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 Music industry interest in
holiday-themed sacred music releases has
spiked since Josh Groban’s Noel collection
became the top-selling album of 2007.
The Priests, featuring O
Holy Night, is being launched in time for
Christmas 2008.
Sony is spreading the word to a wide range
of potential fans, not least some 64 million
American Catholics. The label is promoting the
album through networks of Christian bookstores
and launched a contest on God Tube.com, a
Christian site modeled after YouTube. The
winner gets a Christmas trip to New York.
In addition, the label hired a religious
consultant to help target its marketing and
“take the edges off” the notion of a big
company peddling sacred music,
says Mark Flaherty, senior vice president of
marketing for RCA Music Group, which is
releasing The Priests in the
U.S.
The consultant, 27-year-old Daniel Schreck,
also works for the Archdiocese of New York
doing outreach to young professionals. He
helped line up meetings with Catholic media
outlets, including the Eternal Word Television
Network, which doesn’t accept advertising.
Schreck also made contact with dioceses abroad.
In letters to catholic bishops, he says, he
emphasized the album project as “a positive
portrayal of the priesthood” .
In perhaps their biggest shot at mainstream
exposure, The Priests will be
the focus of a one-hour special that begins
airing Nov. 29 on PBS stations during their
seasonal fundraising drives. It’s a coveted
national platform that has helped launch other
unconventional acts, including the
platinum-selling Celtic Woman, another Irish
ensemble. An added bonus: PBS stations are
known to rebroadcast such programs throughout
the year.
Eugene O’Hagan, who heads a Belfast parish
of 300, says the group sees the album as an extension of
their priestly duties. “In the very delicate
ecumenical world that is Northern Ireland,
music has been a wonderful means of
communication,” he says.
“We see the album as a continuation of what
we’ve always been doing.” Sony is spending more
than $1.5 million to launch the album — a major
push — but it’s not a charity effort. “Our
agenda is to sell as many records as we possibly can to
benefit our shareholders,” says Nick Raphael,
managing director of Epic Records UK, who
signed the group. O’Hagan says the priests
haven’t earned a penny yet but will donate a
large portion of any future earnings to
charity. The label has also committed to
donating a percentage of its profits to
charity, though it won’t say how much.
There are drawbacks to turning priests into
pop stars. Because they need to stay close to
their congregations, the Priests won’t be doing
a typical promotional concert tour.
But O’Hagan says his parishioners have
pledged to support his new mission. “They have
assured me if they go a couple days without
Mass, they’re not going to lose the faith,” he
says.
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