Relient K
Swagbucks
Today’s post is about a website I’ve been using quite a bit lately, and it’s something I’ve found quite rewarding. It’s called Swagbucks, and what it is is a search engine that rewards you for searching with them. Once you sign up for an account, each time you search the web you have a chance of winning a “Swagbuck”, which, once you’ve gotten enough of, can be redeemed for any of a huge library of prizes. There’s plenty of options, but I think the most notable are Amazon.com and iTunes Store gift cards. Between the two, you can get just about any music you want, for free.
Even better, aside from the main Swagbucks site, there’s also a extensive list of special, branded “Search and Win” sites that are tied to Swagbucks. There’s quite a selection of sites (everything from the Green Bay Packers to Barry Manilow), but the most notable are Search with Relient K, Search with Owl City, Search with Jars of Clay, Search with Lifehouse, and Search with We Shot The Moon, all of which feature exclusive prizes (like We Shot The Moon posters, Owl City’s Ocean Eyes on vinyl, a music video from Relient K, and more.) Now, I don’t want this to sound too good to be true, it does take a long time to get enough Swagbucks to get anything, but I know for a fact it works (actually, I’m listening a TobyMac CD I got through Swagbucks & Amazon right now), and since the average person searches the web quite a bit anyway, it’s really a handy site.
Also, for the sake of full disclosure, Swagbucks does have a referral program in place – basically, you sent your friends a link to sign up for Swagbucks, and if they do, you’ll win a Swagbuck every time they do, up to 100. Now, I know some people don’t like getting referred for things, so if you’d rather just sign-up at Swagbucks.com, you can do that here. Of course, if you don’t mind helping out a bit towards a shiny new copy of Owl City’s Ocean Eyes Deluxe Edition, then it would be great if you use the link above this paragraph. 
Either way though, I highly recommend the website, at very least, it’s worth checking out, and considering. Happy searching!
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.
The Weekly Downloads: Dec. 22 ~ Dec. 27
It’s hard to believe it’s Christmas week already! Despite the fact that the season gets longer every year, it still seems to fly by. Despite New Release Tuesday taking the week off from downloads, there’s still lots of great music out there this week. For example…
One of the more exciting downloads for me this week is Seabird’s excellent “Joy to the World”, which is available for free from iTickets, along with Hiram Ring’s “O Little Child”, and Clarkwise’s “The Christ-mas Song (Merry Christ-mas to You)”. Check it out!
Another big download this week is Relient K’s “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”, the first track from Let It Snow Baby…Let It Reindeer. I picked it up free last year, but you don’t have it yet, I definitely recommend downloading from Tangle this week.
Also worth downloading, FreeCCM.com has MercyMe’s “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” and Mark Harris’ “Silent Night”.
Last but not least, Gospel Music Channel is featuring “Christmas Is Here” by The Katinas this week. Enjoy!
-The Katinas’ “Christmas Is Here” on GMC-
That’s it for this Christmas week, see you next week!
I Celebrate the Day
Free Christimas music today! AmazonMP3 has got Relient K’s “I Celebrate the Day” from Let It Snow Baby…Let It Reindeer available for free. It’s a Relient K original, and I have to say, it’s really a great song. I really love the lyrics, and it’s just has that Christmasy feeling to it… Don’t miss this one!
-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.
Forget and Not Slow Down
Okay, I’m very excited about this one – Walmart MP3 is giving away Relient K’s latest single “Forget and Not Slow Down” for free! It’s the title track from Relient K’s brand new album (out tomorrow, I might add), and a very awesome song, at least in my humble opinion. I haven’t heard anything official about how long the song will be available, but I’ve heard rumors that it’s only going to be available till tonight. Don’t miss it! Seriously, it rocks.
-Relient K’s “Forget and Not Slow Down” on Walmart MP3-
Also, if one free song isn’t sweet enough, AmazonMP3 is releasing the album a day early, for $3.99, and an exclusive bonus song called “Terminals”, which features Adam Young of Owl City fame. Now that’s a great deal. 
-A Failure to Excommunicate
Gotee.com recently added 7 new free songs to their already impressive line-up of free songs. They’ve got two new, old House of Heroes songs (“Friday Night” and “Serial Sleepers”), one Flynn Adams song (“Feel It Now”), two sweet old school Relient K tracks (“Failure to Excommunicate” & “I Am Understood?”), and two free Paul Wright songs (“Heaven” and “You’re Beautiful”).
I would highly, highly recommend the Paul Wright & Relient K songs. I hadn’t heard much of Paul Wright before, and he really impressed me, both lyrically & musicially. And of course you can’t go wrong with Relient K, especially their older stuff. Trust me, it’s good.
You do need to sign-up to download the songs, but it’s easy enough to do. And, after that you can get all 7 songs, plus the 8 that were previously available. Enjoy!
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?
iTickets Updated
Since Matt is busy, I’ll be the one bringing you the free music for probably at least the rest of the week. Today I have for you two free songs from iTickets. The first is a live version of “Mighty To Save” by Michael W. Smith. I’m sure you’ve all heard the song before, and most of you know how Smith’s voice sounds, so you should have a good idea of what it is going to sound like. The second track is one I would be very excited about if it was a little bit closer to Christmas. Relient K is re-releasing their CD Let It Snow, Let It Reindeer and because of that iTickets is giving away their version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
-James
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