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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.com Partnership
Last September ShareSong.org (Marty Kendall in Brisbane, Australia) and
FreePraiseAndWorship.com (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.com 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 now have an
average of 150 visitors per day and still growing strong.
The ShareSong.org concept has had a positive response from the majority of
people that we have contacted.
"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
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 and spreading the word about this resource to churches and
worship leaders around the world.
We envisage that the traffic will continue to grow as worship leaders start
using the sites to help them put together their praise and worship services
each week.
Music Database
The key to ShareSong.org and FreePraiseAndWorship.com 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 the songs themselves
and then update and edit their information using a password.
Since launching the database three months ago it has already been populated
with over 140 songs! It's exciting to find so many song writers out there
with a vision of sharing their work with the International Christian
Community.
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 submit their songs. Thanks to Expressions Publishing,
RPJ Artists Group, Inside Out and WIAWOL for recently adding their material
to the 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 hence income that this will bring. It's encouraging just to
site and spend some time in the music database listening to the great new
music that people are writing and putting out there for the world to use!
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.
Songwriter Tips
We have recently updated the How to Submit page with a Songwriter FAQ, 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.
Statistics
The statistics page is up and running. Songwriters can now keep track of
how often their songs are being used.
The worship music top ten allows new users to sample some of the most
popular material.
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 or go to
http://www.egroups.com/group/sharesongwriters.
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 come along and pick up
where they have left off.
We hope that this will help build an encouraging community of song writers
with a vision to serve the International Christian Community.
Where to from here?
We are excited about the future of this project and believe that God is
blessing the vision abundantly. We are aiming to have 1000 songs in the
database by the end of 2001 with 2000 hits per day.
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.com
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