The Free Christian Music Blog

Project Rotterdam: It’s Here!

You’ve been waiting patiently for a long time, and now, it’s here.  Project Rotterdam.

It all started late last spring, when I first heard that Yahoo’s free web-hosting service, GeoCities, was closing it’s doors.  Among the many websites that called GeoCities home was a Christian music website called CCM Singles, home to the biggest list of free Christian music available online anywhere.  Stephen (the site’s owner) and I have had a long history of friendly competition, since we were basically in the same business, the only difference being TFCMB is a blog, while CCM Singles was a website.

After Yahoo announced that they were ending GeoCities, and thereby dooming the old CCM Singles website to deletion, I decided to make Stephen a win/win offer – I’d back-up the old website and host it as a permanent archive on TFCMB, in return for linking to the new home of CCM Singles, @ccmsingles on Twitter (where, I might add, it’s still going strong).  He accepted, and I got to work.  Project Rotterdam was born.

It turned out to be a somewhat bigger project then I had anticipated, and I haven’t had the time I was hoping to dedicate to it, but I’ve gotten enough of the site moved now that I’m ready to unveil it to the world.  It’s not nearly complete, and they’ll be plenty of broken links for a while, but it’s there.

Besides the extensive free music list, there’s also a list of online Christian radio stations, a list of recent Christian radio singles, my personal favorite, a list of Christian music videos that available to watch online, and an impressive artist database.  Like I said, it’s not all there yet, so please be patient with it, but I hope it’s something that you’ll find useful – I know I will.    Enjoy!

-The CCMSingles Archive on TFCMB-

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Announcing The 2009 Free Christian Music Awards Winners

It’s time!  The votes are all in, and it’s time to announce the winners in the first annual Free Christian Music Awards!  You helped picked the nominees, and you voted on the winners – so read on to find out how your favorites did!

Free Song of the Year:

1. Switchfoot – “Mess of Me”
2. Owl City – “Fireflies”
3. Tie: Thousand Foot Krutch – “Bring Me to Life” / Relient K – “Forget and Not Slow Down”

With 41% of the vote, Switchfoot is clear winner in free song of the year, which really isn’t a surprise – Switchfoot’s dedicated fans gave “Mess of Me” a lead from the start, and the fact that it was a radio smash for the band didn’t hurt any.  Taking second place with 34% of the vote, Owl City’s wonderfully-popular “Fireflies”, followed by a surprise tie for third between Thousand Foot Krutch & Relient K.

Free Album of the Year:

1. We Shot The Moon – “Fear and Love”
2. Esterlyn – “Lamps”
3. MercyMe – “10 Live”

The award for “Free Album of the Year” was the closest of all the races this year, with We Shot The Moon’s Fear and Love beating Esterlyn’s Lamps for the title by only 1%, and MercyMe’s digital-only live album 10 Live only 3% behind Esterlyn for a respectable third place finish.

Free Christmas Song of the Year:

1. Relient K – “I Celebrate the Day”
2. Thousand Foot Krutch – “Jingle Bell Rock”
3. TobyMac – “This Christmas”

Relient K may have tied for third for “Free Song of the Year”, but they dominated “Free Christmas Song of the Year” from the start, with “I Celebrate the Day” finishing with 1/3 of the vote.  Not far behind, with 22%, Thousand Foot Krutch’s rocking rendition of “Jingle Bell Rock” takes second place, and TobyMac’s “This Christmas” takes third.

Free EP of the Year:

1. House of Heroes – “The End Is Not The End EP”
2. B.Reith – “The B.Reith EP”
3. Esterlyn – “Mending The Meaning EP”

2009 was a good year to be House of Heroes – not only was their The End Is Not The End EP the undisputed winner of “Free EP of the Year” with a whopping 49% of the vote, but the same EP was also the most-nominated of any of the songs or albums in the running.  B.Reith picks up a strong second place finish with 25% of the vote, followed by Esterlyn at third with 20%.

Free Sampler/Compilation of the Year:

1. Tooth & Nail Records – “Fuel Sampler 2009″
2. Huntington University – “Picks”
3. Creation Festival – “Creation Festival 2009 iTunes Sampler”

Taking first place in the coveted “Free Sampler/Compilation of the Year” category by a wide margin is the 2009 version of Tooth & Nail Record’s Fuel sampler, with the underdog and my personal favorite, Huntington University’s free compilation Picks taking second place, followed by Creation Festival’s 2009 iTunes sampler in third.

Most Giving Artist of 2009:

1. House of Heroes
2. Esterlyn
3. MercyMe

“Most Giving Artist of 2009″ is a special category – rather then being nominated by fans, those in the running earned a spot by being exceptionally generous with free music this year.  In an impressive (and much deserved) second #1 victory, the title goes to House of Heroes, with Esterlyn in second, and MercyMe taking rounding out the category in third.

Well, that’s it for this year – what are your thought on the results?  I don’t know about you, but I’m sure looking forward to seeing what’s in store for 2010.  Also, if you’d like to see the full results of the voting, feel free to check out this page for a full list of nominees & how they did.

Tags: B. Reith, Esterlyn, House of Heroes, MercyMe, Owl City, Relient K, Switchfoot, Thousand Foot Krutch, TobyMac, We Shot the Moon

Merry Christmas!

Well, it’s finally here:  Christmas Eve.  I’m going to be taking the rest of today and tomorrow off, to celebrate, unless I should happen upon something so amazing I just have to post about it.  That said, have a very merry, wonderful Christmas, and remember that the same Jesus that was born in that stable, over two thousand years ago is the same one who loves you know, and will never let you go.

God bless, and merry Christmas!

-Matt

Voting for the 2009 Free Christian Music Awards Is Live!

I’m happy to announce that voting for the first annual Free Christian Music Awards is now live!  Show some support for your favorite free song, album, EP, & Christmas song of 2009.  But wait!  There’s more!  Just like those cheesy reality shows, there’s one more twist in this game:  A surprise final category, the “Most Giving Artist of 2009″.  There’s only five artists in the running, who have earned a spot there by being extraordinarily generous this year.  It’s a pretty high honor, and I expect some fierce competition there, and in all of the categories, really.  It’s underdogs vs. the heavy hitters in a battle royale, and only you can decide the outcome.  So what are you waiting for?

-Vote! in the 2009 Free Christian Music Awards-

The 2009 Free Christian Music People’s Choice Awards

I’ve got some big news to announce tonight… for the first time, The Free Christian Music Blog is going to be hosting what I’m calling the Free Christian Music Awards.  Basically, we’re going to pick the best free song of 2009, the best free Christmas song of 2009, the best free full album of 2009, the best free EP of 2009, and the best free sampler/compilation of 2009.

Now, since there’s been so much amazing music given away this past year, there’s no way I Josh, Ansley, James, and I could ever agree on just one favorite – so I’m going to let you decide.  Between now and the end of the year, you, the readers of TFCMB, are going to select five champions outs of the hundreds of possibly options to award the title of 2009 Free Christian Music People’s Choice Award winners.

Here’s how it’s going to go down:  For one week, starting today, I will be taking nominations for each of the categories.  For a song/album/sampler to get into the voting round, it will have to be nominated by at least 4 different people.  Next Monday, I’ll post polls for each of the categories and it’ll be up to we the people to decide a winner.  On January 1st, 2010, I’ll tabulate the votes, and announce the winners.

Now, for more details:  Nominations will be accepted through comments on this post, email, Twitter, Facebook, and smoke signals (or any other feasible way of contacting me).  You can make as many nominations as you’d like, in any or all of the categories.

To be nominated, the song/album/sampler has to meet 2 simple criteria:  It has to have been released for free sometime in 2009, and it has to be by a Christian artist, or a Christian in the mainstream.  It doesn’t necessarily need to be something featured on TFCMB in the last year, since I haven’t been able to cover all of the available downloads, just so long as it was freely available to the public at some point in time this last year.

I think that should cover the details, and to kick things off, I’d like to officially nominate some of my favorites:

For “Free Song of 2009″:

• Owl City – “Hot Air Balloon”
• Relient K – “Forget and Not Slow Down”
• Tenth Avenue North – “Hold My Heart”
• Tenth Avenue North – “By Your Side”
• The Fold – “Faster Still”
• Anberlin – “Breaking”
• The Great Transparency – “Run for It”
• Owl City – “Fireflies”
• Seabird – “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful”

For “Free Christmas Song of 2009″:

• Relient K – “I Celebrate the Day”

For “Free Album of 2009″:

• VOTA – “Special Edition Digital Album“
• We Shot the Moon – “Fear & Love“

For “Free EP of 2009″:

• House of Heroes – “The End Is Not The End EP“
• Jonathan Steingard – “NineteenEightyThree EP”

And for “Free Sampler/Compliation of 2009″:

• Huntington University – “Picks“
• Creation Festival – “Creation Fest iTunes Sampler“

Of course, that’s just (a few of) my personal favorites – I’m sure everyone reading this right now has a list at least as long.  So what are you waiting for?  Go show your support and nominate your favorites now, and check back next week to see who made it into the next round!

Breaking TFCMB News? I Think So!

And no, this isn’t the unveiling of “Project: Rotterdam” (check the new TFCMB Twitter account for details on that!)  My announcement tonight is actually far less grand then that, but still fairly exciting.

As it is, I am happy to announce that as of this afternoon, there’s now a way to find blogs by other TFCMB readers, through the new TFCMB Blogroll!  It’s pretty short at the moment (okay, so there’s just 1 link…) but that will soon change.  If you’ve got a blog, and don’t mind linking to me, just shoot me an email or leave a comment and I’ll get your blog link added.  You can find the link under the “Links” category, or you can just click the link below.

-The TFCMB Blogroll-

Either way, I’m hoping to find some good blogs through this, and you might too.  Anyway, you can check that out if you want, and even if you don’t, you can look for some really great free music on it’s way sometime soon.  Trust me, it’s good. 

Capital Lights Farewell Party: A Recap

Wow, it’s hard to believe it was over a week ago now that Capital Lights announced that they were breaking up, and I randomly announced the first (and last…) Capital Lights farewell party. You can get the full details on the original post, here, but in a nutshell, basically, myself, and dozens of dedicated Capital Lights fans decided to give the band a worthy send out by voting them to #1 on several different radio & TV shows.  A week later, I’m sure most of the people who participated are a little curious how well we did.  So…

First, the bad news.  Due to various factors, I’m not sure how well Capital Lights did on either TVU’s TMW or Steelroot’s Countdown.  (If you know, please let me know!)

There is good news though.  On RadioU’s Ten Most Wanted, we drove Capital Lights’ song “Return” to number ONE on Friday, and not only that, we kept in the countdown for a couple of days afterwards.  That’s fantastic!  I’m really stoked about that.  If you were one of the ones who participated, go give yourself a pat on the back – you did good kid.    Really, everything went remarkably well.  At this point, I think the final step is to be praying for the different members of Capital Lights as they follow God’s plan for all of their individual lives, whatever that maybe.

Again, thanks everyone who participated, we rocked. 

Tags: Capital Lights

Poll Results: Which New 2009 Release Are You Most Looking Forward To?

As you’ve probably seen, we’ve been running a poll here at The Free Christian Music Blog.  I’ve been asking which new 2009 album you’re most excited about, and 383 people have voiced their opinion.  You can see the results below:

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As you can see, Switchfoot was the big winner with 37% of the vote, leading Skillet by a huge amount (Skillet got 11%).  After that, Relient K’s “Forget And Not Slow Down” with 7%, and Thousand Foot Krutch’s “Welcome To The Masquerade” with 5%.  After that, the remaining 30 albums all had between 0% and 4%, all except for Fee.  For some odd reason, poor Fee got -4%.  I have no idea what happened there…

Anyway, if you voted, thank you!  I find the results fascinating.  What do you think about the final tally?  Leave a comment and let me know! 

Finale Explained (And The Hunt Unveiled)

I know a lot of you are pretty curious about the password-protected post mysteriously entitled “Finale” that showed up in your inboxes and RSS readers a few days ago.  I really did deserve all the emails/direct messages/comments, since I meant to write this explanation right after that post, but I didn’t get around to it.  Hopefully, this will clear up some confusion.

First things first, (or should I say last things first?) the “Finale” post is part of contest I started a few weeks ago on the TFCMB Facebook page.  As the name indicates, the post is the last stop in the contest (which I’m calling a scavenger hunt).  It originally started on Facebook, but since there’s so much interest here, I’m going to open it up to anyone.  You won’t have as much time to finish as the Facebook people, but if you work at it, I bet you can get through.

Anyway, the quest will take you through both the blog and several different social sites, as you follow clues hidden all over the place to more clues, lots of free music (since this is The Free Christian Music Blog) and ultimately, you’ll discover the password for “Finale”.  You might even win a free copy of This Beautiful Republic’s new CD Perceptions…

The first clue, from Facebook.  Please pardon my design skills: 

Also, if you’ve been following the hunt since the start, but had trouble with the final password, you might want to retry that.  I had a bit of an issue with different parts of the password, but it’s all straighten out now.  If you need too, refer back to the second to last page and double check your answers.

I think that’s everything cover, except the most important thing:  have fun!  I had a blast setting this up, and hopefully, you’ll enjoy it too. 

Update: The scavenger hunt has been taken down, and I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who participated!  Maybe we’ll do this again sometime…

Protected: Finale!