So my church is having a ladies conference this weekend. I asked my Pastor’s wife if I could sell my CD’s there (they were advertising boutique sells for the event). She said yes. Then they had to move the event to their second campus in another close by city. She said she’d have to let the Pastor’s wife there know about my table setup. I got a call last night. They are rejecting my table. They only want boutique items. Thanks for prayers for my music, right people connections, healings. Amen!

Let’s talk about it. I’ve seen both sides: • Churches that pay worship leaders well and retain them for decades • Churches that expect volunteer service and burn people out in 2 years Here’s my take: Not every worship leader needs a church paycheck. But EVERY worship leader needs a path to prosper. That might mean: • Church salary • Royalty income • Teaching workshops • Producing other artists • Building a publishing catalog What do YOU think? Drop your honest opinion below. No judgment. Let’s discuss.

CD baby makes CD/USB. So the minimum CD purchase is 100. It doesn’t say, but I assume you can’t make, for example, 4 different CD’s (25 each). I assume it all has to be the same songs. IDK. I was thinking of doing maybe 25 Christmas, 25 Piano, 25 old releases, 25 newer ones. This completely changes my plan. Now I think I’d just try and put as many songs on there as I can before my event. Anybody tried this before? Also, the USB takes 3 to 5 weeks to make, which is past my event date. Secondly the USB are the most expensive (in the low $300) for 40. The CD’s are between $200-300 budget designs, depending on if you get a plastic cover, which takes it to the $300 for 100. Lots of options on the inserts and plastic cover designs. They also put print on the CD black and white or color. I just think it’s so expensive, and does anybody really sell their CD’s, and make enough to cover your expenses? I’m just thinking this is a no for now. I wanted to, but my timing is limited. CD’s are printed in 3-5 business days, so that’s a faster turnout than the USB’s. I assume 1 gig is enough for 10-12 songs??? RE: USB ADVISE OR EXPERIENCE INPUT REQUESTED! THANK YOU!!!

I sent 2 songs in, and he sent me back 2 Sumo productions (music without my voice or lead vocals). So my daughter who’s 19 immediately said “it sounds like AI”, which it does. She also said it sounds like a Disney production, and not CCM. She kept saying it doesn’t sound like Worship music. Overall, it didn’t follow my pattern for the songs. Here’s a list of things it changed: 1. It didn’t do an instrumental that I needed before a bridge. It just goes straight into it. That makes it harder to sing because you have to know the song so well, so you know what to do vocally. 2. It added extra measures to my instrumental, and made it way too long. 3. It played the verse melody of Pt. 1 of the verse, where I would sing Pt. 2 of the verse which is a different melody, but same chords, so it works, but sounds weird. 4. It added drums on V.2 but it’s really not a drum song, and that’s definitely not the right place to add drums. 5. It added an extra repeat on Pt. 2 of verse 2, that’s not there on verse 1, so it’s unbalanced. 6. It plays a lot of the melody which I will be singing over the music. I think it’s too much. 7. In some places you can’t understand the BGV. Sounds distorted. 8. I’ll stop here, but is it difficult to fix these issues (time consuming) because right now it’s just an experiment to see if I want to use this instead of live musicians. Preferably I’d just rather have the live musicians. It probably going to cost me more, but in the end, I will have a unique sound that the Sumo just all sounds the same. I see really it just copied my keys. I could just do my own keys, I think too. LMK WHAT YOU THINK PLEASE!!!

Written with Alma Riveria I used SUNO to recreate the music from piano and vocal to a produced piece.