Who Sells Inspirational Music?

Inspirational music, at this time, is clearly an unclaimed category. That’s why it is such an exciting business venture. Its potential customers are listed in the millions at a time when the whole concept of the need for Inspiration around the world is mighty. There are a growing handful of players in the category.

The following websites are the top seeds on Google search engines for “Inspirational Music” and “Christian Music”.

Inspirationline.com This site is the #1 site on Google for Inspirational Music and gives away free digital downloads, but all the songs are basically rip-offs of known artists.

eztracks.com Gives away some rip-offs of known artists and also sells them as Digital Down Loads (DDLs) through i-Tunes. Both of these sites demand email info before doing anything.

Inspirationalldsmusic.com This is an LDS (Mormon) site. It is handled well, but only sells LDS music (37 Artists). Does not sell DDLs or Hard Goods on the site.

Christiantuner.com A Christian Music radio station. Not ecommerce.

Winamp.com One can download free Inspirational music with the purchase of the Winamp software. Music production is not particularly good.

Calabashmusic.com This is really a World Music site with a small Inspirational category. When you find something you like, and start the purchase, it takes you to eztracks.com which then takes you to i-Tunes for final purchase. Long and involved process.

Amazon/inspirational.com A very odd division of Amazon. Deeply unorganized. No separation of genres – everything lumped together in a hodge-podge. About 140 titles. An Amazon afterthought.

Mienet.com This also is an odd Christian site that promotes Christian product (books, movies, knick-knacks) but strangely enough sells secular music and as far as we can tell, doesn’t really have Christian music.

Christianmusic.com A reference site only. No ecommerce. If you want to buy, it takes you to musicchristian.com.

Musicoffaith.com Non-original artist ripoffs. Offers free music, but no hard goods sales.

Christianity.com Same as above.

Musicchristian.com Reference site only. Very confusing.

Integritymusic.com This is one of the big 3 of Christian Music Labels. They command 13.5 percent of the label market share. Site is excellent, between 20 & 30 Christian music stars, they sell hard goods CDs off site but no DDLs.

Sparrowrecords.com This is another one of the big 3 of Christian Music Labels. Site is excellent, they have 24 Christian music stars. They sell no hard good CDs off site or DDLs.

wordlabelgroup.com This is the number one of the big 3 of Christian Music Labels. Site is excellent, they have 22 Christian music stars, they sell hard goods CDs off site but no DDLs.

Singingnews.com This is an on-line Christian magazine that is reference only. They talk about Christian music but sell no music off the site.

Watchfiremusic.com With free music downloads without prior email address commitments, a roster of 56 Inspirational artists, video, and both hard good and DDL sales right from the site, WFM is already placed as one of the leaders of both the Inspirational and Christian music website categories.

Hallelujah!-The Power of the Word

A minister I knew once questioned the depth or “the soul” of a song I wrote because it was “ a song of largely just Hallelujahs”. Today I’d like to take a moment on this issue and look at the word “Hallelujah” in some depth.

Its etymology is from the Hebrew and means “Praise Jah” or “Praise God”. Interestingly enough, it is a word that circumnavigates the globe and spans most languages. When translated, the word “Hallelujah” (or sometimes “Alleluia”) remains the same: In Spanish it’s “Aleluya”, in Finnish and German it’s “Haleluja”, in French it’s “Alleluia”, in Estonian it’s “Haleluuja”, in Icelandic it’s Halleluja, in Slovak it’s “Aleluia” and on and on like that. So it’s a word whose four syllables mean the same thing to most of mankind. Say the word almost anywhere in Africa and they know how you feel. Very few words translate that way. Consider even the word “God”. Even this word changes dramatically in its pronunciation and spelling in translation. “Hallelujah” is truly universal.

I know of no other word in language or song that carries such joy, such celebration, such depth of spirit and soul. With its four open vowels, it is a gorgeous utterance to sing and when sung alone or surrounded by itself and repeated over and over it is the epitome word of celebration in human language. I find that when I’m writing a sacred song and I am most filled with the spirit of God, these are the words that spill out of me over and over as the melodies pour through me from God. Over and over again, “Hallelujah”. It happens so often that I have to rewrite the lyrics into other words, otherwise most of my songs would sing nothing but “Hallelujahs”.

A man named George Fredric Handel used it to musically summarize his penultimate tribute to the birth of Christ in the finale of his “Messiah”. Who has not sat in wonder at the singing of this great gift to mankind as the same word cascaded from the choir?

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

In no way comparing myself to Frederic Handel, I too used these words to great effect in a song that opened the performance of The Jenny Burton Experience which ran to sold out audiences for over seven years here in New York City.

Let’s start with a Hallelujah
Let’s begin with a Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

There is music in our lives
There is music in the air all around us
There’s a spirit in our lives
And the music and the spirit are one

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

A simple statement, but with the weight and power of this amazing word you can be sure the audiences knew exactly where we were going with the inspirational intention of the performance. It set the spirit of the evening in stone and launched us cleanly and clearly into the realm of spiritual thought.

What is a word but a symbol for an idea. These sounds that come out of our mouths represent concepts large or small. Say the word “streetcar” and we know exactly what you mean. Say the word “God” and you will have as many definitions of that word as you have listeners. But say the word “Hallelujah” and the world is suddenly all on the same page and in some way feeling and knowing the light that you are experiencing. It is a word that bears repetition, no, in fact, clamors for repetition, for to say it once is not enough. It must be repeated and repeated in the wonder of God’s grace and power, love, soul, and spirit. It is the penultimate word in the human language in praise of God.

When life is at its best, in the moment when no other words suffice, for most of us here on this planet, out pops the word “Hallelujah”. This elegant and universal utterance captures the essence of celebration and is immediately understood deeply in the soul of all.

For The Birds

For five years my wife and I had a house at 9000 feet in the mountains of Colorado. With relatively few neighbors, (I say relatively few because here in NYC we have 10 million) we lived on 5 unmolested acres of wooded land in a mountain paradise, in a house of picture windows, each one framing a gorgeous shot of the mountains that surrounded us. Bear, elk, fox, deer and other various animal folk visited our yard every morning. We had bear claw scratches on our wooden deck and outer door frames. Fun for a couple of New Yorkers who visited regularly.

I had a second recording studio there that also looked out on nature and all its glories and my wife, Julia, ringed the house with bird feeders so that we were a regular mall for birds. Instead of waking up in the morning to buses and sirens and NYC, we woke to the songs of birds. And yes, we became bird watchers.

Our hands down favorites were the humming birds. These amazing feathered friends would frantically slurp our spiked sugar water for hours outside our windows. They got so used to us that when Julia would refill the feeders, they couldn’t wait and would drink from the feeder still in her hand.

Sometimes I would be deeply immersed in my music recording, with the speakers cranked, and I would turn in my chair and there would be 3 or 4 staring in the window at me, wings ablaze in flight, doin’ that hummingbird boogie. We loved these little guys and spoke about them and watched them daily and kept paper birds taped to all our windows so they wouldn’t crash into them and break their little necks.

We sold the house. Julia’s job in Boston every weekend prohibited us from visiting. Oh how we miss them birds! But for five years, off and on, we lived with them and they were a big part of our life. So this song is for the birds…

Tweedle ee deet ‘n’ dee dee
Deet
‘N’ dee dee
Deet
‘N’ dee dee

This song is for the birds
This song is for the birds

There’s a blue jay on my doorstep
Tryin’ to steal the laces
Off my runnin’ shoes
He’s some kinda mad kleptomaniac
He can’t help it cause it’s in his genes
He don’t read the magazines
So he don’t know what kleptomania means

Clear of conscience,
But still guilty as sin.

So this song is for the birds
This song is for the birds

There’s a hummingbird at my window
Lookin’ at me while I write this song
And we’re eyeball to eyeball
Listenin’ to his wings beat the rhythm of life
Listenin’ to his wings beat the rhythm of life
Listenin’ to his wings beat the rhythm of life
Hummingbird
Hmmmmmmmmm
Hummingbird
Hmmmmmmmmm
Hummingbird

Tweedle ee deet ‘n’ dee dee
Deet
‘N’ dee dee
Deet
‘N’ dee dee

Birds:

They don’t know where they come from
Don’t know where they’re goin’ to
Don’t have time to wonder
Too busy flyin’ at the moon
Too busy tryin’ to prune
Too busy workin’
For the early mornin’ worms
Singin’
Baby I’ll be comin’ home soon

So this song is for the birds
This song is for the birds

There’s a woodpecker peckin’
On the side a my house
Puttin’ a hole where there ain’t one
An’ it ain’t very nice
I already got me some mice
And they’re fillin’ my life with their holes

Just like the moles.

And oh what a mess
But I got to confess
That I tend to digress

Point being:

This song is for the birds
This song is for the birds

There’s an eagle in my back yard
Wonderin’ what became of America
He’s got the whole world on his shoulders
Musta gone bald thinkin’ about the a-bomb
Musta gone bald just tryin’ ta’ stay calm
He’s still worryin’ about Vietnam

Somebody oughta tell ‘im.
The war’s over.

And this song is for the birds
This song is for the birds

Each mornin’ they sing a new symphony
It’s a soaring cantata to the sky above
An’ it’s all about feathers an’ makin’ love

Tweedle ee deet ‘n’ dee dee
Deet
‘N’ dee dee
Deet
‘N’ dee dee

So this song is for the birds!

You can listen to and buy this song (if you’re a bird lover too) at Watchfire Music, or by visiting Peter Link’s Artist Page.