CCM Music Recording Company Case Study Part 1 - Company Overview
CCM Music Recording Company is a music recording company that specializes in Christian music. This article will be a case study on CCM, with an overview of the company, products, services and employees.
Christian Contemporary Music has been around since the 1970s. CCM was started in 1971 by Tom Collins in Florida as a nonprofit ministry to produce and distribute Christian music albums to churches. They have always been based out of Florida and are still located there today. CCM has gone through many changes since its early beginnings, but the company is still very much alive.
CCM began in 1971 as a nonprofit ministry to produce and distribute Christian music albums to churches. The original founder and president of CCM was Tom Collins. He was a visionary for Christian music and started a company that would aim to change the way Christian music sounded at the time by recording newly released styles, as well as older styles that were becoming popular again. Collins worked tirelessly to create an environment that would encourage honest and sincere expression of Christianity through music and over the years he made many friends in the industry. Many of them were instrumental in shaping CCM's vision and methods into what they are today.
In 1975 Max D. Barnes became president of CCM. He was the first person that was not a member of the Collins family to hold the office and he managed to keep CCM alive in its beginnings by producing albums at their own studio and distributing them to churches across the nation. CCM was given a new opportunity with Barnes when they were asked to distribute a few albums produced by Sparrow/EMI (a label which had recently converted from secular music production). This partnership between Sparrow/EMI and CCM led to affiliation between CCM and Word Records. Word Records was originally started by Pat Boone until he sold it in 1972.
Doug Taylor became president of the company in 1977 after Max D. Barnes stepped down to pursue other interests. Under his direction, CCM began to produce albums with a more modern sound that would lead the company into its next era. Paul Baloche would join the company in 1981 and was instrumental in producing many of CCM's modern albums. CCM's vision for Christian music changed with Taylor in charge. He felt that there was room for musical diversity between CCM and secular tastes on a mainstream level. CCM had always had the goal of being more than just a Christian music producer but Taylor worked hard to bring secular music into the fold as well, easily blending traditional songs from the past into their sound, creating something new and fresh instead of sticking to their roots as strictly Christians.
In 1985, Doug Taylor stepped down to pursue other music-related ventures. In 1986 the company was bought by Bill and Gloria Gaither for an undisclosed amount. CCM was struggling financially at the time and had suffered heavy losses in revenue under Doug Taylor's leadership. Bill Gaither had a vision for CCM that would lead them out of their financial slump and he also wanted to keep alive their old-style production values (the focus on using only musicians playing live instruments). One of the biggest changes Gaither made was to shift CCM's main distribution channel from churches to retailers like Wal-Mart and Kmart. CCM had always been a small company and Gaither wanted to ensure that they would be able to grow as a company. CCM stayed in Florida after the sale but also expanded its offices into Nashville, TN.
In the 1990s there was rapid growth for CCM and the buzz about Christian music began growing on a mainstream level instead of just among churches. In 1994, Gaither brought in Chris Cole (CCM's current president) to help manage the company and he has been running CCM ever since. The company went through a rebranding during this time with new logos, new cover designs and even new styles of albums called "samplers".
There have been several "turning points" for CCM during its lifetime. These are events that have greatly affected the company and the music industry in general. In 1997, CCM became a member of GMA (the Gospel Music Association) with many other labels including Word Records, Columbia, Sparrow/EMI and several new companies called "Grammy-nominated". GMA was started by Franklin Luster in 1959 and is the music board of The Gospel Music Association.
The Grammy-nominees were a group of Christian companies that wanted to make it easier for their artists to win awards. They started awarding the music industry members for accomplishments of their own. This was a huge deal for CCM because CCM artists didn't nominate themselves to award committees, which is more common in secular music. The first Grammy-nominee was Buddy Furcal (CCM's second president). In 1998, the Grammy-nominees were dissolved as a group and changed into a separate organization called the GMA Dove Awards.
In 1999, CCM had their biggest hit of all time with "Greater" by Relient K and behind this success came other hits that helped keep CCM on top during the dot-com era of the internet.
Conclusion
CCM has not done too much to change with the times. They have stayed true to their roots by sticking to their classic Christian sound and producing many of the most popular Christian albums. However, they have been able to successfully change with the music industry instead of having a static vision like some other labels. Today CCM continues to produce Christian music of high quality and they are doing so while staying true to their purpose as a Christian company.
http://www.ccmcountrywide.com/
http://www.cbmstore.com/index_htm
https://twitter.com/CBM_ChristianMusic?lang=en
http://www.gospelmusicawards.