I used to want to be in a christian band. I love music and particularly songwriting, but I just saw over and over how many christian bands say that it's all about God, and then stick their faces and egos all over their product.
A christian band is just a band who is christian. Christian music maintains christian standards. The two can be suprisingly different.
I've seen band after band claim that all they do is 'for God' when the bottom line actually isn't. It's for their glory, ultimatly. Sure they could get more by going secular, but half in and half out can still be a comfortable compromise.
I like things to be what they claim to be and I don't like being told that something is christian with a big label stamped across it, signed, sealed and delivered in a christian bookshop, when the product is simply made my christians with varying degrees of christian maturity and christian content.
This might be sounding like a rant but it's true. I used to wonder what christians from countries where they're persecuted and killed for their faith would think, entering a western christian bookstore and browsing through the music section. I think most would be horrified.
Do as the world does and make it christian isn't christian. It's either about God or it's not. There's some great christian music out there and some very genuine artists, but I personally think that it can be one of the biggest ego slippery slides down into compromise that I think a christian can be faced with as a potential profession.
If I had a kid wanting to be in a christian band, unless I knew and I knew and I knew that they really were 100% about Gods will and mature enough to stay on track in that kind of position while tempted, I'd say no. And there are so few bands that I've seen who really are, so I think I'd be pretty skeptical.
So yeah. Listen really carefully to what God tells you about this because it could end up affecting your eternity. All for God has to be all for God. I'm doing this for God, is not all for God, although it might look like that on the surface. And compromise in a christian walk can very slowly kill it. An accountant or a teacher can be a christian and not try to claim that everything they do is 'for' God. A christian musician however, can't. If they're called a christian musician, then people expect that everything they do is supposed to be about God, not them. You're either in ministry, or you're in a career. A career can be about you. A ministry can't. Many christian bands call their career a ministry when it isn't.
Not saying it can't work, but just be very careful. (I've also read up a bit on the music industry myself, and agree with some of the other things posted. Especially the music business side.) What suprised me is that I got the impression that christian labels (when I looked it up) seemed to be running with the same sort of basic business model as the secular labels. (I can't absolutly prove that but I did get that idea from different comments I came across online, so don't quote me on it as absolute truth.) And the secular model ultimatly boils down to around 10% on average for you and you pay all costs. 90% profit for them. Which means you have to earn enough to pay back everything invested in you before you're likely to even see a profit. (Apart from songwriting royalties (which can often be shared 50/50 with a publishing company and only be a few cents per song per record anyway.) A loan is a loan, not a gift. And that's what a recording contract generally means. They loan you money to succeed. Record, mix, produce, package, sell, tour. It's all expensive. The costs come out of your share, not theirs. A loan is a loan. They loan it to you to make money, just like any other investment organization. And you have to pay that loan back before you start making money for yourself out of your music. More then just enough for basic survival anyway.
That's outrageous in my opinion, particularly from a christian group if what I saw was correct, but there you go.
If you want to read some more on it, I found a book by Donald Passman, a music industry lawyer really interesting. (It's heavy reading but interesting.) I've read a few others, but his was the best. Gives you an idea on just how much you can need to make as a band before you start seeing some decent personal cashflow.
(And I'm not an expert, but this is just what I've picked up from looking in to it for personal interest.)
PS. About God is about God. About you is about you. Whenever the two collide, big conflicts can arise and they can have a high body count when it starts influencing other christians faith and character.
Hope that helps.
