Nigerian gospel musicians don’t make money, they are all starving. Why?
WRONG.
You can make money as a Christian musician; at least enough to support your family. I ‘m not talking about getting rich, but if your goal is to get rich then I hope you don’t play gospel music anyway.
The first thing that all of us as artists have to do is define what “success” is. For some of us “success” is simply being able to get in front of a crowd and share our music and our message. That’s great! For some of us, success means selling 1,000 CDs. That’s a good goal, too.
My family has set the goal (with my production company, J-World ntertainment) of making enough money so that my wife can stay home and so we can personally sponsor 2 gospel artists. Once we reach that goal, I will feel that I have succeeded.
When you play gospel music, it can be really easy to fall into the mindset that because you are ministering to people, you should be playing for free or for very little; and its even easier for churches to fall into that mindset. But I want you to consider carefully the following passage from 1 Timothy 5: 18
“Do not nuzzle the ox while it is treading out grain. And the worker deserves his wages.”
Paul is specifically talking about the fact that ministers deserve to be taken care of. If you believe that your music is a ministry, the you fall into that category as well. Consider that the next time a church tries to low-ball you, don’t be rude by any means, but help them to see that you do have expenses and that you are using the talents that God has blessed you with to meet those expenses.
The problem is that a lot of churches have small budgets, especially if you are playing for the youth group. So how do you supplement your live performance fee (honorarium?) here are a couple of quick suggestions:
1. Be sure you have at least one product to sell. As a general rule, if it’s for sale, people will buy it. And live shows sell CDs than you will probably ever sell through any distribution channel. So go out tomorrow and get t-shirts, hats, stickers… something!
2. consider working for other bands or artists in your area. Do you have a level of expertise in some particular aspect of the music business (booking, web design, promotion, etc..) that would allow you to charge a small fee to other artists in exchange for your services? Take advantage of that!
3. Get an electronic press kit (EPK). This can save you a ton of money on physical press kits. Try www.jworldntertainment.com
4. Don’t give away anything! Even your momma has to pay for a CD. If she’s not gonna buy it, who is? Your family and friends should be supporting you even when no one else is.
5. Ask the venue to take care of your expenses. I know that sounds elementary, but some people (especially less experienced artist) never even think about this. If you are playing for churches, taking care of your expenses is usually a very easy thing for them to do. Ask them to provide meals and lodging for the band. If you are not too good to eat a pot-luck and stay at somebody’s house instead of a hotel, you can save some cash. This can also give you more room to be flexible with your honorarium.
6. Dedicate yourself to your craft. This is a no-brainer. You should be working every day to become a better musician, singer, speaker, song writer… whatever it is that you are doing. Dedicate a portion of your day everyday to getting better at what it is that you do. Becoming a better musician will pay dividends in the long run.
7. Above all, seek God’s guidance. If you believe that God has blessed you with the talent to play music, by all means, do it. But be sure to seek his guidance. We probably all know people that are using “God wants me to do this” as an excuse to be able to do what it is that they ant to do. Be honest with yourself and seek God’s will for your life.
At my Company, J-World ntertainment. We help independent gospel musicians and labels make money from their music and grow their career. We also do our best to support artist in the best way. And that includes, working with them on an audio & musical video project and place their video on TV.
We will help you make money with it while you collect your revenue and also continue to grow your career by being heard by entertainment industry professionals and fans around the world, and help facilitate music licensing and distribution deals, live events bookings, record label and music publisher deals and more.
Visit www.jworldntertainment.com

Because the world loves the devil more than God, they love to see women on pants and bra being viewed in videos.