I love music, but I must admit that my tastes may be a bit dated. However, I try my best to keep up through a variety of sources including NoiseTrade.com and The Relevant Podcast. Even still, as my ears age, so does my palate.
The other day, I realized that one of my friends was using Spotify to stream music for his youth services when I heard an ad broadcast over the speakers. It was weird to hear ads played over the sound system, but I guess it wasn’t a big deal…until an ad played during some fairly intense prayer time!
The reason for using Spotify was that it provided easy access to new music, as opposed to the iTunes library that had been cobbled together by well-intentioned people about four years earlier.
Old church music can be a problem, especially in youth ministry, so that lead me to ask:
How do others find music for their church?
I’m not sure about your church, but we play music before service and during altar time. In youth group, we play music even more. So, it’s pretty important for us to have good, new music. As much as I might enjoy rocking out to Stryper in my car, I don’t think that the average soccer mom or octogenarian is likely to enjoy it on a Sunday morning before service.
That means that we need a good pipeline to new, quality music that is more likely to please a majority of people. Now, we’ve gathered some great albums from Noisetrade, like Ascend the Hill’s Hymns and All Sons & Daughters’ Prone to Wander. And yet, that’s clearly not enough. We’ve also purchased a number of songs from iTunes using an account set up entirely for our church.
So that’s how we do it. We’re not perfect, and we’re willing to learn. That brings us to the question at hand and the end of this post:
What’s your source for pre-service/altar time music for you church?
Jason says
At our church, I use Rhapsody’s music service. I have a playlist that’s only about 10-15 songs, but I scour the new albums each week and when I add a song to the list, I remove the oldest one from it. That keeps it as fresh as possible. No ads – but it’s $10/month or something. Right now, we’re meeting in a school until June, and we don’t have internet access there, so I use my phone and Rhapsody’s caching feature to predownload music (so it doesn’t have to load on poor cell service) and I plug the phone into the mixer.
Phil Schneider says
That’s a pretty sweet little workflow you have there. I really like it.
How is Rhapsody’s song selection? I haven’t heard much about/from them in a long time. Do they get albums at the same time that iTunes does? How long have you used Rhapsody?
Jason says
I’ve been using them for years personally. Most albums are out on day one (tuesday releases). There have been a few that they seem to be missing, but in my opinion, I think they do a decent job with Christian music. I will check Newreleasetuesday.com for new Christian albums, and usually when I search for them on Rhapsody, they’re there. Matt Maher’s new album which released today is on there now, but David Thulin is not there yet, but they have a couple of his other albums, so maybe it’ll show up later. As I’m still discovering bands I’ve never previously heard of (I consider myself a newb at Christian music), I found Plumb and BridgeCity through the new releases sections when they released albums.
Phil Schneider says
Cool. Sounds like a definite option.
What would you say to an old-guy like me who likes to “own” the music? How do you kill that concern?
Jason says
I can completely relate to you on that point. I’ve gone back and forth on my feelings about it quite a bit. I’ve even cancelled Rhapsody a couple of times (when money was tight), but always ended up going back, because with my personal music collection, I’d pick up a song here or there, but I’d miss out on discovering new music, and having access to more music than I’d ever actually want to spend a ton of money on. I know over time, that my owned collection has grown, but it also has grown stale. My kids are now listening to a lot of the music that I do, so we just share the rhapsody account.
Phil Schneider says
Sounds good. Definitely a solid option. Thanks for the info, Jason.
Brandon Conn says
We use Spotify. We fork over the $10 a month to get rid of the ads and allow us access with a mobile device. Our band director is responsible for create a new playlist each week that coordinates with the series we are in.
Brandon Conn says
Also – spotify will allow you to make playlist available offline. Then there is no concern about a stream failing.
Phil Schneider says
That’s a neat feature. Is there any reason to choose one (Spotify or Rhapsody) over the other?
Brandon Conn says
I like that Spotify is streaming. I can access just about any song anytime anywhere. I could be wrong but I think you have to download rhapsody songs that expire if you don’t continue your account. Also, Spotify has great apps for discovering music (desktop version only).
The other thing I like is that it’s easy to share in Spotify. I share music easily with our band. They all use the free version of Spotify. Rhapsody doesn’t have a free version that I know of so less people are using it.
Phil Schneider says
Hmm. Good points.
Well, I have a lot to think about here.
Honestly, I thought more people would come forward as music purchasers. I’m a bit surprised that everyone is streaming.
Jason says
It really comes down to what fits your needs. We don’t have a band (Church of Christ), just a praise team, and I’m the do-it-all guy for a church of around 200 folks (not counting the kiddos).
Phil Schneider says
Does your praise team sing with a track playing in the background?
Jason says
No. Although we play upbeat music before and after service, our worship is exclusively a cappella.
Phil Schneider says
Wow! Was that a stylistic, cultural, theological, or strategic choice?
Jason says
It’s theological and, in my opinion, traditional with regards to our church. I grew up Pentecostal / Assembly, so I’m no stranger to bands (although small) in church. However, I grew fond of the a cappella worship, as it actually draws me deeper into the meaning of the songs, and in the right room, sounds incredible. We sing a 4-part harmony on each of our songs, and most of our songs are fairly modern.
Phil Schneider says
That’s really neat, Jason. I grew up in a small AG church with only a piano and organ, so I love big, rock n’ roll worship. Though, I feel like it go too big in the late 90’s, so there are times when artists like All Sons and Daughters, who have a really stripped down sound, appeal to me.
So cool.
Dave Roberts says
We use Spotify. I pay the $10.00 a month to be ad free. I like that I can create a playlist at my desk, and have it show up on my phone, iPad or whatever I happen to have connected to the sound system. It’s great. For $10.00…that is money well spent for the amount of music we play. It’s also cool to let students take over and create playlists, then I get a better glimpse into what they dig.
Phil Schneider says
Very cool, Dave. Love the idea of learning from the students. Fantastic.
Brandon Conn says
You can share playlist as well as search for others playlist (desktop only as of now). Very beneficial when your looking for specific music. Again – apps are huge on the desktop version. You can download things like billboard charts, top 10 list, lyrics, etc.
Phil Schneider says
Lyrics would be very helpful, as we often have our worship team try to learn the songs that we play before and after service.
Thanks for the info! I’m loving this conversation.
Seth Rowoldt says
Hey man, great post!
I/we use Spotify at my church for everything! From the pre-worship set to the post-worship set to what the Students use on different nights, to learning new music for sets coming up in the future. I love that it only costs $10/mo. Our finance person always asks me if this is really all that great (spending $10/mo) but I tell her, I used to spend about $100/mo on cds and random songs on itunes.
I do understand about not owning the song, but from what I’ve heard…even if you buy a song on itunes you don’t technically “own it” you just own the rights to play it as you wish.
I enjoy many of the features that Spotify has as previous users have mentioned.
– Create many unique set lists for different groups available offline
– Send out unique lists to people on my praise team for them to listen to (no longer do I have to burn CDs and waste time/resources on all that)
– Post a new song/playlist to the congregation on our facebook page and ask for input.
– Share playlists with other worship leaders, collaborate with other users about new/hip worship songs that they are using that are working. If you look back to March or so you can see a playlist I posted to churchmag for Lent.
– Play the setlist from my iphone, iPad or any other computer with Spotify on it. (my kids love listening to jazz while they eat dinner!)
Would love to know what you end up going with!
And please pay the $10/mo so you don’t have to hear the ads during a prayer again!
Phil Schneider says
I think I’m going to suggest going with Spotify.
I’ve been trying it personally, and I really like it. Take out the ads, and I’ll love it. The idea of being able to share a playlist really excites me.
As a minister, music really helps me “get” the ideas the Scripture presents. I’d love to able to share that with my students.
Thanks for the comment!