Colombia

I just returned from a fantastic week in Colombia. Yes, that Colombia. I participated with a choir from our university in an international festival of sacred music during Holy Week. It was fantastic. I will not give an extensive travelogue at this point - I will only say that there are two Colombias: the one you see on CNN and the one I visited. They hardly resemble one another. The people were completely warm and welcoming, and for most of the journey, I felt completely safe. Also, some of the beautiful Latin people I visited expressed similar sentiments - we as people did not reflect what they knew of the United States as a whole.

All people are children of God, and this was confirmed to me in a land where U.S. government employees are forbidden to ride the bus.

Related article (including a blurry picture with me in the background): http://www.areacucuta.com/?module=news&file=news&news=4428

noisebox 14 march, 2007

Volume 2,  Issue 4

Thanks for subscribing to the Noisebox, bringing you Grate news about Joyful Noise.  We had some technical issues with sending the Noisebox last week, so here is the update for 14 March 2007.  Another new piece will be posted within the next few days, so keep an eye out.  Here's what's new at gratemusic.com and LDSmusic.us right now:

 

 

14 March 2007
when godly sorrow moves the soul

David Macfarlane has produced a beautiful new recording of the award-winning hymn When Godly Sorrow Moves the Soul, which he composed with Nathan Howe. The hymn about repentance and the atonement of Christ was featured at the Church Music Festival on Temple Square last month. Now David Macfarlane's new recording is available through our recordings page.

 

Note:  You now have two options to hear the recording of this piece.  First off, you can go to the recordings page and listen to all the tracks we have available through our new Radio.Blog music player at the bottom of the page.  Just click on the song title to listen.  If you like a song and wish to download it, follow the links from the recordings page to access the MP3.

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be prepared

Two things I learned within ten minutes of each other:

1. The Red Cross office in my town is being permanently closed. Donations dropped off right after Katrina.

2. The Red Cross has a very successful new ad campaign in California. I like their new in-your-face approach. http://blog.wired.com/design/2007/03/masterpieces_of.html

Start stocking up on necessities, folks. I'm not an alarmist - it's just a good idea.

Addendum: You may sign up for free Red Cross news updates and make a donation at http://www.redcross.org.

state of the lds music union: overall analysis

Overall analysis:

Of course we have made progress, but I forsee that the next ten years will be significantly more challenging for the LDS music industry. There will be increased demand, but it will be fulfilled more and more by several small companies rather than a large Deseret/Seagull conglomorate. And Deseret will fight back, trying to buy out the little guys as they become popular. I predict that the songwriting and arranging styles will have to undergo a major overhaul in the next decade, and that LDS consumers will start becoming more discriminating in their tastes, so LDS musicians will have to rise to the challenge of producing higher quality music for which the LDS consumer will willingly pay. Overall, our industry is suffering from piracy and divisions within, and I do not see that those problems will be easily solved in the next several years. However, some will succeed, and they will be the ones whose focus is on sharing the truth more than turning a profit.

state of the lds music union: other considerations

Other Considerations:

• Marketing: It has generally become less ethical. Yet LDS people have also established a pattern of illegal copying, which makes real sales harder to make. This will be a big issue in the industry in the next ten years.
  
• Distribution: It is more widespread, and thus more competitive. The advent of self-distribution online is good for independent artists, but not necessarily for the quality of product received.
  
• Style overall: Too similar to what was available 10 years ago. We see many LDS songwriters but few great LDS composers.