In August 2021, in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Logan received a Trendsetter Award and was honored by the Gospel Industry Network (G.I.N.), which inducted her into the G.I.N. Hall of Fame.  She has retired several times, but her passion for this ministry keeps her going. Today, Dr. Logan advises many gospel music industry artists and personnel nationwide. In 2022, the Texas Gospel Music Excellence Awards presented her with a Living Legend Award.

In 2023, Dr. Joyce Logan launched Prayze N Prayer Books online, specializing in adult coloring books and journals designed primarily for mental wellness. The coloring books reduce stress and have a calming effect on the user. Her books include prayers that have further strengthened and/or encouraged those using them. In November, Gospel International Magazine was added to the bookstore.

On September 7, 2024, Dr. Logan was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame

After retiring from Gospel International and its subsidiaries in late 2026, Dr. Logan will release her compelling memoir.

 

U.S. Army veteran, recording artist, songwriter, author, magazine publisher, Streaming Television producer, Online bookstore owner-developer, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother Joyce Logan started her professional music career with gospel singing group James Bignon and God’s Children in 1975 while serving in the US Army. As a current member of the City of Refuge under the leadership of Bishop Noel Jones, Dr Logan is a member of the Ministerial Alliance.

In 1982, the group recorded their second album. Her song When He Calls Me received nationwide airplay and a top Billboard chart position. She penned songs for artists such as Cleophus Robinson, Dorothy Norwood, The BC& M Mass Choir, Mildred Clark, James Bignon, and God’s Children.

Between touring and working for the Columbia School of Broadcasting, she completed her degree in Broadcasting and Continuity Writing at the prestigious school and graduated with honors. The school groomed her as an anchor for CNN, but her passion lay in the gospel music community. She was invited to start a gospel section for a national radio trade magazine, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), where she could give gospel music and its artists broader exposure in a secular publication for the first time in history. Readers could meet artists and VIPs and get tidbits on who was doing what, when, and where in and around the gospel music industry. She also launched the first gospel music radio/retail reports in the publication, later incorporating the feature into her Gospel International magazine, where hundreds of radio stations and retail outlets were featured.

Before starting Gospel International, Dr. Joyce Logan served as Marketing Director for Word Records while the label was based in Burbank, California. She worked directly with each music division to ensure a strong team effort that delivered long-term visibility for each artist. In addition, Dr. Logan developed extensive tracking reports by monitoring national radio stations and retailers to gauge product rotation and sales. As Marketing Director, she served as the keynote speaker at major music conferences on the label’s new product releases. She developed and implemented marketing strategies and worked closely with the A&R department. Her repertoire of artists included Richard Smallwood, Shirley Caesar, The Clark Sisters, The Thompson Community Singers (aka the Tommies), The Winans, Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, The Mighty Clouds of Joy, Albertina Walker, and many others. Many of her WORD artists had previously performed on major concert venues with her group, James Bignon & God’s Children. This gave Dr. Logan an advantage in having seen both the music performance side as an artist/songwriter and understanding the community’s needs from an administrative side. 

Dr. Logan reviewed new products from potential artists and was a part of the decision-making team. She also worked closely with the Art division and was responsible for reviewing and signing off on the cover and inserting graphic design for the artist’s product. When Word relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, Dr. Logan could not leave because she needed to be close to her mother, who was very ill in California at the time. While on hiatus, CGI Records asked her to develop their marketing and promotion efforts, and for six months, she flew back and forth from Los Angeles to Chicago each week to do the job. CGI achieved top ratings on major music charts for the label’s artists, which included Danniebelle Hall, Calvin Bernard Rhone, Evelyn Turrintine-Agee, and others.

In 1984, only 8.2% of US households owned a personal computer, and the World Wide Web had not yet been invented. By 2000, 54 million households, or 51% of US households, had owned one or more computers.

In 1993, Dr. Logan, with over 45 years of experience in the entertainment industry and a proven record of success with some of the top names in Gospel Music, created the first-of-its-kind website on the Internet for the nation’s leading Music Trade Magazine for the Gospel / Christian Community called Gospel International. The initial Internet address was listed as gospelweb.com because hosting servers could not process website addresses with names over 10 characters at that time. She developed a multimedia Gospel Enterprise framework that combined traditional “street-level experience” with “technology”- based delivery systems. Her ability to respond to a changing marketplace through technology shows why Ms. Logan remains “cutting edge.” The site featured free email accounts for its users (for example, jlogan@gospelweb.com). Gospel International featured one of the first chat rooms on the Internet (before Facebook), where users chatted in real time with others in the GI-Chat Room. During this time, Ms. Logan was a beta tester for a new website called Facebook.

In 2021, Gospel International acquired channels on the ROKU TV Network and Amazon Fire TV. The TV channels went LIVE simultaneously on both platforms. Dr. Joyce Logan also made it available on the Gospel International website for those wanting to watch the continuous live stream instead of navigating the many videos on demand on the TV channel. Dr. Logan said, “This has been a lifelong dream from when we hit the street with the print magazine in 1993, to going online in 1994, to becoming a tabloid-sized music trade publication in 1999 with worldwide distribution. “I’ve seen many gospel industry magazines come and go in print and online since then, but we’ve stayed the course even when adversity knocked us down for a season. It knocked us down, but it didn’t knock us out. GI was never about fortune or fame for me but about the ministry of the gospel and the people who make it happen. This is a ministry for me”. In August of 2024, she added the the live stream from the TV channel to the Gospel International website

Gospel International is an innovative Christian-based print media, Internet, and broadcast TV company that has met the demands of a rapidly evolving industry. Gospel International uses modern technology similar to Netflix, Hulu Plus, Paramount+, and other significant channels that stream to your TV.  Gospel International broadcasts its channel on the Roku Top Set Box under the ‘Religion & Spirituality’ category, available in over 20,000 cities in the United States.  Gospel International on Roku and Fire TV broadcasts worldwide via TV, PC, and Smartphones (Android and iOS). Carrying the Gospel International message to an even broader market nationwide via TV
(40 million on Amazon Fire TV and 62+ Million on ROKU as millions are ditching cable TV and opting for live streaming television channels such as Paramount, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and other streaming services) Gospel International gives greater exposure and a louder voice to the gospel music industry and its varying ministries.”  As a result, Gospel International is simultaneously in print, online, and on TV.

Dr. Logan has ongoing relationships with leading Music Industry Executives, Community and National organizations, and musical artists and is known to hundreds of thousands of Gospel International Internet followers.

As CEO of Gospel International Trade Magazine in print and online she worked directly with each department to ensure strong team effort and to gain successful results in subscription sales, ad revenue, and increased distribution sources. She hired and trained staff members in the administrative, marketing, and sales local office; International staff who displayed outstanding skills in print design, web design, and digital skills management; and 8 editorial staff who researched and submitted articles and key commentary relevant to the Gospel music community. Included within the publication were extensive nationwide radio and retail reports of top airplay and top sales, the first of its kind for gospel music reporting.

In 2024 Gospel International Magazine was relaunched. With the increased popularity of online ordering and print-on-demand distribution, Gospel International now presents the print magazine in digital format. The reader can purchase a single issue or subscribe for a one-year subscription to the digital edition and a one-time monthly purchase of the print-on-demand.

Dr. Logan continues to partner successfully with national radio stations and retailers to increase product visibility and promotion for the partners. She lectures as a keynote speaker during significant music conference dates on the importance of digital skills needs and training to grow and maintain a successful business. As a veteran in the music industry, she is often called upon to speak to new artists and entrepreneurs regarding best practices and character in the industry. She encourages, motivates, and educates, emphasizing new technology and its effects on the music industry.

In 2010, Joyce Logan returned to college and completed her Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, MBA in Marketing, and Doctorate in Management with a concentration in Executive Leadership by 2017.

While working on her doctorate, she also attended Bethany Bible College and received her certificate of completion in evangelism, with a concentration in Christian counseling. She released her second book, DIGITAL STRATEGIES 4 MUSIC INDUSTRY SUCCESS, in 2018. The book reveals where music industry personnel and artists currently stand regarding new technology and digital strategies. It chronicles how new technology has affected the music industry over the decades and how companies and artists can use it strategically to succeed. It shows how many old-school practices for marketing and promoting new music are still being implemented and how today’s digital standards, coupled with some old-school practices, still get recorded projects miles ahead of the game by using the blueprint in the book. DIGITAL STRATEGIES 4 MUSIC INDUSTRY SUCCESS provides marketing insight and resources that will allow music industry leaders, artists, and personnel to become more skilled and thrive in the music business, utilizing digital skills, strategies, and techniques shared within its pages. The book foretold the coming of online streaming, which is now commonplace.

In 2006- 2007, she experimented with the then-new medium of presentation for online magazines – flipbooks – but decided to stay with the website approach.  In 2007, she launched the first online gospel music trade video magazine when this type of presentation (streaming) was virtually unheard of online. This preceded live and video streaming as we know it today. She presented a new medium called Gospel International Video Magazine, which emulated TV’s Entertainment Tonight. It was the first of its kind online. The response was overwhelming, as this was unheard of in the music industry. Internal challenges prevented the video magazine from going forward, and she dropped the format. 

In addition to Gospel International, in 2019, Dr. Logan accepted a management request from artist Dave Shirley, known for his strong vocals, electric performances, and key casting roles in stage plays nationwide. Billboard Magazine labeled his single “Let’s Help One Another” as “bridging the gap between musical genres and cultures as well as bridging generations.” The lyrics feel especially timely for the challenging times the world is experiencing now. During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Logan exercised creativity when studios and videographers were isolated and socially distanced from the public. With a cell phone in hand, green cloth taped to the wall to create a green screen, and the camera rolling, with 100 degrees in the building, she videotaped Dave Shirley performing his new single for the times, A CHANGE IS GONNA COME (initially recorded by the late Sam Cook), added some visual effects, and released the new video online. Of all the songs Dave Shirley sings, this is the most requested.

In August 2021, in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Logan received a Trendsetter Award and was honored by the Gospel Industry Network (G.I.N.), which inducted her into the G.I.N. Hall of Fame.  She has retired several times, but her passion for this ministry keeps her going. Today, Dr. Logan advises many gospel music industry artists and personnel nationwide. In 2022, the Texas Gospel Music Excellence Awards presented her with a Living Legend Award.

In 2023, Dr. Joyce Logan launched Prayze N Prayer Books online, specializing in adult coloring books and journals designed primarily for mental wellness. The coloring books reduce stress and have a calming effect on the user. Her books include prayers that have further strengthened and/or encouraged those using them. In November, Gospel International Magazine was added to the bookstore.

On September 7, 2024, Dr. Logan was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame

After retiring from Gospel International and its subsidiaries in late 2026, Dr. Logan will release her compelling memoir.