Last Update: June 1, 2004
Introduction:
There are no links to this page. The contents are meant
to be read by invitation only. Perhaps you received an email from The King's
Court, or maybe you were invited by another pastor. After reading the article,
please feel free to submit any ideas you have in the form provided at the bottom
of the newsletter. Thanks for stopping by.
Commitment to Writing Christians Songs:
Writing songs for me as a Christian is a ministry that I believe I was called to, and being of an artistic temperament, psychologically compelled to. In other words, God willing, I will always continue to write Christian songs. Being a prolific writer, and not interested in following the normal trends other songwriters might pursue I decided to produce my own songs.
Getting Started:
About 8 years ago I started a project called Christ, Our
Savior Songbook, however one of the songs in it was written over 20 years ago.
Having no budget, I learned how to do everything having to do with this ministry
in my spare time (transcribe music, act as a webmaster, desktop publisher,
artist, recording artist/musician & sound engineer to name a few). I
recently estimated that over the last ten years I have spent about $25,000 to
make this ministry happen, earning money mostly as a musician, and also teaching
music, though some had to be put on credit cards.
Downloads is the Way of the Future:
Initially, when I first started this ministry I thought I
would sell the songbook on the internet, but after a great deal of prayer I
decided God had a better plan. I opened the flood gates so to speak and offered
it all for free, and thousands came. Over the last 2 to 3 years people from all
over the world have downloaded Christ, Our Savior Songbook from 77 countries
that I know of. I am very thankful for the ministry God has given to me. I
believe that the gospel should be free to anyone who wants to know more about
Jesus, and that includes a lot of poor people in third world countries so I
intend to continue allowing others to download my music. I am also thankful that
I have begun earning royalties from the songs. I know that this takes time so I
hope the amount will increase to help cover the cost of the ministry.
Time and Effort Spent:
Creating a music publishing ministry is, as you might expect,
very time consuming. I would estimate that I probably have spent 25-35+ hours a
week for the last 8 years. It has been the most challenging thing I have ever
done, but I am glad that God has given me a vision and I am able to carry it
out.
Success In God’s eyes:
Over the years my perceptions about success have shifted.
I believe God is leading me into a new attitude which I hope will continue to
liberate me. Having seen first hand the current trend in our society to download
free music, I have become less interested in sales, and more interested in the
spiritual gifts that I hope my music can bring to other churches. Putting my
trust totally into the hands of God has been a difficult transition for me,
especially since I have a family to support. As I become older, I suppose I
would like to know that the sacrifices I have made in my life to be able to
write Christian music were of some benefit to others. In terms of financial
rewards, if God wants to bless this ministry, it will be because churches have
found deep spiritual truth in the songs that He leads me to write.
Putting the Bible to Music:
As mentioned earlier, it has taken me a long time to create
this ministry. I have probably written somewhere between 500 & 750 more
songs since the time that I compiled the list of songs for Christ, Our Savior
Songbook. For the last 25 years I have been writing scripture songs every
morning, and have completed putting music to over 3/4 of the lyrical sections of
the New Testament as well as a great deal from the Old Testament. One of the
things I enjoy is writing song cycles. One that I have written has to do with
the second coming of Christ and is over 100 songs long entitled "Be
Ready!" (the theme song and others are in my songbook). I also have another
song cycle of over 60 songs having to do with the last 3 days of Christ's life
entitled "The Third Day" (more songs like Oh, The Love of Jesus are
also included in my songbook). Having grown as a writer I see some truly
wonderful new songs that I hope will find their way eventually in to the hands
of church leaders.
CD's verses Songbooks:
I am told that most people are far more likely to be
interested in cd's than songbooks, and I understand that, but from an artistic
point of view I planned on using the different editions of the songbook to help
me as a composer and arranger orchestrate the cd's much the same way a composer
might write a piano rendition before orchestrating a symphony. This also allowed
me to get the music into the hands of church leaders quickly. Due to financial
concerns, the interest that church leaders such as yourself show in this music
through church usage will probably determine when and if the final cd’s for
Christ, Our Savior Songbook are released.
Distributors, Marketing to Stores and using Sales Reps:
When I first created the piano/vocal edition of Christ, Our
Savior Songbook I had every intention of selling it to stores to help with the
cost of ministry. Currently, I have it in several local stores; they are all
happy to carry it and it has sold, but marketing to stores is not easy. Stores
want to buy songs that have air play from the current hip young stars. Stores
also prefer buying from distributors, not small start up publishers.
Distributors want proven sales, and large catalogs of products. With the small
returns made on selling wholesale, and the cost of marketing to stores it is
speculative as to whether profits can be made to help with the ministry at this
time, however my songbook is currently be reviewed by a promotion agency. I
suspect that perhaps after my songs have been around long enough to gain
popularity it might become easier to sell to stores.
Why not get another publisher:
With the number of songs I have written (over 1,000), I
don't believe I would be happy with another publisher. Can you imagine trying to
pick and choose which song they might be interested in. Nowadays, songwriters
who have sold their copyrights are often trying to buy them back. If another
publisher was interested in publishing my songs with permission and
compensation, I am sure I would be interested. I am also considering contacting
a couple of publishers who could distribute my songbook to Christian Stores. I
would be more inclined to contact them if people purchase my songbook as well as
download it, since distributors (not me) are interested in "proven
sales."
What about Arranging:
I would love to have an arranger, but from what I have
heard they are primarily interested in working with well known currently popular
top sellers associated with radio & record labels. In Christ, Our Savior
Songbook , so far I have done all my own arranging, but that is very time
consuming for someone with more than a thousand songs. At the end of the
day it's church usage that will determine marketing projects. In other words,
meaningful songs that are touching people's lives are going to be sought after
by arrangers, publishers, producers & distributors.
Marketing Laws & Legal Issues:
Due to unethical mass marketing schemes based on greed, the
laws concerning telemarketing, fax & email have made it difficult to promote
my music. California, where I live, has the toughest laws. The King's Court no
longer sends any unsolicited email. I am sure that some people wonder how I
contacted them, but I can assure you that every person that I invited to read
this article was due to a form they filled out in the past to download my
songbook at:
http://www.thekingscourt.com/signin.htm
History & the Starving Artist:
Money is often a difficult issue for musicians. At this time,
my wife and I own a house in California, and we seem to survive, but often with
difficulty, due to a lot of time spent on projects that only have a hope of
brining in cash to pay bills. Here is a little collection of historical trivia
that you may already know or might find interesting. I find it interesting
because I like to follow the lives of musicians, artists & writers. J. S.
Bach did not publish any music until he was 41, and until the time of his death
published only 11 works, not one of them being one of his major works. His music
went largely unnoticed for 150 years until rediscovered by Felix Mendelssohn.
Vincent W. Van Gogh died never having sold one of his paintings. And of course
our modern day hero, J. R. R. Tolkien's Trilogy, "The Lord Of The
Rings," waited more than 10 years to explode into popularity almost
overnight. The list goes on and on. History always seems to repeat itself.
All I know is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and each time I
write another Christian song it glows a little brighter.
Ministry Choices:
I hope that the ministry of The King's Court will always
continue, at least as long as I am alive. Patience and flexibility always seem
to be the name of the game. Church usage and royalties will invariably determine
what I spend my time on. In any case I will always try to publish new songbooks
in lead sheet format so you may want to periodically stop by my website to see
if there is some new music. As mentioned earlier, I have a huge amount of
material that I would like to be able to release into the Christian community,
and the choices that I make concerning cd’s & special editions need to
reflect this concern, and be financially viable.
The Joy of Ministry:
I have worked very hard trying to create this ministry to
support my family. I have one daughter going to college next fall, and one
daughter in a Christian high school. No doubt I am one of countless ministries
that has contacted you, but I would like to share with you an email I received
awhile ago that I copied and pasted into this letter. Though the person did not
seem to know my name, nevertheless it touched me.
Hi,
I came across your site www.thekingscourt.com and i was reading it and some how God drawed Himself to me and i had a warmeth and i was on my knees asking Him to be my Lord and Savior, i praise God for you and i pray He will continue to use you.
Christ Centered Spirituality verses Worldly Circumstances:
Letters like the one above offer a ray of hope when my
vision sometimes seems clouded. It is difficult to know, at this time, how God
is blessing this ministry. As mentioned earlier, thousands of people have
downloaded my songbook all over the world, yet I sometimes feel disconnected
from it all. A pastor friend of mine said to me, "Will, you may never know
the impact of your music until you get to heaven."
I think of my songs as a record of my spiritual life while
meditating on the truths found in scripture. In the preface to my songbook you
will find this statement, "it is to the Holy Spirit, working to guide my
path day by day through countless miraculous ways, that I dedicate this book,
and God willing, future volumes to come." I hope there are future volumes.
I can not begin to tell you how many times I have been working out problems in
my life and I find the answer in the song of the day. Here is a scripture that I
was recently reading for my song of the day, "Take heed to the ministry
which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it." Colossians
4:17 One of the lines from a recent song of mine taken from Colossians 4:3
reads, "proclaim the mystery of Christ, and God will open a door for
you." After experiencing the presence of the Lord while I have been working
on my music, or rather His music, I feel that I will always want to write music
for Him because I feel His presence more while writing music than at any other
time in my life. When I am ready, and He is willing, then He will open the
door.
Demo CD Details:
On the demo cd I tried to supply you with everything that you
need to learn and use the songs in your church services. Some people prefer
having a piano part instead of just chord charts so that is one of the reasons
why I created the piano/vocal edition that is for sale in the brochure. If your
church has a budget for some new music, and you or your church pianist are open
to trying out some of these arrangements I believe that you will be quite happy
with this new edition. It gives greater insight into the feel of the music, and
the way that I hear it. I know that some people who went to my website to
download the free editions did not actually get them for one reason or another
so that is also why I am sending out these mailings.
Everybody's schedule seems to be so hectic these days, but
maybe sometime soon when you are out in the car or you just want to sit down and
relax, try listening to some of the music on the demo cd, and maybe when you are
near your computer and have a few extra minutes you might explore the contents
listed below. I hope that you will find some of the songs useful for your church
as others have. And by all means, feel free to copy the cd for other pastors,
music directors & worship team leaders or tell them where they can find it
online. There are 2 free editions that can be found on the demo cd that contain
all 45 songs in Christ, Our Savior Songbook:
1) Guitar, Keyboard & Bass Edition
2) Words & Transparency Edition
Clips from all the songs in the Piano/Vocal Edition are on the cd and also, individual transparencies to all the songs can be copied and pasted into powerpoint. And of course, remember to report the ccli numbers located in the songbooks for the songs you decide to use. If you do not have a ccli license, please contact me and we can arrange some other way to pay for church usage.
Important Update:
Due to some recent problems I have had at my webstore, I have
decided at least for the time being to discard the webstore. All links once
associated with sales online no longer apply. Any sales now may be done through
my P.O. Box, Fax or Telephone.
Sincerely,
Will Goldstein
P.S.
At the beginning of this newsletter it was mentioned that the contents of
this page are meant
to be read by invitation only. If you know any church leaders who would be
interested in "my story" feel free to copy and paste the link below
into an email and invite them to come and read it. I would be very interested in
knowing if other church leaders such as yourself have any comments.
Link: http://www.thekingscourt.com/ministrynews.htm
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