We wrap up our Year That Was: 2010 coverage with a special countdown of the Top 10 Artist Stores of last year as well as the Top 10 Music Stories of 2010, both compiled by Rick Welke at CMW Christian Music Weekly. We thank them for sharing this reporting with NRT from a year that was filled with tragedy, triumph, new possibilities and lots of drama. It was certainly a year packed with huge releases and even bigger headlines. After you get done reading, let us know what stories impacted you the most!

 

 

 

Casting Crowns landed RIAA Gold certification only a month after re-leasing their fourth studio disc, Until The Whole World Hears. The project also debuted inside of the Top 5 of the Soundscan national chart the first week of release. The band is the top selling Christian artist over the past three years.

 

 

MercyMe made history as the song “I Can Only Imagine” rolled through the million digital downloads sold ceiling, making it the very first song in Christian music to ever do that. The group also entered into rare territory as their project, All That Is Within Me received Gold certification from the RIAA, giving them the status of having all of their recordings reach gold or platinum sales. Their latest project, The Generous Mr. Lovewell, also sold over 87,000 copies its first week out last year, landing at a whopping No. 3 in the country based on Soundscan numbers and giving them the highest Christian project debut of 2010 on the mainstream charts.

 

 

Chris Tomlin saw his projects And If Our God Is For Us (No. 17) and Glory In The Highest: Christmas Songs of Worship (No. 20) both debut inside of the Top 20 on the Soundscan Top 200 album chart, making it the first time that feat has happened by a Christian artist ever. His combined sales for the week topped 81,000.

 

 

Newsboys' project Born Again bowed at No. 4 on the Soundscan chart last summer, selling over 45,000 units its first week out at retail, making it the best single week CD sales debut in the band's history.

 #5 - Jars Of Clay Hits 1,000 Wells Goal

 

Jars of Clay, through their non-profit organization Blood: Water Mission, celebrated the completion of their 1000th clean-water well, a goal they set out to accomplish when they first began the organization in 2004. The effort already serves more than 600,000 people in 11 countries. The band is contemplating setting a new goal for the charity and will kick off that impact with a big show in Nashville in 2011.

 

 

The “Make A Difference Tour” set the new mark for the largest live webcast of any Christian concert ever, streaming to over 741,000 people in 99 different countries at the same time. TobyMac, Michael W. Smith, and Third Day, along with speaker/author Max Lucado were all a part of the record-breaking event which broadcasted live from Wichita Falls, TX.

 

 

In a somewhat surprising move, Aaron Gillespie announced his exit from the band Underoath after their European tour earlier this year. Gillespie is also the frontman for The Almost. He released a statement stating that there is no bad blood between any of the members after 11 years together, but that simply, “people change, times change, and sometimes change just comes hunting for you.” The band later stated that Gillespie had continued to go down a path that the band did not desire to follow stylisticly and wished him nothing but the best. Gillespie will be releasing his solo worship debut in March on BEC Recordings.

 

 

 

Taylor Swift's North American leg of her “Speak Now World Tour 2011” will feature the band NEEDTOBREATHE as announced by the tour's promoter. The band was hand-picked by Swift to play all of the American and Canadian dates that will begin on May 27 in Omaha, NE.

 

 

David Crowder Band created “Crowder's Fantastical Church Music Conference” to be a service to those interested in serving the Church in any facet, not really knowing how the attendance might shape up to be. To his, and industry insiders amazement, over 2,000 people attended the first time three-day conference in Waco, TX with plans for a follow-up event taking place in 2011.

 

 

Record breaking attendance finished off the 15th year of the Winter Jam Tour, seeing 403,000 people attend the tour along its 44 stops across the U.S., including over 15,000 attendees in Oklahoma City, Knoxville, and Greensboro, NC. The tour is hosted each year by NewSong and will be growing to over 50 cities in 2011.

 

 

 

With all eyes of the world on Haiti after the island nation was hit with a massive earthquake in January 2010, many within the industry including artists, charities, and help organizations were on the ground as it happened. Among the first to hit the national news was Mark Stuart, Audio Adrenaline frontman and leader of the Hands & Feet Project orphanage organization. He landed multiple features on CNN and a few other TV outlets, helping America see the devastation and human side of the tragedy in real time and quickly after the initial earthquake hit.

 

Another band that was on the ground when the tragedy struck the island nation was Julian Drive. They shared on their website the upfront reality of those they were in Haiti to serve, “Our new friend and contact here, Mansour, and his staff have also lost several family members. He went into town yesterday to check on his family. Mansour witnessed his uncle being crushed beneath a concrete wall and had no choice but to just leave his body there because there was no way to get him out. It was so tragic.”

 

Many in Nashville and throughout the music industry rallied together in unique ways, pulling together resources to offer up benefit concerts, special sales, auctioning off prized possessions, and dozens of other inventive ways to get cash together to send to Haiti. Michael W. Smith also gathered 100 artists and musicians to play and sing on the tribute single “Come Together Now.” The list of artists involved was a who's-who of those inside of the Christian music industry and many mainstream music friends.

 

Regrettably, after almost a full year gone by, the funds and help that were initially sent to the small country have made little impact. The earthquake was followed up by Hurricane Tomas with excessive flooding that has caused a cholera outbreak. The outbreak has already killed over 2,000 people in than 60 days. Coupled with a governmental infrastructure that is also broken and in need of restructuring, and some reports that less than one-third of the over $5 billion that was pledged or given actually making it to the people who have suffered, there is no firm plan of aggressive action on the horizon for the over 1.3 million people that are living in the streets of Haiti right now.

 

 

Early May saw over a foot of rain fall in the Nashville area, some areas receiving 20-plus inches of rain, all in a two day period that devastated the area and impacted many within the music industry. Several label employees saw belongings wash away on the second day of torrential rains and were forced to leave their homes and head for higher ground. Those that live in the downtown, Antioch, Bellevue and Heritage areas were hardest hit.

 

As reported nationally, the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, Opry Mills mall and surrounding area took on 6-10 feet of water. Opryland Hotel and the Grand ‘Ole Opry reopened with a full facelift in the fall, but the mall may never reopen as there were pockets of sinkholes discovered underneath and the insurance companies and owners are in limbo as to who will pay for permanent repairs.

#3 - Music Sales Continue To Sag - Ringtone and Digital Sales Drop Off

Nielsen Soundscan reported that music downloads had increased a miserly 0.3% in the first half of 2010, bringing into question the anticipation from those on the sales-side of the industry equation of larger leaps in digitized purchases to help offset the continual decrease in physical CD sales. NPD Group, which analyzes online sales, also shared in the piece that the overall number of individuals buying online music has pretty much leveled off this year.

 

The report goes on to share even more bad news for the industry, stating that ringtone sales have decreased by a whopping 24% since 2007's perch of $714 million. Based on current music buying trends, the music industry is expected to sell only $7 billion within the U.S. in 2012. That number would be a little more than half of the sales generated back in 2005.

 

 

The continuing saga of Terra Firma and their ownership noose around EMI was front-and-center multiple times throughout the year. CitiGroup won a court case in November that Terra Firma filed to attempt to show the bank had entered into their financial agreement in 2007 to purchase EMI in a fraudulent manner.

 

Since that time it has been reported that CitiGroup will most likely take the company over in 2011 as Terra Firma will not be able to make good on another $145 million payment that will be due in April. If that happens, Terra Firma is expected to hold ownership of a small percentage of EMI. But if that scenario does play out, it is also highly likely that CitiGroup will divide up the company and sell it off in pieces to the highest bidder.

 

 

The battle between terrestrial radio companies and the mobile phone and IT industries started to heat up in 2010 and is set to boil over into next year over the inclusion of a radio-ready chip to be included in smartphones in the near future. Each group has sent letters to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to explain their positions on the now proposed mandate making all mobile device developers include FM radio chips in all future devices.

 

The unified letter from the mobile and national IT organizations stated in part, it is simply wrong for two entrenched industries to resolve their differences by agreeing to burden a third industry - which has no relationship to or other interest in the performance royalty dispute - with a costly, ill-considered, and unnecessary new mandate. The proposed imposition of an FM chip mandate is not necessary for resolution of the dispute between performance artists and broadcasters.

 

Neither side seems to be budging on their end of the argument, so how it plays out in Congress and/or in the courts will be an important piece of radio's future in the new media environment.

 

 

In a surprising move, the Gospel Music Association will move the 2011 edition of the Dove Awards and surrounding activities to Atlanta. The decision caught a lot of industry members off guard and clearly closed the books on a 42-year run of the awards show and its now defunct week-long schedule in Nashville and in association with the Grand Ole Opry. The move was prompted by a 54 percent increase in viewership on GMC in 2010 over the previous year, allowing GMA leadership to retool the event closer to GMC headquarters in Atlanta.

 

 

 

Apple sold their 10 billionth song during the past year, offering the buyer of that tune a $10,000 iTunes gift card. In case you were wondering, the buyer purchased Johnny Cash's “Guess Things Happen That Way.” The music catalog website now has over 12 million songs available for purchase.

 

 

Universal Music Publishing Group in cooperation with Breantwood-Benson acquired the music publishing assets of long-time worship outfit Maranatha! Music. The label has one of the most active song catalogs within the Church, charting high on the Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) charts and helps to heighten Breantwood-Benson's place as a leading copyrighter within Christian music.

 

 

Salem Web Network acquired GodTube.com this year as they continue to solidify their position as the leader in online Christian content. Tangle is one of the highest visited networking sites on the Internet, while GodTube is one of the few true hubs of positive video content on the web. The acquisition of GodTube.com gives Salem the leadership position in the web-user generated video arena and opens up multi-media advertising possibilities that the company has not had access to in the past.

 

 

As one of the leaders in offering the Christian music industry indepth news, information, and industry charts, Christian Music Weekly (CMW) formed partnerships in 2010 with music delivery platform AirPlay Direct and Parable Bookstores to serve artists and labels in more meaningful ways. CMW also became the most read weekly publication within the Christian music industry this year and plans on launching more services in early 2011 and deeper charts with a monitoring partner that will be announced soon.