Phoenix, AZ – When Judith Elson started her small business offering ringtones and alarms, her expectations were modest. To her surprise, much of her sales today are from churchgoers of various denominations.
As a Roman Catholic who actually attends mass regularly, she offers a “religious” range which includes organ music and Scriptural readings. “At first, I thought some people may want to wake up to a hymn or a reading of John 3:16 or Ezekiel 24. I even included some Gregorian chanting. There were a few sales, probably just from my church friends and their friends.”
But then an idea hit Judith one Sunday during mass. “I don’t know why I didn’t notice it before but people generally sleep through mass, only to wake up at the end when the priest finishes with ‘Amen’.”
The next day, she worked on an alarm which simply uttered “Amen.” Within a week of release, it had been bought and downloaded by a few thousand individuals.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” said Judith. “I assume it works, that people don’t sleep through it like other alarms.” She is now working on more Amen alarms using different voices and trying to find improvements.
“I did a survey of those sales and there were believers from almost all camps: Catholics, low-Anglicans, high-Anglicans, Lutherans, and not just the drunk ones, Methodists… The only groups which barely registered were Presbyterians and Baptists, which is not a surprise because some of them are just stubborn and have selective hearing.”
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