New Nashville labels push Christian music forward

At a time when Christian music reaches more people than ever, two creative new Nashville record labels are stretching the genre’s boundaries.

Seeking to connect with fans of Top 40 pop music, Nashville music industry veteran Mitchell Solarek launched Maxx Recordings with an initial artist roster including boy band 3for3 and young female singer-songwriters Kolby Koloff and Riley Clemmons.

Solarek, whose artist management firm represents mainstays Natalie Grant and Danny Gokey, is banking on his new label filling a void in a Christian music landscape that is heavy on established acts appealing to older listeners.

Another Nashville upstart, Storysong, is challenging the Christian record label archetype because it didn’t start as a record label.

Storysong is the music division spinoff of Leadership International, a Christian education organization that serves pastors and church leaders in Africa. By structuring Storysong as a nonprofit organization, co-founder Mark Wagner is able to assure fans who buy his label’s music that the vast majority of their money will provide orphans in Africa with education, clothing and other basic needs.

Maxx Recordings and Storysong have different goals and approaches, but both stand poised to capitalize on the popularity of Christian music.

A report released in June by the Gospel Music Association found that 68 percent of Americans report having listened to Christian or gospel music in the last month. Artists from the genre have become stars of reality television shows, and music companies have parlayed their artists’ popularity into lucrative corporate partnerships with companies like Cracker Barrel, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola.

“In the midst of the success that Christian music is enjoying right now, you’ve got these two new models, and they are fresh and they are different,” said Barry Landis, the former president of Word Label Group and current president and CEO at Ribbow Media Group, a social media and marketing firm focusing on faith-based entertainment.

Maxx aims for younger audience

Solarek took a roundabout path to creating his full-service record label, headquartered in Green Hills. He ran a modeling agency in San Francisco before relocating to Nashville and eventually opening Maximum Artist Group, which counts Grant, Gokey, Donald Lawrence and producer Bernie Herms among its clients.

Solarek said that over the past five years, as the music industry as a whole and the Christian industry in particular have wrestled with their futures, many of his lunch meetings were with Music Row executives worrying about the sky falling.

“I’m a guy who needs a lot of challenge,” Solarek said. “We were in a place, because we represent so many Christian music artists, where it just wasn’t fun any more.”

He said labels in particular were resistant to trying new approaches or pushing new, outside-the-box artists. Solarek hopes Maxx Recordings can step in and take the risks that established labels have been resistant to take.

Whether it’s his management company or publishing company, Solarek has viewed himself as being in the “content creation business,” not the music industry. That’s why he was able to smoothly step into the role of executive producer for the WEtv series “Mary Mary,” a reality show about the popular gospel duo.

With 3for3, a group of three young male pop artists, Solarek is returning to his strengths. He was part of the team that launched Plus One, one of the most successful contemporary Christian music debut artists ever. His other newly signed artists, Koloff and Clemmons, have fresh pop sounds that are closer to Taylor Swift than anything popular on Christian radio right now.

Maxx Recordings has partnered with Sony RED and New Day Christian for distribution.

“I think (Solarek) is probably right that there’s a void right now in Christian music, and I think he’s probably the right guy to pursue this,” Landis said. “He’s had great success with Plus One, he’s had great success with Danny Gokey. It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to build a young artist’s career, but he’s got the experience and the eye for talent.”

Label division of African ministry

Wagner, a singer-songwriter and Middle Tennessee State University music school graduate, describes Storysong as selling, making and creating creative products to support “our kids in Africa.”

The label released its second compilation, which featured Christian music heavyweights Jars of Clay, TobyMac, Newsboys, Wagner and others, in April in conjunction with Family Christian Stores. While the songs on the album would be right at home on a popular Christian music radio station, it’s Storysong’s organizational structure that makes it unique.

Wagner had first visited Africa in 2008. He was already writing songs and making records, but he returned to Tennessee ready to pack up and move full-time to Africa.

But Leadership International founder Larry Warren wondered if there was another way Wagner could help. Warren said Wagner has found a way to connect their passion for helping people with his God-given musical skills.

“Three and a half years ago, Larry and I reconnected and he said he had 100 kids in Zimbabwe who were all students who were orphans,” Wagner said. “He said, ‘I have these kids and we don’t have any support coming in for them. If you can figure out a way to raise money to keep these kids in school, let’s do that.’ ”

And that’s when Wagner and his wife Kalle Wagner created Storysong. Buddy Greene, who also contributed to the most recent compilation, said Wagner and Warren deserve credit for keeping their focus on ministry.

Landis, who has spent his entire career in and around faith-based entertainment, said he is not aware of another label to set up as a nonprofit organization.

“It’s hard to keep an effort like this clean in every way because there are all these other entities involved,” said Greene, a music industry veteran. “Usually there are labels and middlemen and stuff like that. I love the way they structured it.”

Reach Nate Rau at 615-259-8094 and on Twitter @tnnaterau.

Key takeaways from Gospel Music Association research

• 215 million people have listened to Christian music in the past month.

• 68 percent of Americans listened to Christian music in the past month.

• 93 percent of African-Americans, or more than 38 million people, listened to gospel radio in the past year.

• Christian music enthusiasts: 53 percent female, 47 percent male; 23 percent females ages 25-44

• Top 10 selling artists: 1. Casting Crowns, 2. Lecrae, 3. MercyMe, 4. Newsboys ("God's Not Dead"), 5. Needtobreathe, 6. Michael W. Smith, 7. Hillsong United, 8. Newsboys ("Restart"), 9. Jamie Grace, 10. Erica Campbell

• Christian music sales by genre: 1. Adult contemporary: 33.8 percent, 2. gospel: 17.6 percent, 3. praise and worship: 13.6 percent, 4. rock: 11.5 percent, 5. Southern gospel: 5.5 percent

• A look at 2014 top tours by attendance: 1. Winter Jam: 557,112; 2. Bruce Springsteen: 341,314; 3. Beyonce: 331,882

• Christian and gospel artists on reality TV: Kirk Franklin on BET's "Sunday Best," Mary Mary on WEtv's "Mary Mary," Kierra Sheard on BET's "The Sheards," Ben Tankard on Bravo's "Thicker Than Water"

• Top artists on Facebook: 1. Marcos Witt, 5.7 million, 2. Hillsong United, 5.4 million, 3. Skillet, 5.4 million

• Brand name sponsorships: Cracker Barrel, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Target

• Music sales in the U.S. by percentage of overall market: Christian and gospel, 6.6 percent; Latin, 2.5 percent; jazz, 2.4 percent; classical, 2.4 percent; blues, 0.9 percent

Source: Gospel Music Association's 2014 Christian & Gospel Music Industry Overview