Comments on: Whither AGM?

By: Rhonda Berry

Rhonda Berry — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:08:26 +0000

The AGM in Dallas event is overpriced and overblown. Is the talent good-yes, but that doesn’t mean I want to spend $35 for a ticket. This is definitely not geared to the average SG fan. This appears to be a part of that thing that is not going on between Gaither and NQC to me. Living here I can verify that Dallas itself is a very hard nut to crack for SG. I won’t go into all the reasons, but it has to do with the perception in people’s minds of what SG is. Also the biggest Christian station in this area is Salem-owned and will not play SG. The other Christian stations have been approached with this licensing thing and what it really means is that they can only play “approved” artists. So, what station would want to limit itself to the few artists AGM has and never play any others? That would be like the top country stations picking the top 30 artists and only playing their stuff over and over. Talk about loss of ad revenue and listeners.
IMHO, AGM will not succeed because it’s basis is in the wrong thing-money.

By: David Bruce Murray

David Bruce Murray — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 03:37:43 +0000

I agree that AGM will probably remain largely irrelevant to SG fans. I have a feeling that Clarke Beasley would agree as well, though he might not use those exact words.

Being relevant to existing fans really isn’t the point, after all. The point is to put SG in a package that will attract fresh fans. Of course, it may not work out, but it will be good for SG as a whole if it does. At least a somewhat reasonable attempt is being made.

The Homecoming video series and subsequent tour essentially did the same thing AGM is attempting to do, and it worked out great.

Some parts of AGM are over the top. The spiritual certification thing with CMP and the section of the AGM proposal that expects media outlets like radio will be lining up to pay a fee in order to become official AGM mouthpieces are somewhat off the wall. If AGM begins with a shotgun approach, though, and then narrows their focus to the areas that work over the next couple of years, I think they have a shot at bringing new fans to a style of music we all want to succeed and thrive.

By: Damon from KY

Damon from KY — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 03:34:50 +0000

So I visited the “official” AGM site following the link. WARNING: Turn down your speakers or make sure that involuntary noise is okay before visiting. The site has music that automatically plays when you load the site. There is a place to click to turn the sound off, but the music reloads every time you go to a different page on the site forcing you to click it off again.

I know the site is just getting off the ground, but this is pretty annoying for someone who is just surfing with others around (and woe to anyone who tries to check it at work :))

By: CVH

CVH — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 23:50:49 +0000

Everyone has favorite groups, regardless of quality, style or spirituality, so I seriously doubt the rank-and-file SG fan is going to care about some self-created ‘brand’ within the genre like an AGM. Unless the organizers can come up with some demonstrable, tangible ‘product’ that is noticeably different or better, why would anyone care?

I could see it being targeted at niche groups within the overall SG fanbase, but howso and why? It seems the first two questions should be, what’s in it for a group to join and what’s in it for the fans?

The marketing geniuses at Coca Cola gave us ‘new’ Coke 21 years ago and retreated to the original formula less than three months later. Why? Because nobody liked new Coke. Even if they get it launched successfully, SG fans are going to have to like AGM for it to succeed. So far, I haven’t seen any credible evidence to think they would.