Piracy hits Christian music

By Susan Hogan-Albach
The Dallas Morning News

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DALLAS — Christian teens are stealing Jesus music.

They're doing it through Internet downloads and CD burnings at nearly the same rate as secular music is being pirated, according to a new study done for the Gospel Music Association.

The findings were a jolt to many in the evangelical music industry, who expected churchgoing teens to be mindful of the commandment that states, "Thou shalt not steal."

"I'm surprised and disappointed that the behavior isn't that ardently different between Christians and non-Christians," said John Styll, president of the Gospel Music Association, the leading trade group for evangelical music.

But not everybody thinks the pirating is a bad thing. After all, some church leaders say, isn't getting the Gospel out more important than getting paid? How can it be wrong if it saves souls?

"That's convoluted logic," said Barry Landis, president of Word Records, a major Christian label. "You would never steal Bibles to give them away. You shouldn't steal Christian music to give away either."

Last year, sales of Christian albums fell by 5.2 percent, to just over 47 million. The major labels cut their work force by 10 percent, Styll said. He blames the economy, downloads and CD burnings.

Even with the dip in sales, Christian music is big business. Last year, its artists sold 68 CDs for every 100 country-music CDs sold. The $800 million in sales topped sales of classical music and jazz combined, and at least as much money was generated in merchandise and concert tickets, Styll said.

Musicians say the piracy issue is particularly thorny for them to broach. Many fear being seen as greedy and incurring the backlash faced by the heavy-metal band Metallica when it sued Napster, once the most popular file-sharing software system.
 
"We can't be like Christina Aguilera and get all attitudey," said Jaci Velasquez, a platinum-selling singer. "We're supposed to be like Christ and turn the other cheek."

Like their secular counterparts, Christian-music executives say digital-music theft is hurting sales. But they've kept a low profile in the war being waged by the Recording Industry Association of America against piracy — a fight that includes more than 1,000 suits against illegal downloaders. (The music industry said sales have improved in the first quarter of this year, in part because of its suits.)

Mainstream music companies see piracy as purely a legal issue, Styll said. The Christian industry frames the issue differently, even though its major labels are owned by mainstream companies.

"We take it further and say it's a moral issue," he said. "But we're not going to sue people. It just doesn't seem right. And nobody really has the will to do it."

And so the industry is grappling with how to discourage piracy.

"It's going to take an enormous educational effort," said Landis of Word Records. "Maybe we've missed this generation. We all know they shouldn't take the music. We all know they do. How do you put toothpaste back in the tube?"

Many Christian teens simply don't think they're stealing.

Scott Ferguson, a junior at Fort Worth Christian Academy in Texas, said he has never burned a CD but has received burned CDs as birthday gifts.

He considers burning CDs morally wrong, but he said many of his buddies don't.

"If a CD comes out and you like a couple of songs, they'll burn it for you," he said. "It's what friends kind of do for one another. It doesn't take long and it's easy. That's how they look at it."

Others say it's done for religious reasons.

"A lot of students think it's, like, a cheap way to witness to the Gospel," said Scott Flagg, 22, who belongs to a Christian fraternity at the University of North Texas. "They go out and buy a CD, then burn several copies to give away."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company