KINGSWAY and BETHEL MUSIC Create Long-Term International Alliance

Aug. 23, 2010 - PRLog -- Kingsway has entered into an exclusive, long-term recorded music, marketing and distribution agreement with Bethel Music.  Selling well over 100,000 albums online and at events, Bethel Music albums will for the first time be brought to physical retail into both Christian and general market stores internationally through Kingsway with distribution in the US by EMI CMG.

Bethel Music and Kingsway will launch the first four recordings under the new relationship to physical and digital retailers beginning Nov. 10, 2010.

Steve Nicolle, Kingsway VP North America, says, “The Bethel Church in Redding California has been releasing compelling, inspired worship songs and albums for many years. Kingsway is now honored to partner with the newly formed label, Bethel Music, to help increase the awareness of their recordings and to extend the reach of their ministry through our marketing and retail strengths.  Bethel Music’s exceptional, worship-focused recordings add significantly to our expanding worship music repertoire that is making an impact around the world.”

“Bethel Music is excited to be aligned with Kingsway in sharing the music of Bethel to the world,” says Joel Taylor, Director of Bethel Music. “We are actively looking to expand the music’s reach even as we discover and develop worship leaders and songwriters that are part of the rapidly growing association of nearly 2,000 Bethel Churches around the world.”

The first projects to be released under the new agreement include Brian Johnson’s Love Came Down CD/DVD and Brian and Jenn Johnson’s We Believe.  Brian and Jenn Johnson are the  senior worship pastors at Bethel Church in Redding, CA, and oversee the Bethel School of worship. The couple’s music and songwriting have ministered to hundreds of thousands both through album sales and in live worship settings at Bethel Church and other churches around the world.

Also coming Nov. 10 is the debut recording from worship leader Leah Mari, All I Have Needed, and Bethel Live, Here Is Love.  Here Is Love is a live worship CD from Bethel Church in Redding, CA, and features Brian and Jenn Johnson, as well as Kim Walker and Chris Quilala, both worship leaders rooted in the Jesus Culture youth movement of Bethel Church.  The album represents the live and spontaneous worship of the church that worship leader Tim Hughes calls, “Passionate, exciting, raw, deep, honest, powerful.  This is a fantastic worship album!”

A brand new Bethel Live recording is currently in the planning stages and will feature newly discovered worship leaders/songwriters.  Additional information on this album, as well as other newly signed Bethel Music artist worshippers, will be announced with the unveiling of BethelMusic.com this October.

In addition to the thousands of people that attend Bethel Church’s weekly worship service, another 50,000-plus people tune in each week via the internet to stream portions of the service at www.ibethel.org.  Bethel Music, formed as an organic extension of this service, represents the worship of the church and the larger association of Bethel churches.

Bethel Music’s sister label, Jesus Culture Music, formed out of the church’s youth movement. More information on Jesus Culture, including its conferences, can be found at: www.jesusculture.com.

Kingsway Music:
Tracing its music heritage to 1969, Kingsway today is known as a leader in Worship Music. As the creator of Thank You Music, and later in partnership with EMI, its catalogue includes songs such as “Here I Am to Worship,” “In Christ Alone,” “Everlasting God” and “Blessed Be Your Name” to name a few.

Kingsway’s songs are sung in more than 300,000 churches worldwide accounting for over 30% of CCLI’s (Church Copyright Licensing International) bestseller list. With writers and artists like Tim Hughes, Matt Redman, Delirious?, Graham Kendrick and Stuart Townend, Kingsway is dedicated to feeding the Church with songs that will change the world. As the music arm of David C Cook, a non-profit organization located in Colorado Springs, CO, a significant portion of the profits that Kingsway and David C Cook generate are used to provide discipleship and music materials free of charge to church leaders in developing parts of the world who wouldn’t be able to get them any other way