Part of the frustration of song leading today is the legality of sharing new music with your team. Yes, you could murk around the lines and make copies of CD's. Another option uses YouTube.com to share new music. But this ties you to how fast the internet can be, and Youtube doesn't work well when it comes to repeating pieces. There are plenty of blogposts by worship leaders trying to find a way to easily as well as legally fix this problem.
Another issue is the pastoral care of a volunteer worship team. Small gifts (such as strings, sticks or other accessories) go a long way with the people who show up week in and out. The skills of Hospitality are part of leading a worship team.
Over the last few weeks I have been using Rdio.com for my music. It is a cheap subscription based service with a large amount of music available. For a small fee (either 5 or 10 dollars a month), I can stream an unlimited amount of music to a number of devices. Modern worship music is easily found, with a vast catalog of my favorites.
Rdio also has a social element, with friending and shared playlists. This is where I think it can serve a worship team. Most musicians love music, and Rdio has tons in different genres. So why not purchase a web subscription for 4.99 a month (a mobile version is 9.99) for each regular member of your team? This would allow you give them a small gift they would use, as well as legally share music with them. Setting up playlists for specific services is easy, and they can be shared with the team members. If enough worship leaders used this, we could also contribute to each others playlists and share our own new favorites.
The wealth of tools available make life easy. It boils down to finding how to specifically use them for worship leadership
Hey Chad. I will definitely check this out as an option for the team I lead.
I like the aspect of giving a different kind of gift. Plus, it would be nice to have everything at one place. Have you found that every song you use is at this resource?
Currently, I use a wordpress site. I purchased space on it to upload the tunes so that the team could listen to them streaming. I have purchased all the music that I place on the playlist there, so they can go to one link and listen.
In the past, I've also done the playlist, or grooveshark method. But, many times, I found that they were having to go to many different links to hear all of the tunes on one setlist.
Youtube is generally my last resort.
I will check this out.
Thanks for the info!
Posted by: julie | January 20, 2011 at 07:45 AM
Was the link supposed to be radio.com?
Posted by: julie | January 20, 2011 at 07:47 AM
okay....sorry. the link in the OP just didn't work. rdio.com it is!
Posted by: julie | January 20, 2011 at 07:49 AM
Julie-I fixed the link. Sorry about that.
the rdio.com works is really similar to a desktop music client (like itunes). I have had good luck finding just about everything I am looking for (worship music or anything else). Lately, we have been using more hymns on Sunday, but that is the nature of my church.
I think that even the uploading method you use is hazy legally...one of the frustrating notions of sharing songs. Other methods hunt for versions of the songs that might be live, or mislabeled. What I love about rdio is they have THE REAL records and tons of them, the social element of it is what can be a great tool for worship ministry.
Posted by: chad | January 20, 2011 at 07:56 AM
I guess I didn't realize the method I was using wasn't kosher. I thought it was similar to having them go to Grooveshark if I were to build a playlist there and link to it since they can't actually download a copy of the song from the blog. I didn't want to burn CD's (definitely illegal.) And, many times, they like the music, so they go and purchase copies of it for their own digital devices so that they can listen on the go.
What I like about the idea of rdio is the social element of it that you mention in your comment above. I will go in and initiate a trial version and see how some of the team members like it. Probably gift it to a few of them at first to see how it works out.
We like to incorporate hymns into our worship as well. I really enjoy updating hymns in my personal worship time. Many times, that ends up becoming a hymn that we put into a Sunday morning set. What I would like to do is begin that process with our team. I would like to sit down with our team and a hymn, and read through it without a reference as to what the hymn tune sounds like and see what God brings out with the lyrics. I really think that could be interesting, and possibly spark some interest in song writing. We haven't really tried anything like that before.
Posted by: julie | January 20, 2011 at 05:52 PM
I like that all of the comments I was going to make were already made by Julie. Sometimes it's like we share a brain....
Posted by: Thomas | January 20, 2011 at 10:11 PM
Thomas, it certainly helps to get things accomplished, doesn't it? It is a joy working with you!
Posted by: julie | January 21, 2011 at 06:31 AM
Julie-if you get on, add me as a friend (chadbrooks).
Posted by: chad | January 21, 2011 at 07:00 AM
Great idea!
Posted by: Kelly Lawson | February 08, 2011 at 11:19 AM