The Free Christian Music Blog

Site Review: Guvera

I don’t normally review music websites (the last one I did was for the now defunct SpiralFrog, back in early 2008), but new website Guvera has too much going for it to ignore, especially since Guvera succeeds just about everywhere SpiralFrog failed.  I’ve been using the site for a month or two now, and I’ve been loving it too much not so say anything about it here.

Basically, Guvera is a music store that allows members to download any song they like from the site’s extensive catalog for free.  It’s a simple idea, really – you search and find a song you want to download, then click the “Download” button.  You’re then presented with a list of advertisers.  Pick one that offering a free download, and you’re taken to a promotional page where you can stream the song for free, and download it if you like, and that’s it.  Your song downloads right away, with no additional hoops.  To sweeten the deal, the songs I’ve gotten have been in 256 kbs DRM-free .mp3 files, which seems to be standard.  That’s equal or superior audio quality then most other music stores.

Of course, you can only get free downloads if there’s advertisers will to pay for it, which is the biggest restriction on the site.  The number of available downloads changes regularly (at the moment, I’ve got six free downloads available, a high for me – usually it’s between zero and two.)  When you sign up, you’re also required to fill out a short questionnaire about your interests to help Guvera match advertisers with you.  Still, considering that every single song you get is completely free, Guvera makes a fantastic alternative to iTunes for individual songs.

Guvera has an impressive song library as well – they’ve got a huge chunk of Tooth & Nail Record’s discography, including Solid State and BEC Records, from Aaron Sprinkle and Falling Up to Demon Hunter and Project 86, plus songs from the Happy Christmas and X series’.  They’ve got plenty of non-Nail artists as well, including Lifehouse, Amy Grant, Above the Golden State, David Crowder*Band, TobyMac, Chris Tomlin, Josh Wilson, Sanctus Real, Flyleaf, Newsboys, Paper Tongues, Switchfoot, 12 Stones, and The Rocket Summer, just to name a few.  To put it simply, there’s something for just about everybody.

In closing – I honestly can’t think of a single good reason not to sign up.  Between the selection, and the simplicity, Guvera just might be the best site for free music out there.  (Notice I said site – not blog.)    It’s just that good, and what few cons there are are easily outnumbered by the pros.  Absolutely worth checking out.

-Guvera.com-

Update: What songs are you going to be checking out?  I have my eye on Anberlin’s “Impossible” for my next download.

Tags: 12 Stones, Above the Golden State, Amy Grant, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder*Band, Flyleaf, Josh Wilson, Lifehouse, Newsboys, Paper Tongues, Sanctus Real, Switchfoot, The Rocket Summer, TobyMac

Free Download of Flyleaf’s “Again” Video

Check out the embedded widget for a free download Flyleaf’s music video for “Again” – the quality isn’t the greatest, but I think it would still look great on a smaller screen, maybe an iTouch.  (Oh, and if you’re having trouble seeing the widget, it’s also available on the band’s website, here.)

Tags: Flyleaf

The Weekly Downloads: Nov. 17 ~ Nov. 23

It’s that time again!  Admittedly, this isn’t turning out to be the best week ever for free music, but there’s still quite a bit of music free, especially if you like Phil Wickham’s new song “Coming Alive”.  You’ll see what I mean by that in a bit…

First up this week, iTickets’ has two free songs from Desperation Band (“Light Up The World”) and Jennifer Shaw (“God Loved The World”).

-iTickets’ Free Music Page-

Gospel Music Channel, unfortunately, doesn’t have any free music this week, but they do have a stream of “Again” and “Beautiful Bride” from Flyleaf’s new album Memento Mori.  I have to say, both songs are extremely good – one review I read compared “Beautiful Bride” to DC Talk’s universally popular “Jesus Freak”.  That’s extremely high praise in the Christmas music world.  Definitely worth a listen or two, or more.

-Flyleaf Stream on GMC-

Remember how I mentioned Phil Wickham’s new song “Coming Alive” earlier?  Well, there’s a good reason:  FreeCCM, Tangle, and New Release Tuesday all have that song for free this week.  Pick your favorite site, and download away!

-Tangle.com-

-New Release Tuesday’s Free Music Page-

-Phil Wickham on FreeCCM.com-

Even though it’s not music, or a music video, Video Rocket does have an interesting free video this week – it’s the the trailer for Sarah’s Choice, the new pro-life movie starring Rebecca St. James.  Has anyone seen the movie yet?  Is it good?

-VideoRocket’s Free Video Page-

Well, that’s everything that’s available this week – not a lot, but still.  Stay tuned, since next week, they’ll be a totally different batch of downloads.  Till then…

Tags: Desperation Band, Flyleaf, Jennifer Shaw, Phil Wickham, Rebecca St. James

Free Song from Flyleaf

I just got a tip on this last night, and it’s legit:  Amazon.com is giving away Flyleaf’s song “Again” for free!  Flyleaf has some amazing songs, but I think this one is my favorite – at least for now.  Enjoy!

-“Again” on AmazonMP3-

Speaking of “Again”, Flyleaf recorded a music video for the song, and it’s quite impressive.  Check it out!

Tags: Flyleaf

SpiralFrog Review – Is it worth it?

I’ve been reviewing the ad-supported free music service SpiralFrog this week. It’s a mixed bag, with some highlights, low-lights, and interesting song selection. The following is my review.

Signing up is reasonably easy, although I had to download a third party plug-in to access the site. Before I could do anything with the site, I also had to download the “SpiralFrog Download Manager”, which I’ll get to a bit later. After that, I got in.

To start with, the first thing you notice is the advertising. Several ads banners and ad boxes. It reminds me of another teen-oriented website, Myspace. I was able to hide most of the advertisements using AdBlock Plus. The ads aren’t too terribly annoying.

The selection is…interesting. For Christian music, they have a couple of pretty cool MxPx CDs, the Elms’ Chess Hotel, the Flyleaf EP and the new Flyleaf Special Edition album, and several interesting String Tributes CD. There’s a String Tribute to Flyleaf, Casting Crowns, and Underoath. So if you’ve ever wondered what “Does Anybody Hear Her”, “It’s A Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door”, and “I’m So Sick” sounds like rendered in guitars, violins and cellos, now is your chance to find out. There’s even a documentary-CD from POD, which was tells the band’s history. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the band had anything to do with it. That’s all I could find in a week. There may be more.

Another feature of the website is the music videos. I was able to find several MxPx videos (Including my personal favorite “Responsibility”.), as well as Flyleaf’s latest, “All Around Me”.

The system itself is rather buggy. The website is slow, taking a long time to load pages. It’s been getting faster, but I can’t help but wonder if the site is slowing browsing down to make sure people view the advertisements. Could be it’s just a popular site too though. I don’t know. The SpiralFrog Download Manger runs all the time, even when the service is not in use. I’ve noticed it taking from around four megabytes to 11 megabytes of RAM. It’s not a huge resource hog, but enough to annoy you.

There are some pretty serious limitations to what you can do with the music and videos. Songs will only play on certain Mp3 Players (iPods and my Sansa se130 aren’t supported), and only on two different devices, and only then if you sync it with you computer every thirty days. You aren’t allowed to burn CD with any songs you download. You also have to visit the website and renew your membership every thirty days to continue playing download songs and videos on your computer.

In conclusion, you probably shouldn’t plan on becoming a long term member unless you are a fanatic MxPx or Flyleaf fan. For everyone else, I would recommend surfing the site awhile. Maybe become a member to try the site out. Download some songs, watch some videos. After all, if you don’t like it, you can always let you subscription expire.

Update: And even if you let your subscription expire, you will still get email from SpiralFrog, asking you to come back.  Ask me how I know this.

Tags: Casting Crowns, Flyleaf, MxPx, P.O.D., Payable on Death, the Elms, Underoath