A few weeks ago I wrote a post on downloading music. Since then, we’ve been having discussions about how we can better serve worship leaders who’d like access to our songs but don’t want to buy the whole CD. Just wanted to let you know that Sovereign Grace offers $.99 downloads of any song we’ve ever recorded at Songbox. They’re listed there by project and individual song.
Also, we’ve redesigned our website and made it more user friendly. New features include a section that categorizes many of our teachings on worship, the ability to search songs by lyric, theme, or author, and a listing of all our printed music.
Great initiative! Shipping costs of CDs outside the USA are a real deterrent, and sadly the Sovereign Grace CDs are not widely stocked locally in the UK.
Two thoughts: (1) I couldn’t track down (and I tried!) the bitrate of the MP3s available. (It’s not addressed in this FAQ, for instance.) Having that information would be a help, IMO.
(2) The samples are 128kb/s. Is this also the bitrate for the download files? It would be great if they could go to 192kb/s, or even better to VBR. 128 is decent, but you do get artefacts with cymbals … and there are cymbals on SG songs! :)
Anyway, this is welcome news!
David,
Thanks for your encouragement. I sent your question to Dave Mackenzie, one of our IT guys. His response:
“The full song downloads we sell are at 192 kbps. (We originally used 128, which was what most music download stores were using then, but a few months ago I re-made them at 192.)
The 1-minute samples are at varying bit rates, as they were created by different people over the span of several years.”
Hope that’s helpful.
I found your website about a year ago, and I find it very useful. I help pick the songs for my church, and help with overall administration of the music ministry.
The new redesign of your website is helpful in the sense that you can search using various criteria, but not quite as user-friendly when just wanting to download lyrics or chord charts. To have to go through a whole checkout process when you are offering it for free is a bit combersome.
Thank-you so much for your ministry. I have directed many people to your website for music ideas. I love your blog, and your posts seem to deal with exact issues we struggle with at our small church. Thank-you.
Bob said: “Hope that’s helpful.”
It sure is — thanks for taking the trouble to chase that info up. It is very good news!
David.
Hi
I have recently purchased Valley of Vision and Songs for the Cross Centered Life CDs. I lead a church choir in my church in Campbelltown, NSW Australia. Are there choral arrangements available of any of the songs on these CDs that I could acquire for us to sing? The words and music are great!