SouthernGospelBlog.com

Last time I posted news about Word’s re-launch of Canaan, it didn’t sound as though Word was putting much effort into getting Canaan back off the ground. A sales rep at CBA’s International Christian Retail Show said that Canaan was in talks with no new artists and that it was quite unlikely that Canaan would pursue digital distribution of their back catalog.

This Reuters article tells another story. Here’s the money quote, from Word’s Senior Vice-President of Marketing, Rod Riley:

Riley said the label is negotiating with other artists and will announce additional signings soon.

Another highlight:

With the relaunch, Word Entertainment becomes the only one of the big three Christian music companies — Word, EMI Christian Music Group and Provident Music Group — to have a Southern gospel division. It’s a move some see as a boost for the genre as a whole.

Even the digital issue is addressed:

Dean Hopper said he’s particularly excited about the label’s digital initiatives. “The digital age is here. How are we going to compete? How are we going to move our music into the future? I think Word has got the best handle on that.”

All in all, it’s good news, very good news, for Southern Gospel.

Periodically, fans on the Singing News Message Board throw out ideas for revamping the Fan Awards. I thought Jeff from Kentucky’s idea here was a different enough spin on the topic to make it worth mentioning.

The gist of it is that after a singer wins an award for a set number of years, say five, they are moved into a different category of “legends” and are ineligible to win the award.

Although my personal preference is to let the fans select whomever they may want for as long as they want, if they are to be re-vamped at some point this is an interesting way it could be done.