Not long ago marketing Christian songs was simple: find a Christian music publisher and sign on the dotted line Alive Christians. The publisher offered a contract, you signed and they did the marketing to the top Christian record labels. Case closed.
The Internet, cable TV and social media has changed that, especially in just the last year or two. So at this time in history how do you get your song working as God intended, to inspire fellow Christians and hopefully save souls?
First, what type of Christian song did you write and what do you need it to do for you? Do you have a profit motive? Do you want to make a living writing Christian songs or use the profits to further your ministry? Or do you not care about making money?
Is your song in the "worship music" category? If so it might be marketable to churches.There are about 350,000 church congregations in the U.S, with about 59 million Christians in attendance weekly. If you can successfully get your song played regularly in even one church of every 50 you'd have a huge success on your hands.
What genre does your song fit best in? There are pop Christian radio stations. On cable TV there is JCTV that plays a wide variety of Christian music but often focuses on heavy metal or hip-hop Christian. There are other outlets that focus only on Southern Gospel such as certain shows on TBN. You need to focus your efforts in a direction that suits the type of music you've write.
Once you sort out your goals and what type of song you have, it's time to become entrepreneurial. God has blessed you with multiple opportunities.
The first step is to have a quality recording made, either a master or a demo. A poorly produced home recording will mark your efforts as amateurish. Unless you are capable of producing work that meets industry standards, hire a service that specializes in producing demos.
A demo will require an investment of somewhere between $350 to $1,200 and it's useful for impressing a Christian song publishers or producers looking for songs for established Christian artists. It can be given to worship leaders at churches for their possible use of your song in church services. You can also use it on Kickstarter to garner additional funds for a master and video.
A master can cost little more than a demo, or it can cost several thousand dollars, but a master can be legally sold on CDs or sold as downloads. With a master you can make a video and start offering your song on You Tube. Or you can sell the mp3 version on iTunes, GooglePlay, Amazon.com's Advantage program and other online venues. Use Facebook and a Word Press blog to drive sales.