Welcome to Music Creators

In the latest episode of TMA's podcast, we reveal the essential steps you need to take to ensure your music reaches its full potential. Whether you're a seasoned artist or just starting out, join us and unlock the secrets to a successful 2024 release. Get ready to make your mark on the music industry and reach listeners with your powerful message. Listen to TMA's podcast now and get ready to embark on an unforgettable musical journey!

Having the mind of Christ now plays a huge role in how our minds function in our later years.

We will be releasing the music creators MusicBox, which is a monthly subscription service for premium members. This digital MusicBox will include a premium member only monthly podcast different from the public podcast, a monthly newsletter highlighting some of the best tips and information in the industry, and discounts on services that TMA offers.

How do musicians recover from 2 years of no touring or performances? Were you planning ahead to emerge from shut-downs with new music? Let's discuss how some musicians took advantage of the shut-downs and are seeing 2022 as their year to succeed!

Are you an encourager? The only way to answer this question is by knowing solidly who you are and what you've been called to do. You can't encourage anybody if you're insecure right?

Host Gary Stripling discusses both how we celebrate Good Friday and challenges musicians to ask themselves, "am I encourager of my faith" or "am I the world's greatest showman?"

Welcome to another episode of the music creators. I'm your host Gary Stripling and I'm really excited about where we're going today. We're going to talk about a topic that is pertinent both to performance faith-based artists and bands as well as, to some degree, the worship leader you see in a church service. So let's get started. [INTRO] For indie artists and bands I see as a common misstep they frequently take when they're just getting started developing their brand in the marketplace. That disconnect is what we as audience members expect to see and hear from the stage, whether it's a festival platform, a church platform or an outdoor pavilion. We've heard the music, we've checked them out on social media, but when we show up to experience them in a live concert setting it's really not what we expected. For instance, you hear the band or the artist on Spotify and your perception is that it's a Christian country band okay. We know what country music sounds like and pretty much what they look like, you know, you've got Garth Brooks, Carrie Underwood, Florida Georgia Line and others in that genre that are at the pinnacle of success in their careers as touring artists and bands. But then you add the component of Christianity to the music and think you’re going to get a Christian version of country music where you get sober, get your car back, and your dog comes back to life - yes I’m being funny. But then we show up to the concert expecting to see jeans and pointy cowboy boots and cowboy hats. Instead you’re seeing ripped jeans, Nikes, and backward ball caps. Yes, I’m exaggerating this, but you see the point. We get what we came to HEAR but there's a disconnect between what we're hearing and what we're seeing on the stage. Even if you’d never seen a pic of the band but only heard their music, there’s an expectation of what you’ll SEE when you arrive at their show based on their genre. So I want us to take a few minutes to explore how to alleviate that disconnect so that the brand you think you're creating is consistent. The brand of course needs to be consistent across every representation of you or your band on the Internet, all your social media, on your website - everything about you needs to be branded consistently and that means the colors, the logo, your tag line, including the photos that you share online in your headers. I'm talking about Twitter headers, Facebook headers, your Spotify canvas. That brand needs to consistently be applied but it also needs to accurately reflect the style of music you're sharing. Here's an example I experienced about 10 years ago: a great group of very talented older African-American men graduated out of a rehab facility the church owns. They're great singers and in fact back in the day they were backup singers in Mowtown. Upon hearing that they want to start a group, the church’s minister of music starts working with them, puts them in choir robes and stands them in the middle of the choir loft in the church sanctuary and that becomes their cover photo for their album. I was brought in to consult with them on their branding and to create a development & management plan going forward, with the upcoming release of their first album. So it's funny because at the conclusion of spending a day and a half with these fellas we are completing the consultation in the church conference room. It's a huge conference room with a big long 20 foot conference table whatever and sitting all around are the guys, the senior pastor, a couple of associate pastors, the Minister of Music and his assistant, and the church’s attorney. And so we're all sitting there and they're waiting for my feedback and what I think about the group going forward that should be done differently, what should they change completely or scrap They've shown me their cover art for their upcoming release and they want to know my my opinion. So I hold up a hard copy of the proposed cover art for their album and tell them they need...

Our first episode shares a little about your host, Gary Stripling, and gives an overview of where we're going in this podcast series. For both worship leaders & their teams and touring indie artists with alike, there will be something here for musicians desiring to take their music to a new level this year.

“The Music Creators” is a podcast brought to you by The Management Agency, Inc. better known as TMA. It’s a podcast for faith-based indie artists who want to excel and become successful in the music business as a touring artist or band. But it’s also a podcast for worship leaders and their team members who’d like a better understanding of the biblical basis for worship. You can’t be successful in leading if you don’t know how it all began - and how the Bible provides a roadmap for great worship in today’s church. And we’ll see how these two courses intercept along the way.