From label to network

Re:Sound was first an independent label. Management issues accompanying a label were terrible, and we realized it was not the right path. A label has to exist for its financial bottom line and must choose projects accordingly. At the end of the day, Mars Hill is a church and the Resurgence is a network of missional leaders on Godʼs mission. The heart behind Re:Sound has always been to showcase music we believe in from Godʼs people on Godʼs mission. So Re:Sound will be a relational network of missional musicians offering a consistent stream of music on a suggested-donation basis. At times we may sell special albums, but the vast majority of Re:Sound music will be available by suggested donation.

From publisher to partner

Our mindset was that to use our resources to distribute music we would have to own the rights to songs and albums. While this may be the default mode of the law, it would obligate us to control and administrate the rights to all this music—turning us into a publishing company. This is also a huge distraction from our core mission. Therefore Re:Sound will not own any songs or recordings, which will leave music in the hands of its creators and allow us to partner with a wide range of artists both inside and outside of Mars Hill Church. We have an exciting release schedule ahead, and look forward to telling you about it soon.

From control to influence

In an industry obsessed with grasping control over all musical rights, we realize that influence is much more important. Our heart is to show a stream of music that might never make the radar of the music industry. We believe that music should be more distinct, not less, as it represents Godʼs people on his mission to a particular people in a specific time and place. Our hope is that as we show more mission-driven, diverse music it would encourage others to not consume the foreign culture of music that is being marketed to them. Instead we would sing new songs as well as old songs in new ways, all for the glory of God.

Future

Rather than the two projects we have put out in the last nine months you can expect to see a lot more music released from both Mars Hill Church and all kinds of other artists. This week we are proud to release the entire full-length album from Mars Hill band Red Letter for suggested donation, and thereʼs lots more to come. Check out Re:Sound and let me know what you think on Twitter at PastorTimSmith or our new Re:Sound discussion page on Facebook. Mars Hill Church and the Resurgence have been incredibly blessed with resources to make music and a platform with which to promote it. Our heart is to use these resources to be a blessing to others and help build Jesusʼ church. Several major ideas have changed—but Re:Sound is still about showcasing theologically unified, stylistically diverse, musically excellent music.