January Newsletter
The purpose of this newsletter is to update you on what ShareSong.org has been doing to facilitate distribution of praise and worship music freely on the Internet, and to let you know about the exciting things that we have planned for the New Year.
This document is best viewed (with graphics, graphs & hyperlinks) at http://sharesong.org/newsletter.htm
ShareSong.org and FreePraiseAndWorship Partnership
Last September ShareSong.org (Marty Kendall in Brisbane, Australia) and FreePraiseAndWorship.org (Russ Reese in the Idaho, US) joined forces after realising that they shared a common vision.
The two sites share the same database but will continue to operate separately, and cater for slightly different audiences - ShareSong.org will focus on praise and worship music, while FreePraiseandWorship.org plans to branch out into other areas of worship ministry support in the future.
Site Traffic
There is a significant audience of people out there looking for praise and worship music on the Internet! In the six months that ShareSong.org has been launched, the site has experienced exponential growth. We are now seeing an average of 150 unique visitors coming to the site each day.
According to and article in the December 22 edition of USA Today, 81% of churches are getting online to find worship resources. We believe that it is only a matter of time before the praise and worship music follows the trend of the secular music market, with the Internet quickly becoming the primary source for music distribution. As this continues to happen, ShareSong.org will be in a strategic place to serve the International Christian Community.
To date, we've been concentrating on promoting the site to song writers who may want to have their work included on ShareSong.org. Once we have a substantial number of songs in the database, we plan to make a major assault on the search engines as well as spreading the word about ShareSong.org to churches and worship leaders.
We
envisage that the traffic will continue to grow as worship leaders start
using the site to help them put together their praise and worship services
each week.
We have been very encouraged by the positive response from the majority of people that we have contacted so far.
"I have been hoping and praying that a third party (i.e. someone outside a record label) would start such a site. Worship leaders need a reliable, unbiased source of praise and worship music without constantly having to pay for everything - chord sheets, leadsheets, etc." Paul Borderkircher of RPJ Artistists Group
Music Database
The key to ShareSong.org and 63.166.76.229 is the worship music database which allows the user to search for songs by keywords to find the right song for any occasion. Song Owners can upload songs themselves and then update and edit their information using a secure password.
Since launching the database three months ago it has already been populated with over 160 songs! It's encouraging just to spend some time listening to the great new music that people are writing and putting out there for the world to use!
We are progressively adding chord charts for well known public domain songs, as well as contacting the administrators of various CCLI catalogues to see if they would like to have their songs included in the ShareSong.org database.
We aim to populate the database with both new and well know songs so that
a worship leader can download everything they need for a worship service
with one visit to the site.
A growing number of songwriters are seeing the advantage of free distribution to an international audience, and the corresponding CCLI reportage and income that this represents.
Songwriter Tips
We have recently updated the How to Submit page with a Songwriter FAQ and a step by step explanation of how to use the free program GhostScript to publish sheet music in .pdf (portable document format). We have also added more tips on how to prepare digital audio files for publication on the internet. Songwriters who have published their work on mp3.com are finding that ShareSong.org is an ideal place to host their sheet music files and further increase the distribution of the work that they have invested so much in preparing.
Statistics
The statistics page has been up and running. Songwriters can now keep track of how often their songs are being used. Since we started tracking the downloads from the database on 20 December there have been over 1000 downloads of the various resources on the site. The worship music top ten now allows new users to sample some of the most popular material before plunging into the rest of the songs on the database.
Set Builder
The set builder tool allows users to select a bundle of songs that they like (after previewing the real audio files and sheet music) in a zip file along with the CCLI form ready to print and submit.
Facilitating Collaboration
We
would really like to see ShareSong.org not only be a method of distribution
of praise and worship music, but also as meeting place for a group of
like minded people who will encourage each other as well as collaborate
to create more great music.
To help facilitate this we have started a new discussion list where song writers can discuss the songs that they are working on and find other people to collaborate with them. To join the Song Writers list simply send and email to sharesongwriters-subscribe@egroups.com.
The
list also includes a Notice Board (http://www.egroups.com/files/sharesongwriters/)
where songwriters can post lyrics or unfinished songs and have other people
pick up where they have left off. We hope that this will help
build an encouraging a virtual community of songwriters with a vision
to serve the International Christian Community with their God-given musical
talents.
Where to from here?
We
are excited about the future of this project and believe that God is blessing
the vision abundantly.
ShareSong.org
is a not-for-profit volunteer project, the potential of which is limited
only by the number of people who are able to give of their time. We would
appreciate it if you could spread the word to people who might be interested
in sharing the praise and worship music that they have written.
We
also need feedback to help us continue to make the sites more suited to
the needs of songwriters and worship leaders. If you have any suggestions
on how you think we could improve the sites please don’t hesitate to let
us know.
And
finally, please pray that God would continue to bless this project and
that we will hear his voice when he speaks.
Blessings
in Him.
Marty
Kendall & Russ Reese
ShareSong.org & FreePraiseAndWorship.org
