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Christian music labels blame Internet piracy for sales slump
Sales of Christian music are down 10 percent in the first half of 2003, says Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks such numbers.

"We are not surprised at the slowdown because gospel music sales are being affected by the same issues as the rest of the music industry—an uncertain economy and music piracy," Gospel Music Association president John W. Styll responded in a press release.

In fact, the Christian music industry seems to be very worried about piracy issues.

"There is no doubt that our music is being pirated at the same levels as every other type of music," Styll earlier told the Nashville Business Journal. "We do, however, face a unique paradox. On the one hand, we have the moral argument that stealing music is wrong. On the other, some naively have argued that downloading and sharing gospel music is a type of ministry, perhaps unaware that it is copyright infringement. While we work with organizations like the Recording Industry Association of America, we will also have to address our unique situation as we explore ways to move our consumers away from illegal downloading."

So far, that doesn't include taking KaZaA's Christian music fans to court, but it has included an instant messaging offensive, Christian music companies joining together to find ways to sell tunes online, and, the Nashville City Paper reports, a new campaign targeting church youth groups. (Newsweek had a similar report a few weeks ago.)

"We are planning to create programs and educational materials for churches to share with their congregations, starting with the youth departments, because that's where the majority of the downloading takes place," Styll told the paper. In fact, says youth ministries organization Interlinc, 60 percent of youth workers say a majority of their students are stealing music.

But are they stealing Christian music? Maybe. BigChampagne.com, which tries to be the Billboard magazine for file-swappers, says more than 1.5 percent of the 21 million people sharing music files have MP3s by Michael W. Smith, Third Day, and MercyMe. But crossover acts Stacie Oricco and Evanescence are much more common (5.7 percent and 12.4 percent, respectively).

Is it fair to say that Evanescence's popularity online is indicative of Christians stealing music? Maybe so, and that's why this story is so tricky. After all, the Christian Music Trade Association has been criticized for inflating its sales numbers by counting the sales of any CD sold in Christian stores—whether it's sold in a Christian store or not. (Think of it as a reverse-crossover effect. Your neighbor's copy of Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas Extraordinaire was counted as a Christian album, as was your uncle's O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack and the kid down the street's P.O.D. purchase, though they probably didn't know it.)

Maybe that 10 percent drop in Christian music sales, then, has less to do with Christian music being pirated than by this year's lack of a major crossover album.

Or maybe not. Compared to what sells in the stores, BigChampagne.com CEO Eric Garland told the Nashville City Paper, Christian music—like other small genres—seems to be very popular on the file-swapping networks. "These are artists very heavily swapped online because they are [a] word-of mouth phenomenon where people are really interested in hearing everything that this artist does and learning from other fans of the artist," he said.

Missions and ministries:

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July (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47