Saving Christian Bookstores<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have been the publicist for a major Christian music festival for years, and every summer I hang out with thousands of young people and see what they\u2019re into, and liturgical\/Southern Gospel music ain\u2019t it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2011\/02\/saving-christian-bookstores\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saving Christian Bookstores\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have been the publicist for a major Christian music festival for years, and every summer I hang out with thousands of young people and see what they\u2019re into, and liturgical\/Southern Gospel music ain\u2019t it.\" \/>\n<meta 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{"id":1843,"date":"2011-02-28T17:10:43","date_gmt":"2011-02-28T23:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/mainlineportal\/?p=1843"},"modified":"2011-02-28T17:10:43","modified_gmt":"2011-02-28T23:10:43","slug":"saving-christian-bookstores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2011\/02\/saving-christian-bookstores\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving Christian Bookstores"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>I got a call the other day from a magazine writer who wanted to ask me about Christian music, since I own and run ChristianMusicDaily.com. He was doing an article about Christian bookstores introducing customers to other styles of music than what they always buy. In other words, he wanted my opinion on how to get young people to go to the Christian bookstore in their area and instead of buying Casting Crowns and MercyMe CDs, maybe they\u2019d take a chance on \u201cliturgical music\u201d or \u201cSouthern Gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n

I laughed at his thought. I have been the publicist for a major Christian music festival for years, and every summer I hang out with thousands of young people and see what they\u2019re into, and liturgical\/Southern Gospel music ain\u2019t it.<\/p>\n

If you were to ask a young Christian person today if they know of Lady Gaga, Eminem and Katy Perry, nine times out of ten they\u2019re going to not just know those artists, but have some of their songs on their iPod.<\/p>\n

I told the magazine writer what I\u2019ll tell you: kids today spend all day text messaging one another, and they trade MP3 songs without thinking they should even pay for music. In the old days, you went to a Christian bookstore and paid $15 for a CD from an artist because you liked their one song you heard on Christian radio. Then along came Napster, iTunes, and artists having their own personal websites where they could sell their music files, and in the span of a few short years CD racks went from dominating stores to being an afterthought.<\/p>\n

So what kinds of music do kids care about today? Hip-hop, upbeat dance music, and guitar rock\u2014and anything else just doesn\u2019t really sell, even if some of you insist it does. This applies for Christian as well as secular audiences. You could make the argument that Country music still sells well, and indeed it does, but it\u2019s not the primary music style on the radar screen of most teens.<\/p>\n

I offered this nugget of gold to the magazine writer: if Christian bookstores want to stay around, they\u2019re going to have to become relevant to young people. How do they do that? Offer something to people they cannot get anywhere else\u2014something they can\u2019t get at Wal-Mart, Target, or online at amazon.com or iTunes. Example? If a Christian band beams their big concert via satellite ONLY to Christian bookstores, then fans of that band have to go there to see the concert, and stores can charge admission and\/or sell food and drinks to those who attend. In other words, Christian bookstores can attract shoppers by offering communal experiences one can\u2019t get on the net.<\/p>\n

Say the Newsboys were releasing a new CD which you could get at itunes, amazon, Wal-Mart, Target and your local Christian bookstore. Now imagine that the Christian bookstore\u2019s version of this new CD offered 2 bonus tracks not available anywhere else, as well as a devotional book written by the band, a wall poster, and a cool keychain with the Newsboys picture on it, all for a reasonable price. If I was a diehard Newsboys fan, where do you think I\u2019d go, then, to access their new music?<\/p>\n

Music is ubiquitous these days\u2014it\u2019s \u201cin the air,\u201d and therefore, the attitude toward music is that it\u2019s free. Artists kind of know this, and that\u2019s why they are making their money through live performances, where they can charge high prices for tickets, as well as through merchandise sales\u2014they can make a decent living selling t-shirts at live shows.<\/p>\n

I concluded my talk with the magazine writer by saying that you know it\u2019s a tough economy when Borders books has declared bankruptcy and is closing down most of its stores. If Christian bookstores don\u2019t want to meet the same fate, they need to adapt to these Internet times and figure out ways to draw people in by making their stores places people want to \u201chang out with friends,\u201d where they can eat, drink, read, and talk. Otherwise, Christian bookstores will go the way of cassette tapes and VCRs.<\/p>\n

Mark Weber is a pop-jazz recording artist (www.meetmarkweber.com) who also happens to own and run www.ChristianMusicDaily.com and www.BuffaloChristian.com. He describes himself as \u201craised Catholic with a Protestant worldview.\u201d He earned his Master\u2019s in Journalism from Pat Robertson\u2019s Regent University, and has written several books about Christian music at www.lulu.com\/christianmusic. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"