The Free Christian Music Blog

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.

-Swagbucks.com-

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!

Tags: Jars of Clay, Lifehouse, Owl City, Relient K, We Shot the Moon

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

Sampler Attack!

I’ve already had two samplers this week (here and here), and guess what?  I’ve got two more to share, plus updates on two previously featured samplers.  Unfortunately, none of the samplers are completely Christian, but they do all have a couple of good songs each, so they’re still worth downloading.

First things first, hardcore is one genre that hasn’t shown up much on TFCMB lately, but that’s about to change, thanks to several of these samplers.  First up, Hassle Records and Vagrant Records have joined forces to create a sampler that features, among quite a few mainstream bands, August Burns Red’s song “Meddler” and Thrice’s song “All the World Is Mad”.

Don’t freak out, August Burns Red is still signed to Solid State Records – I have from a reliable source that Hassle Records is just distributing ABR to the UK, and Solid State is still handling the US.  Also, Thrice.  I’m not sure about the rest of the band, but I know they’re lead singer Dustin Kensrue is, and from what I’ve seen a lot of their songs draw heavily from his faith, so I’ll leave it to your discretion whether to keep the song or not.  Either way, you can download the sampler by signing up for Hassle & Vagrant’s mailing list.  Check it out!

-Hassle/Vagrant’s Free Sampler-

Update: Bad news, despite my having signed up over a week ago, I still haven’t heard anything about it, so I’ve come to the conclusive that the Hassle/Vagrant sampler must not be available at present. 

Next up is an update on a post James did last July, on the Face the Change compilation.  It’s mostly mainstream songs, but there are tracks from Emery, Anchor & Braille, and We Shot the Moon, and it turns out, contrary to what I thought at the time, the We Shot the Moon song included, “Sway Your Head”, is actually an exclusive acoustic version of the song – something I wish I had know before I deleted the song (and had to re-download the sampler).  I’ve been on a We Shot the Moon kick lately, and I really didn’t want anyone to miss a chance to get the acoustic version free.    Check James’s post for the details!

Now for another hardcore sampler, this time from Revolver Magazine.  It’s 21 songs, most of which look pretty nasty, but, it also features free songs from Impending Doom, Corpus Christi, and For Today.  Check it out below!

-Revolver Magazine’s Mayhem Metal Compilation-

Lastly, despite being rather old news, I’d like to point out that Equal Vision & Rise Record’s Jawsome Summer Sampler 08 is still available, and it features The Devil Wears Prada’s song “HTML Rulez D00d”.  I’ve already posted about this once before, but it was a rather small mention in a big post, and I thought it deserved a bigger mention.  I mean, it is free TDWP. 

-The Jawsome Summer Sampler 08 on Equal Vision-

Actually, since I’m on the topic of samplers, hardcore, and The Devil Wears Prada, I’m going to take advantage of this opportunity to recommend another older sampler, from Rise Records, with some awesome songs from the aforementioned The Devil Wears Prada, plus Before Their Eyes and a sick rare song from Burden of a Day.  Check it out!

-The Rise Records Summer Sampler-

Tags: Anchor & Braille, August Burns Red, Before Their Eyes, Burden of a Day, Corpus Christi, Emery, For Today, Impending Doom, The Devil Wears Prada, Thrice, We Shot the Moon

Free Sampler From We Shot The Moon

When I first found We Shot The Moon, it was on a Indie Vision Music sampler. The track was called “Sway Your Head.” The track also appeared on the Best Of IVM sampler. Then, the song was featured on a compilation put together by Faceless International. “Sway Your Head” was the big single off of their album Fear and Love, which they gave away free a couple months ago. My point is, they seem to really love giving away this song.

Which brings me to their free sampler that they are giving away on their label’s website. “Sway Your Head” is once again included, though, seeing as the sampler is to promote their upcoming album A Silver Lining, it does include three brand new songs (and two others), including their new single “The Bright Side.” This is definitely something that you should check out.

-We Shot The Moon on AfternoonRecords.com-

Tags: We Shot the Moon

Free Album From We Shot The Moon

If you’ve been following The Free Christian Music Blog for a while, you may recognize We Shot The Moon from a couple of the Indie Vision Music compilations. If you haven’t, you might remember them from yesterday’s post. Either way, you should be excited, because they are giving away their most recent album Fear and Love for free on their website.

For those of you who are familiar with former Tooth and Nail band Waking Ashland, We Shot The Moon was formed by and is fronted by their lead singer. Their are definitely a couple similarities, but the bands are different in style. They sound a little bit similar to Ruth at some points, but its not a very big comparison, unless you don’t listen to this genre much, which means you might think they sound alike (not that big of a deal if you do though).

I haven’t been able to listen much, but I do think that the song title “Upon Waking She Found Herself A Cougar” is pretty awesome. The song itself is pretty good too. From my one listen it definitely is one of the standout tracks (to me at least)

-Fear and Love Free Download-

P.S. Fun Fact: The album cover was designed by a fan in a fan contest. Sort of like our logo. If you look at it it sort of makes sense. That is a pretty random album cover.

Tags: We Shot the Moon

Face The Change Compilation

Faceless International is organization that seeks to get people involved and to help defend the exploited faceless people all around the world.  I’m keeping the description short because I want all of you to go look for yourself and learn more about them.  I strongly encourage you to go to the website now.

-Faceless International-

To help raise awareness, Faceless is giving away a compilation which includes 21 artists, a few Christian ones like Emery, We Shot The Moon, and Anchor and Braille, which is a side project of Stephen Christian from Anberlin (he also co-founded Faceless).  If any of the other artists are Christian artist, please tell me and I’ll add them to this list.

-Face the Change Compilation -

While this site is focused primarily on music, I love that we are sometimes given the opportunity to put the spotlight on an organization like this.  So download the compilation, and enjoy the downloads, especially the Anchor and Braille song, but don’t forget to get involved in something and make a difference.  It doesn’t have to be this or even have to be a charity.

Tags: Anchor and Braille, Emery, We Shot the Moon

New Sampler from Indie Vision Music

Indie Vision Music has put out many, many samplers recently, and though many of them are no longer posted online, they have taken the best songs from the seven samplers (sans the heavy stuff, which might be getting its own “best of” sampler) and put them into one. What you get is free songs from Chasing Victory, Project 86, Stavesacre, Ever Stays Red, Esterlyn, and 35 other awesome bands.

I haven’t been able to listen to everything yet, as I have not only been busy but also overwhelmed with this and another even bigger sampler that all of you will probably see in the near future. You might get spoiled this week, thats all I’m saying.

-The Best of IVM Vol. 1-

-James

Edit:  Apparently the wonderful people at IVM are working on another compilation that they hope to put out in time for Christmas.  If you’re in a band and have a quality recording they are interested in possibly using your song in the compilation.

Tags: Amaradio, Amen. The Animal, Arkeo, Avery Pkwy, Blood & Water, Burning Tree Project, Cathy Crescendo, Chasing Victory, Darkroom, Dennis Zender, Dogwood, Erika Soto, Esterlyn, Ever Stays Red, Failure to Excel, Fairgreen, Finchley, Forever Changed, Hands, Kessler, Kings to You, Makeshift3, Man Alive, My Jeremiah, Ocean is Theory, One Hot Minute, Orion Walsh, Paul Wright, Project 86, Quick and the Dead, Say You Will, Send Out Scuds, Sleep for Sleepers, Stavesacre, The Apprentice, The Echoing Green, The Trade, Thrush, Tumbledown, We Shot the Moon