AT TED TURNER'S PLACE

No matter what you think of entertainment mogul Ted Turner, the man makes killer grilled chicken. I ate at Ted's very successful and busy Montana Grill in Nashville today with the retail marketing guy from Rocketown, a Provident Music Distribution rep and the new music buyer for all of LifeWay stores.

Just a few weeks on the job, Mr Music Buyer's busy figuring out how many of my CD every LifeWay store in the country, from Dallas to Chicago, needs to have in stock on July 12th and after. Needless to say this man's an important link in the chain connecting my music to your CD player. And he seems to know it. Very open and cordial, Mr. Music Buyer spent a large chunk of his day explaining various aspects of his decision making process and his company's philosophy and frustrations with record companies and artists alike, as well as sprinkling a few compliments on our team along the way.

Anyway, I probably ask too many questions at these kinds of meetings but I can't help it. I like to learn. It comes from something GI Joe used to say I think. Something about knowing being half the battle I think. I'm not in a battle right now but in case I ever am I'd like to know some stuff first.

Like what can an artist do to get better sales at a particular chain of stores? How do we get better placement in stores: shelf space, displays etc? And he had some questions for me. Like why do record labels lean so heavily on radio play to market a record? And why shouldn't a retailer be upset at me for selling my music digitally direct to the customer, cutting the store out of the transaction? Why shouldn't a retailer be less than thrilled with me if I sell my music on my own website and not just theirs?

These questions of course are all very selfish: How can I get what I want from you? And this realization made me pause and ask questions: How exactly is the Christian music business different from the rest of the music business? How do we do business differently than Ted? And another: What was it that Paul guy said about putting others before yourself? Of course that part of the bible isn't realistic in this marketplace. Besides, Paul wasn't a capitalist. And definitely not a capitalist soft-rock star.

Thanks to Mr. Music Buyer from LifeWay for lunching with us today. I learned a lot.

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