Contemporary Christian music has the power to educate and inspire. Music, of the Christian variety or any other variety, has the power to inspire emotions, to transport memories in time, and to make us thankful for the blessings in our life. The truth is that there are many biblical lessons that people have learned and remember thanks to the gospel songs that they heard in their youth. Today, young and old alike are still learning and being inspired by Christian music. No matter if you prefer traditional Christian music or upbeat Christian rock, there is an artist out there who will send chills down your spine with their heartfelt lyrics.
The internet has made it possible to download a vast amount of music free of charge. There are literally millions of Christian songs in every language imaginable available online. All you have to do to find your favorite music by your favorite artists is to type a few keywords into a search box and Voila! You may find hundreds of sources for your Christian music in seconds.
The inexpensive marketing power of the internet has also made it possible for thousands of unknown artists to gain exposure. These are artists that do not have the capital and the record deal to thrust them into the limelight. These are instead artists who only have their heart, passion and talent to put into their music. And you can find all of these artists as well as popular artists online.
Unfortunately, though, much of the free music that you find online cannot be downloaded legally. It is subject to copyright, and there are stiff consequences for anyone who is caught illegally downloading and distributing music that belongs to others. If you do find music that you can download legally, it is often riddled with viruses, adware and spyware. Downloading music free of charge also poses ethical concerns for Christians who want to be sure that they only download legal music.
Thankfully, I found a site that takes away all the worries when it comes to downloading free Christian music. It features free “indie” music. This is music that is independent of the control of others, meaning that there are no record labels or producers involved. The site is not a melting pot where anyone, regardless of talent or motivation, can post their music. There are selective guidelines in place that ensure that the free music featured on the site is of the highest quality and absolutely legal.
While some of the artists are not well known, they have made it their life’s mission to produce music that inspires Christians. They may not have the backing of a record label, but they have talent and faith that can move mountains. The site can be accessed by logging onto ChristianMPFree.com.
Forget 99% of the articles out there that are telling you what you need for starting your very own internet based radio station. I’m here to let you know that you can cut your budget by almost 99% by not listening to most of the articles that exist on the web today.
I just has an article about my streaming radio station in the local paper and when the reporter ask how to start an internet radio station I was torn between a couple of answers. Do I lengthen the story and add a few thousand dollars to the budget just to scare away potential competition? Or do I tell the reporter just how easy is actually is, and deal with a few more station on the internet that could potentially steal listeners from me? I chose to tell the reporter exactly what I though was right. I chose to tell him exactly how easy setting up your very own radio station is.
When I started to research what it took to set up a streaming radio station, It was staggering how many articles are out there that told me that I needed thousands of dollars and a web hosting account that would cost an extra 400 to 500 hundred dollars a month to handle the bandwidth and copyrighting issues of running an internet radio station. I actually became quite angry after I had gone through most of the set up of my own station. I realised that a lot of the articles out there were written by people who just wanted to sound smart, simply copied and pasted another articles and had no clue what it took, and the creme de la creme were the people who wrote articles just to scare people out of creating a station because they couldn’t handle the competition. So, the number one item on the list of important things to do before you start you own streaming radio station? Research, and lots of it.
I quite literally have another window open on my screen as I write this because I want to list out what the author of the other article wants you to buy in order to start your own streaming station. Ready?
Among places to download music from there are safe and unsafe options. The reason why harmful and risky sites are still attracting visitors is free stuff. People do get tempted by free latest music for their players, forgetting or choosing to ignore the aspect of security. Many are under the wrong impression that to download music legally and safely is always too expensive.
While it is true that free legal music is a rarity on the Net and one has to pay for great quality and decent service, how much you will pay is really depends on you. In other words, if you do not want to overpay, you do not have to. It is all about choosing the right place to download music.
Here are the main variants of legal and safe music websites the Internet has to offer:
1. Pay-Per-Track Websites
Almost all official music selling websites operate on a pay-per-track basis, meaning that each song has to be bought separately. No subscription or registration fee is taken. iTunes Store, Rhapsody and Amazon are some examples. While paying for each download allows flexibility, it is not that advantageous for bulk downloads considering their total sum.
2. Monthly Subscription Websites
Some of the pay-per-download sites as well as a few other large music sites, like Napster, have an alternative to paying for every song. At a set fee, taken each month, you are given access to unlimited downloads. A great way to save, as it might seem, it is not always that great in fact. In order to keep the downloaded tracks, you have to continue the subscription – if you do not, all the songs you downloaded become unplayable.
3. Free Websites
Quire rare, free legal music is actually also available on the Net. Such places to download music are safe, but usually have a very limited choice. No latest hits from big banners can be found here – rather aspiring musicians, independent bands and some of the all-time favorites. Music styles that are not so popular might dominate. However, if you do not mind the off-beat track, such sites can really enrich your collection.
4. Free Sections of Paid Websites
Many people simply do not think about these as places to download music from. But why not? Be it Amazon or Napster, they feature free download section in the main paid website, and the best thing is that the song selection, though limited, changes regularly. So, frequent checking for free stuff can help you get a few nice tracks completely free.
5. Unlimited Download Websites
Somewhat similar to subscription websites, places for unlimited downloads take a set fee, but once and for a lifetime. No scary price-tags here – the fee is a modest two-digit figure (anything more is a rip-off to steer clear of). After the fee is taken, there is no count of the number of songs you download, no restrictions, no extra charges.
You can find links to some of the greatest places to download music on my blog.
In a typical multi-level marketing or network marketing arrangement, individuals associate with a parent company as an independent contractor and are compensated based on their sales of products or service, as well as the sales achieved by those they bring into the business.
In a legitimate MLM company, commissions are earned only on sales of the company’s products. No money may be earned from recruiting alone (“sign-up fees”). Some, less legitimate, companies produce revenues primarily by attracting new participants or selling them marketing services, as opposed to selling actual products. One must analyze the compensation plan to determine whether participants are paid from actual sales to customers and not from new-recruit bonuses or business support sales. – source (wikipedia on MLMs).
Initially, Burnlounge seems like a wonderful revolution in the music industry. Through my own internet surfing I have run across countless people with their own “Burnlounge Stores” and thought nothing of it!
In case you aren’t familiar with it, Burnlounge is a company that allows users to set up a digital music store. You sign up under one of three different levels for a set up fee along with monthly fees. At the bottom you get the chance to set up your own store within the site where people purchase digital music from you that you choose to carry, and you get a commission from these sales. At the top level, not only do you get this, but also the ability to recruit (and earn a bonus from recruiting) others to open their own burnlounge store. They themselves are also able to recruit in the typical MLM setup. You get bonuses from everyone signing up as well as a commission from both yours and their sales.
This is a “legal pyramid/MLM”. Unlike the common misconception that all pyramids are illegal, pyramid companies only become illegal when they break the FTC’s rules. These rules are set up to make sure that the majority of profits come from the product and not the recruiting. Even calling them illegal at that point is misleading. It simply means the FTC can take action to shut them down. Looking at the digital music marketplace you will see that Apple selling mp3s for the same price as Burnlounge proposes barely breaks even, with a large market share. Burnlounge store owners can’t compete with that large market share, and the immediate conclusion is that those who come in at the higher subscription levels stand to gain much of their profits from the recruitment of others.
This should be a red flag to anyone who has considered working with this company. Leaving the merits or lack thereof of MLM as a business model, you can see that Burnlounge is on the seedier side of such companies. They seem to be walking the line of FTC rules while using recruiting that appeals to a young and sometimes naive audience. Their banners say “Wanna be in the Music Industry?” when owning such a store is nothing of the sort.
There are many other resources for musicians to get their music out there, and for fans to feel a part of things. If you are looking to do that, ignore Burnlounge and keep looking.
It’s not often that you can save