Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

In partnership with Australian Christian Records, The Daily Declaration shares a monthly Christian music column featuring the official OZ 5 Top Tunes chart, artist stories, new releases, upcoming music events, and local Christian music news. If you have something to contribute, send it to news@ozchristianrecords.com.au.

Recommended New Releases:

• Victor Claye — Love Like This (SA) #Hip Hop
• LILLI — O Philosopher (SA) #Pop Rock
• Joash — I Don’t Need Anything Else (VIC) #Indie Pop
• Sidney — What If It Ends [EP] (VIC) #Indie Pop

More local Christian releases on our Australian Christian Pop Spotify Playlists.

Upcoming Shows:

• Christian Music Conference, March 6 (NSW)
• Majozi, March 13, 15, 19, 21 (NSW, VIC, QLD, WA)

OZ 5 CHART

1. FOR KING & COUNTRY — WORLD ON FIRE
2. Tarryn Stokes — Rubies & Gold
3. Justin Michael — Cannot See Tomorrow
4. Ethan Beer — Eyes For You
5. Aodhan King — Hallelujah (If Not For Your Love)

*Compiled by TCM based on Australian Christian radio airplay from the preceding month.

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So God Called You To Be a Pop Star?

What does it mean to have a Christian music ministry? Aaron Duff, Founder of Australian Christian Records, asks the provocative questions about money and success as a Christian artist, and what the intersection is between faith, talent, sacrifice and collaboration.

I’ve been knee-deep in Australia’s Christian music scene for the last few years, connecting with radio, developing artists and building a community. Every day, I am speaking with artists who have a heart to create music for God, and there’s one line I regularly encounter.

 “I want to make music full-time for God.”

What does it mean to be a Christian artist?

After pressing a little, a general theme often appears with an ideal to gain enough Spotify followers and touring opportunities to ‘pay the way’ and become a full-time artist/influencer where listeners and fans are ministered to through their Christ-centric songs.

In today’s highly saturated music market, it takes over 20 million Spotify streams to earn $100K for a solo artist (not including costs for recording, promotions, etc.). To get that many streams from Australia alone is exceptionally unrealistic, and so for many artists, a bigger market to try and crack is America.

The artist’s journey to become a successful Christian artist from Australia can often be simplified to the following well-worn formula:

1. Attend a megachurch
2. Become buddies with the pastor’s kid (who more often than not happens to also head up the worship or creative team).
3. Get on said team
4. (optional) Apply for Australian Idol or The Voice. Christian artists have an incredible record of success on those TV shows.
5. Go to the US, first stop Nashville, Tennessee and connect in with one of the Australian churches that has an overseas campus there.
6. Through all these connections, get signed by a Christian record label under Universal (Capitol Christian Music Group) or Sony (Provident or Essential), which together make up around 40% of Christian market share.
7. Live the full-time Christian pop star dream, ministering to millions of people all over the world, to fans who love your songs.

So, is this what success looks like? Is it only after reaching step 7 that you have finally fulfilled God’s calling in using your musical gifts for Him?

Do you dream of becoming a Christian pop star?

Money…

Easily the most common denominator restricting Australian Christian artists is money.

Instruments, studio time and equipment cost money, as do promotions, touring and a whole range of other miscellaneous expenses. For independent artists, more often than not, it’s the singer who pays for everything, and this doesn’t take into account artists’ own time in songwriting, instrument practice, administration, and so much more.

In my experience, while there is a lot of volunteering, Christian producers, session musicians, photographers and marketers often charge their time back to the singer. They may also be trying to reach their dreams of becoming a ‘full-time creative’ for God.

With the oft-unrealised hope of recouping those thousands of production dollars back in Spotify streams after release (at less than half a cent a stream, mind you), the quandary for these creatives is whether they are making Christian content as a ministry or an occupation.

Should musicians get paid for their Sunday ‘performance’? And how much? Should we question how churches pay royalties to sing worship songs on Sundays, that were ostensibly written for God?

Keith Green famously sent out tens of thousands of his records to fans for free (or as pay-as-you-want). Carman was well-known for holding his concerts with a zero ticket price, packing out stadiums for what must have been a huge cost. Do modern-day music industry practices make Christian music ministries less of an act of worship and more of a commercial enterprise?

I still struggle with those questions at times, but if I flip the perspective, I conversely don’t believe that only non-Christian producers and singers should be paid for their time and craft. Moreover, there is something to be said about building something for God that is not profit-centred, but instead self-sustaining, and therefore long-lasting.

A Biblical Example

Michelle Kahnt uses her gifts to shine a light on the work of Destiny Rescue

As well as a rabbi, missionary, and writer, the Apostle Paul was also a tentmaker. Can you fathom that one of the world’s foremost evangelists also had a part-time job to help pay his way? Yes, he fundraised money from church communities around the Mediterranean, but those funds raised were not for him but instead went to the church in Jerusalem.

One ‘tentmaker minister’ I met recently is Michelle Kahnt, a primary school teacher in New South Wales. In addition to teaching, Michelle writes and sings original worship music, with her latest song being ‘Wake Us to Pray’. However, one thing that sets Michelle apart is her partnership with Destiny Rescue, a Christian not-for-profit that rescues children from sexual exploitation and human trafficking overseas.

Michelle has committed every dollar from streaming ‘Wake Us to Pray’ to go back to Destiny Rescue. Furthermore, she is reaching out to schools and churches to give music performances, shining a light on the great work Destiny Rescue does, and hopefully sign up more supporters for the cause.

The ACR Story

Here at Australian Christian Records (ACR), we look to operate as a ministry rather than as a business. Yes, there is a (very) small amount of money that can be made from music streaming and merchandise, but if you looked at our bank transactions, you would see there are many more payments than deposits.

While things may change in the future, to date, not once have we charged an artist for production, mixing/mastering, artwork, web design, public relations or advice. Any monies received through ticket sales, merchandise or streaming are profit-shared with the artist, with the ACR component all being invested back into emerging Christian artists in Australia.

In volunteering my time after-hours to ACR, I’m fortunate to have a full-time occupation wholly unrelated to Christian music for which I earn enough to provide for my family and a little more I can put into the ministry.

Surprisingly, I find not doing Christian music as my full-time profession extremely freeing. Creatively speaking, I don’t have to force my inspiration between the hours of 9 and 5, but the best thing is I get to choose what music projects I want to support — my lens is not how much money can be made from this, but instead how valuable this could be for the Kingdom.

While ACR is extremely selective of the artists we choose to work with and support, once trust has been built, we have been generous to share contacts, experience, intellectual property and knowledge with others. In this way, our primary goal has not been focused on growing ACR, but instead on developing Australia’s Christian music scene, so it can rise up against worldly culture and build up Australians in their faith and everyday walk with Jesus.

I have been inspired by many others along the way. Interviewing We Are Messengers late last year, frontman Darren Mulligan was very upfront in saying the band looked to lose a lot of money in coming to tour in Australia. While money is, of course, important for sustainability, We Are Messengers made the decision to tour regardless.

It was a principled decision. The band wanted to support Australia’s Christian music scene (in part) by giving local artists opportunities to perform to large crowds as an opening act; secondly, they were honouring their promise from their previous tour that they would return.

Fulfilling their promise to return, We Are Messengers toured Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney between January 27-31.

Serving Others

One faithful servant I would like to honour is Geoff Mascord, who passed just last month. Based in Newcastle, Geoff set up and ran the Musicians’ Prayer Network for well over 20 years.

In the words of his local Christian radio station, Rhema 99.7FM, Geoff was “a champion of Christian musicians across Australia (who) never put himself in the spotlight… and spent decades praying for artists backstage, supporting musicians in both Christian and mainstream spaces, serving at festivals and events, and encouraging countless creatives in their faith and calling.”

I never met Geoff, but it’s clear he acted on a calling in his heart to faithfully support Australian Christian musicians behind the scenes. I honour the work he did, and it reminds me of Philippians 2:3-4,

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Sacrifice and Collaboration

I get it can be lonely as an independent musician, always looking for your next big break. Oftentimes, artists with 1,000 followers look upwards to artists with 10,000 followers, who in turn are looking up to those with 100,000; each with the hope of releasing a song together, or even a share/collab post on Instagram, etc.

This week in Sydney, APRA AMCOS is hosting Australia’s inaugural Christian Music Conference. Over 100 Christian artists and music industry professionals will be gathering together to learn, grow and connect with the goal to ‘Grow the Genre, and Advance the Gospel’.

I’m hoping that a big outcome from this conference is more collaboration. As is the case with We Are Messengers choosing to return to Australia despite the cost, sometimes this means sacrifice. Instead of individual artists all pushing to have their voice and artistry heard over others, I pray that our local Christian music community gets stronger — even if it means sacrifice and putting others before yourself.

Has God put music ministry in your heart? If so, then ask yourself what this actually means. Does it mean becoming a Christian pop star? Or is providing backing vocals to other Christian artists good enough?

We should strive to build up the body of Christ by working together. So I encourage my fellow artists and industry professionals to actively look around and find other Christian artists you can mentor or give a leg up to. As 1 Peter 4:10 says,

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,
as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

The question is not what God can do for you and your music career, but what do you choose to offer Him?

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Republished with thanks to Australian Christian Music.