a few years, don't be surprised if you have to start from scratch again and rebuild your fan base from the ground up.

USE YOUR MOMENTUM FOR THE NEXT RELEASE

Releasing albums is a lot like riding a bike over a series of hills. Recording an album is an uphill climb and after the release it's a wild ride down! Yet many of you want to relax and coast along as you are going down a hill. Then when you get to the bottom you take a break for a little picnic. After some time has passed you finally muster up the courage to tackle the hill, but it's really hard to start going up a hill from a dead stop, so you end up walking your bike up the hill as others ride on by. YOU NEED MOMENTUM TO GO UP A HILL. Next time when you reach the top of a hill (finish an album) and start to descend (release it and tour is), don't take a break, push it even harder (start working on your next project)! If you don't pedal as hard as you can while you are going downhill you'll never get the momentum necessary to tackle the next hill and so on...

HOW LONG SHOULD I WAIT IN BETWEEN RELEASES?

If you are a new artist and you've just released your solo debut, please be aware that the clock is ticking and you should follow up the release as quick as possible. It's said that the best time to release your second album is between 10 and 16 months after your initial release. Essentially, you must strike while the iron is hot. There is a little more grace for the following albums, but I personally wouldn't wait longer than 2 years for subsequent releases.

OVERCOMING THE SOPHOMORE SLUMP

I remember meeting with Toby Mac after we signed with Gotee records. This was right after the release of Christafari's first album "Reggae Worship" back in 1993. Our first CD had sold 30,000 copies and we were riding high. The last thing that we wanted to do was instantly head back into the studio again. But Gotee convinced me that the hardest thing to overcome in an artist's career is the Sophomore slump. Within one year from our first CD we had finished "Soul Fire" and the album sold around 150,000 copies! With this release we not only overcame the sophomore slump, we capitalized on the inertia from our first release and sold five times more CDs on the second.

RELEASE IN REGULAR INTERVALS

Regrettably the opposite can be true for those who wait too long to drop their second album. One-hit-wonders tend to quickly fade into obscurity. It takes consistency in releases to overcome this. According to "A Survival Guide for Making Music in the Internet Age" by Bobby Owsinski, fans these days have an "Insatiable appetite for product. What's worse, the tribe can actually dissipate if the product does not come at regular intervals - the shorter the better."

I know one artist that had a hugely successful award-winning freshman album only to wait 4 or so years to release a follow-up album that sold a third as much. Was their second album bad? On the contrary, it was so much better. But time was not on their side. The fans who loved this artist's first album had moved on and forgotten about them. Don't let this happen to you.

You must overcome the sophomore slump. It's a challenge to conquer this hurdle because you have 16 years to write your first album and less than 16 months to record your second release that's supposed to be even better than the first. Though it is a daunting task, please don't be intimidated by it. Trust in the Lord and pray as if it all depends on God and then work as if it all depends on you.

I had a conversation with a popular artist the other day that hasn't released an album in a few years and I asked them "When is the next album gonna drop?" And to my surprise they said, "I'm gonna promote my current album and get everything that I can out of it before I start working on my next one." I tried to convince them to start recording their next album now while there was still a demand for their music. If you milk something dry you will surely starve during your down time and lose all momentum.

PERFECT TIMING

When asked about their next release so many artists want to go on a tyrade about timing. "It's got to be God's perfect timing," they say. They are correct. What matters is GOD'S perfect timing not YOUR perfect timing. YOU CAN DO FAR MORE DAMAGE TO YOUR CAREER BY HOLDING BACK A RELEASE THAN BY RELEASING IT TOO SOON.

I know some artists who've had a finished album in hand for 6 months or even a year but held back the release. They were waiting for the perfect label, the ultimate deal, the best distribution and the top marketing. Virtually every time I've seen this happen there's been the same result-they've waited in vain and their frustrated fans gave up on the artist and moved on. The eventual release was lackluster and without event.

JUST GO FOR IT!

On the other side of things I know some artists who just went for it! They did it all on their own to the best of their ability and did everything possible to get the album out into the market as soon as possible and by any means. They were the ones who capitalized on their current popularity by giving the fans what they want: MORE MUSIC. Though their releases were unconventional and labeled "premature" by the elite, in many cases they were the ones who built their fanbase and got the ultimate deal with the right label, distribution and marketing.

It doesn't matter what kind of name you have in the industry, it's what you do with it that counts. Are you a man or woman of action? If so, then you will keep your name or even grow it. If you are marked by inaction you will inevitably fall by the waist side, fade into obscurity or have a significantly smaller impact for the Kingdom of God.

BE RELENTLESS

As the lead singer of Christafari, I realize that I'm the least likely Gospel Reggae artist to have sold over a half a million units. But I have! I give thanks to God for something that I don't believe that I truly deserve. I wasn't raised in Kingston. I wasn't born of reggae royalty. After all, I'm just a white guy from Southern California. My band has seen the success that we have because of God's favor, our talent and undoubtedly our relentless drive to stay relevant to this generation. In the last 20 years we've been very consistent with our releases. Just 9 months after our last album "No Compromise," we just released our 12th album "Reggae De Redencion" to rave reviews. Not every album has been a hit, but when you keep pushing forward, you are bound to find success. So if you want to succeed, then DON'T STOP PRESSING FORWARD!

WHAT RIHANNA AND ST. MATTHEW HAVE IN COMMON

St. Matthew is another relentless Gospel Reggae artist. He never stops recording. If one album doesn't sell that well, it doesn't matter, because he's got another one in his pocket ready to drop. The sheer volume of his releases have blown him up on an international level taking him far beyond the reach of many of his contemporaries.

Rihanna is the best example of this type of drive in the secular industry. In the last five years she released an album every 12 months or so and had a slew of hits, with six number-one singles on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, (the most for a female artist in the last decade). Compare this to someone like Toni Braxton who just released her third album in the last decade and you'll see a huge contrast.
BUDGET YOUR MONEY AND TIME

The first thing that I learned from Gotee Records when I set out to self-produce my first album was BUDGET. As an artist you must learn how to budget your money and especially your time. "Soul Fire" took us 33 days to record. It only took me 40 days to produce Geneman's brand new "Long Time" CD. If you don't budget your time correctly an album can easily take a year or so. The biggest problem with this is that by the time a year has passed, the songs that you thought were perfection 12 months ago you are now embarrassed by. This will always be the case. As your tastes change and your ear develops, the further you distance yourself from your music the more regrets you will have.

LEARN HOW TO "SIGN OFF" ON A SONG

As a producer with about 50 CDs under my belt, my personal philosophy is that you should work on a song until it sounds good today, then come back and make any necessary changes tomorrow. Once you're happy with it step away from the project for a week or so and then revisit it for any final tweaks. After that, I sign off on the song and move on. If you don't know when to say "when," you seriously run the risk of the never-ending album.

THE NEVER ENDING ALBUM

If it's possible to have time on our side then it's also possible to have time turn against us. This was the case with Gun's N' Roses "Chinese Democracy" CD, an album that took Axl Rose 15 years to record and cost over 15 million dollars yet was panned by the critics and failed to reach sales expectations. The first thing that I recommend to any artist that is working with a producer is to set a deadline for the album to finish and keep them accountable to that goal.

DON'T THROW AWAY AN ALBUM

I know at least three artists who have recorded entire albums, sat on them for a while and then decided to trash them and start over. They often say that "God told them to throw it away and start over." This is one of the traps that we tend to fall into when we wait too long. Are you sure that God told you to do this and that it isn't simply that your taste has changed? After all, wasn't this the same God that told you to record the initial album in the first place? Wasn't every song on that album inspired by Scripture and given to you by the Lord? Didn't you feel like you were in the center of God's will when you first recorded the track? If so, then why would He have you throw away something that gives Him glory?

DO THE BEST YOU CAN

I know that some of you are saying, "Yeah, but my music must be prefect." Give it up! It never will be perfect. Music is entirely subjective. Do the best you can today and when you are completely satisfied--move on. Simply put, a great song is a great song whether the guitar track is crispy or crunchy. When recording the best you can do is capture an honest representation of who you are today on tape. Sure there will be regrets later. That's bound to happen. Minimize them, then move on.

Recording a song is kind of like taking your high school senior photo. For many this is the most important picture of their teenage years. They prepare all summer long getting the perfect tan and spend hours at the salon only to find a pimple on their cheek the day of the photo! While they may be embarrassed by this, it still is an honest likeness of who they are. Years from now they will probably look at that photo and consider it the time in their life when they were most attractive. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the best you can do is the BEST YOU CAN DO. So do it and get it out there.

CEASE THE MOMENT

Perfection in production is virtually unattainable. Instead strive for honesty. But perfect timing is possible if you cease the moment. One of the biggest issues that most Gospel Reggae artists struggle with is releasing an album on time. At the beginning of the year so many of you promised that you would release your albums by a specific month, yet so few of you kept your word. I realize that in some cases your delay may be due to financial limitations. That's understandable. But if it's not, it's inexcusable.

As Christian artists, many of us are basically pastors with a musical message. Our lyrics are inspired by the Word of God, our choruses are anthems to live by and these songs are our sermons. Yet some of us are stuck serving up the same sermon year after year. Our message has become stale. It's time for a new song. It's time to move on. It's time to act like the Word of God that we are singing actually NEEDS TO BE HEARD by this dying world.

We must realize that we've been entrusted with tremendous talents and a mighty message. God doesn't need you. It's an honor that he has called you and wants to use you to reach a specific audience. But if you don't do everything you can today to get His good news out to your audience and the four corners of the Earth, He may choose to use someone else instead.

"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Luke 19:40

So stop making excuses. Be consistent. Work hard and get the message out there as often as possible and to as many people as possible. The time to share the message of salvation is always NOW and the day is always TODAY! So act fast!

Blessings in Christ,
Mark Mohr
GospelReggae.com

P.S. Another fascinating article with brilliant ideas on this subject can be read here:

http://blog.discmakers.com/2010/03/the-new-release-schedule/