B. Reith
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:
- Switchfoot – “Mess of Me”
- Owl City – “Fireflies”
- 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:
- We Shot The Moon – “Fear and Love”
- Esterlyn – “Lamps”
- 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:
- Relient K – “I Celebrate the Day”
- Thousand Foot Krutch – “Jingle Bell Rock”
- 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:
- House of Heroes – “The End Is Not The End EP”
- B.Reith – “The B.Reith EP”
- 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:
- Tooth & Nail Records – “Fuel Sampler 2009″
- Huntington University – “Picks”
- 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:
- House of Heroes
- Esterlyn
- 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.
Hip-Hop Holiday
Free music today from approximately 10 Christian hip-hop/rap artists, courtesy of HearItFirst.com. It’s part of a Christmas promotion Hear It First is running, called “Hip-Hop Holiday”. Basically, it’s a collection of 10 Christian rap artists, both well know and not so well know, with free mp3 downloads for eight of the ten. Here’s the list:
- B.Reith – “Go On”
- Cross Movement – “Wisemen”
- Benjiman – “Eh Oh”
- John Reuben – “No Be Nah”
- Monty G – “My Hood to Your Hood (Feat. Canton Jones)”
- Aaron Sledge – “Extra Mile”
- Only Won – “Searchin’”
- Xross – “Y U Runnin’”
Just like HearItFirst’s Rocktober promotion, the download links are on each artist’s profiles, which can easily access from the main promotion page. I’d recommend John Reuben’s track in particular if you haven’t gotten it yet, it’s quite good. Anyway, check them out, and enjoy!
Free Sampler from Creation Festival: The Tour
Some of you may have already gotten this, but if you haven’t, you’re going to want to. Why? Because it has 10 free songs, from some really amazing artists. How amazing? Check this list:
- Jars of Clay – “Two Hands”
- Thousand Foot Krutch – “The Flame In All Of Us”
- This Beautiful Republic – “Beautifully Broken”
- B.Reith – “Go On”
- Bluetree – “Life’s Noise”
- Vota – “I’ll Go”
- Jonny Diaz – “Stand for You”
- Kathryn Scott – “I Belong”
- Don Poythress – “Fill Me Up”
- Brian Doerksen – “Broken & Beautiful”
To download the songs, visit the Creation Festival website and enter your email address, after which they’ll email you the information to get the songs from iTunes. Since their from iTunes, they songs will be come complete with the correct album information & high quality artwork, and since they aren’t protected files, you can convert them to play on your non-Apple mp3 player, definitely a nice feature. And to top it off, it’s free! Doesn’t get much better then that. 
The Weekly Downloads: Oct. 6 – Oct. 12
Welcome to another week of free downloads from all of usual suspects – iTickets, NewReleaseTuesday, Tangle, and Gospel Music Channel – this week, there’s about twice as much music as normal, thanks to Gotee Records – but more on that in a bit.
First up this week, Tangle.com is featuring Mandisa’s song “He Is With You” on their homepage. It’s from Mandisa’s sophomore album Freedom, and the soundtrack to Mandisa’s second music video, which you can watch here
Also free this week is a brand new Christmas song from Chris Tomlin, courtesy of Gospel Music Channel. It’s called “Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground)”, from Chris’s new album Glory in the Highest, which came out two days ago on Oct. 6. Incidentally, that’s the same release date as Downhere & Family Force 5′s Christmas albums. Anyway, it’s never to early to start collecting Christmas music, and this is a pretty good place to start.
-Christ Tomlin’s “Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground)” on GMC-
Besides that, last week, Gospel Music Channel had pretty cool song that’s still available. It’s “It Is Your Grace”, by Andreas Sandlund. If the name sounds familiar, there’s a good reason – I was privileged to feature his song “We’re Miles Away” on TFCMB last January, and I’m really excited to see him getting some major attention. Definitely check this one out!
-Andreas Sandlund’s “It Is Your Grace” on GMC-
iTickets also has several free downloads this week, from COS, Relient K, and Paul Wright. Now, Relient K shouldn’t need much introduction, nor should Paul Wright, but COS doesn’t have the advantage of being famous, at least not yet. Basically, “Your Will” is a super-stripped down worship song, it’s barely acoustic, and actually sounds quite good. Worth checking out.
This post is getting long… and I’m only about half way. Seriously, this is a big week – and the biggest batch of downloads of from NewReleaseTuesday.com. They have a whopping 8 downloads this week, seven of whom are Gotee Records artists. The listing:
- Relient K – “The Lining Is Silver”
- B.Reith – “Mess”
- House of Heroes – “In The Valley of the Dying Sun”
- Abandon Kansas – “I Wonder If It’s Me”
- Ayeisha Woods – “Transparent”
- Stephanie Smith – “Not Afraid”
- I Am Terrified – “Falling On Everlasting”
And hanging on from last week, an excellent song from non-Gotee artist Matt Maher called “Alive Again”. I’ve already gotten all 8 songs free from other sites, but if you’re missing all or any, this is a great opportunity to download them, for free.
-New Release Tuesday’s Free Music Page-
Augh! I just keep finding more music… ah, it’s hard to complain about that. You can also get three free songs from Michael W. Smith, Matt Maher (once again!), and Phil Stacey at this link:
And you can download three songs from Matt Papa, Jason Gray, and High Valley at OnCourse. Bottom right of the page, follow the instructions there.
And that wraps up the weekly downloads for this week, so till next week, this is Matt signing off.
The B.Reith EP
If you’ve been following The Free Christian Music Blog for long, you’ve probably heard of B.Reith – one of Gotee Records latest talented new artists. His first full length album, Now Is Not Fovever, hit stores yesterday, and to help promote the new CD, Gotee is giving away a free EP featuring two new songs, “The Comeback Kid” and “Wish That”, plus the two most popular songs from B.Reith’s previous EP (The Forecast), “Go On” and “Mess”.
“Go On” was the big hit from The Forecast, and debatable B.Reith’s most recognizable songs, plus it’s been given away on numerous free music websites, so it’s no surprise to it included on the EP, but it works out quite nicely. “Go On” is about B.Reith’s struggles to break into the music biz, and one of the two new songs, “The Comeback Kid”, is a continuation of that – He’s no longer “that guy from the seventies show”, all while raising the bar musically. It’s probably my new favorite B.Reith song. As for the other half of the EP, both “Mess” and “Wish That” are more laid back, jazzy jams, funky, but good.
Alright – the download details. You can download the all four tracks from AmazonMp3, plus the exclusive high-resolution cover art. All around, I’d say the EP is definitely worth downloading, especially at the price. 
-Now, AmazonMp3 is only available if you live in the USA, so if you happen to be outside of that, I’m afraid that you won’t be able to download the EP – however, you can download “Go On” from Gotee.com and “Mess” from iTickets this week. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen either “The Comeback Kid” or “Wish That” free, but I’ll keep you posted.
Free Tracks from Laura Story, Mission Six, Revive, & B. Reith
Free music today from four differnet artists on two different sites. FreeCCM just added a new song from Laura Story called “Immortal, Invisible” from her debut Great God Who Saves. You might have heard her rendition of “Mighty to Save” on the radio if you listen to much CCM. It’s a pretty popular song. Anyway, “Immortal, Invisible” is a good praise & worship song from Laura. I’m not 100% sure, but I think I’m picking up some banjo on the track. Maybe it’s just me, but I do think the song has a bit of a folky feel. Check it out:
The other three songs are from iTickets (as usual… ). They’ve got B. Reith’s “Mess”, which has an almost urban feel to it, “Superhero” by Mission Six, for fans of tween pop, and new artist Revive’s “Chorus of the Saints”. I haven’t heard anything from Revive before, but I have a couple of friends who are really excited for their CD, so I’m sure it’ll be worthwhile. Plus, it’s free. What do you have to lose?
Free Songs from Kari Jobe, B. Reith, & Connersvine
iTicket’s updates their free music page tonight, so thanks to my forgetfulness, you’ve got just a few hours to download this week’s songs. Sorry, I should have written this up last week. 
For a little while, anyway, you can download B. Reith’s “Go On”, Connersvine’s “Glory Be”, and new artist Kari Jobe’s “Revelation Song”. The amazing people at Integrity Music were nice enough to send me a copy of Kari’s new CD, and it’s really good. She has a beautiful voice, plus she’s a good songwriter. Definitely worth checking out.
Again, sorry I’m cutting this so close. I’ll try to make be a bit more timely next time. Also, if you’re on Twitter, you might want to follow @itickets. Then you’ll be sure to to catch all of the free downloads.
Free Music from Gotee Records
I’ve got some sweet downloads today from a whole slew of artists on Gotee Records. Gotee.com just got a whole new free download section of the site. They actually added the new features a week or two ago, but because of technical issues, no one was able to sign in to download the songs.
Thankfully, they were able to find and fix the problem and now, all 8 downloads should work just fine. They actually have one download from every artist on Gotee (Relient K, I Am Terrified, House of Heroes, John Reuben, etc) except for Flynn Adam, who just signed.
The cool part is that you can use the same email and password from FreeGotee.com on Gotee.com – very convient. Plus, it’s free music, and almost all of it is extremely good. What do you have to lose?
Do you like The Free Christian Music Blog? Let your friends on Facebook know about it by “liking” the site!
Search TFCMB:
Visit the CCM Singles Archive here on The Free Christian Music Blog for music videos, radio singles, and more free music, plus even more!Categories
The Free Christian Music Blog on:
Popular Posts
- Newsboys "Born Again" Free Download 14 comment(s)
- Free The Letter Black Song 0 comment(s)
- Free Discovery Download from Beckah Shae 2 comment(s)
- Free Facedown Records Summer Sampler 3 comment(s)
- Phil Wickham "Singalong" Free Download 12 comment(s)
- Free Sampler from Bruegger's 0 comment(s)
- Site Review: Guvera 35 comment(s)
Archives
Recent Comments
- Reeves Smoak on Stars Go Dim
- Jessseee on Site Review: Guvera
- Matt on Site Review: Guvera
- Todd Labbe on Site Review: Guvera
- Amanda on Site Review: Guvera