QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
I haven't yet had a spam issue with my recently changed
primary email address, and I'd love to keep it that way. This is,
of course, not to say that I consider most email or feedback related to
my site to be spam, but I would prefer not to have to take the time to
answer many of the same questions over and over. I would not be
honest if I said that the following is a list of frequently asked
questions because I (thankfully) do not get a lot of "Hello, who are
you" type of emails. This is my attempt to give some additional
basic information about myself to try to pre-empt unnecessary emails
asking for my assistance in ways that I will not be able or willing to
help everybody in the world out on. I usually try to respond to
all music related emails I receive eventually, but have been known to
take up to several months to do so if it's something I don't know the
answer to right away and would have to do a little internet searching
to find out or to apologize being unable to find an answer. So if
your email is time sensitive, please mention this and simultaneously
seek out assistance in a few other venues like Christian music blogs,
etc., to increase the likelihood of getting a quick answer. So,
without further ado...
Q - Can you help me find a rare
Christian music album?
A - My standard reply to this question in the past has been to send
a link to the page below, which was a sort of secret page not linked
from any other place in my site. When I first composed this page
7 to 8 years ago (i.e. early 2000s), it was pretty current. Now,
of course, like much of the rest of my site, it is due for some
updating. But I am not sure when that time will come. It
took me over a year after changing primary email addresses to get this
page updated with my current primary email address. So...I'm not
sure when or if I'll be updating the page below any time soon.
While some of the links in it may be old, I believe most of the content
and recommendations are still applicable and pretty relevant for
today. Ebay is still Ebay, and Google is still Google, so I think
most of this will still be relevant!
Finding rare Christian music on the internet
The page above focuses on finding a physical copy of an album, from
which source WAV files can be ripped to make your own MP3, FLAC, etc.
files, if you're into that sort of thing. There's a lot of
formerly out-of-print music (DeGarmo & Key, etc.) that is now being
offered for sale on Amazon as digital MP3 copies. There's also an
ever expanding database of free downloadable classic and rare Christian
albums, mostly in MP3 format, that are being posted on blogs dedicated
to contemporary Christian music or classic Jesus Music. I only
recently entered this world of downloadable albums, and have some mixed
feelings about it. The upside is that most of these Christian
music blog posters are honest enough that if the music becomes
available for official purchase by the copyright owner or the original
artist(s) in some format (and if they are made aware of this fact),
they
will take down their free downloadable copy and replace with a link to
one or more sources for an official purchase, along with an
encouragement to do so. So, if I could make the above page any
more relevant for today, I would add a recommendation to do a Google
search for the album and artist you're looking for, along with "MP3s"
[Google search example - "Altar Boys" Gut Level Music MP3s], and if you
can't find some place legitimate to buy the digital files, preferrably
from the original
artist if they are offering the music from their official
website, then you might find a free copy to download. There's a
lot of really rare and/or obscure 60s and 70s Jesus Music releases that
are likely to never be reissued on CD or even see the light of day
outside of collectors circles which are now being made available on
these blogs. Overall, I think most Christian music fans and a
good percentage of the artists themselves see these blogs as a positive
asset.
Some Christian music blogs offering free downloads - Flipsidemn
[Update (5/19/12): Since I
first posted this blurb about Christian music
blogs last year, most of the blogs I had found that I was recommending
have been willingly or forcibly closed down. The Heavenly Grooves
blog was suddenly taken down in October of last year (2011), willingly
I believe because the owner was tired of doing it or had other issues
in his life that required his immediate attention. But from what
I can tell, the Electric Psalms blog (shut down) and The Ancient Star Song
blog (does not have download links any more) did not do so willingly,
and had their accounts terminated
or suspended due to supposed complaints by one or more artists being
featured on the blog with a free download of one or more of their
albums who were supposedly claiming copyright infringement.
Given the
risks of litigation that have been associated with music file sharing
in the past (Napster, etc.) and which have been exasperated recently by
the Obama government and possibly other State governments, causing the
recent shutdown of the megaupload.com
site, most blog host sites are getting cold feet and are probably very
susceptible to any claim of copyright infringement, whether legitimate
or by some rogue individual pretending to represent an artist or a
lawyer for the artist. So, it looks like most of these music
blogs may
not be around much longer, or may stick around for informational
purposes only without any available downloads. If you
see something you want on a blog...that isn't still in print or easily
available for legitimate purchase..., then you'd probably better get it
now. The blog
mentioned above is the only one from my original list that was
regularly posting out-of-print Christian
music and which has managed to avoid
getting shut down or getting discouraged and calling it quits.
There's
a few more international blogs that I am aware of, and that I have
downloaded a lot of super rare material from, which I don't want to
promote on my site because they are
also posting a lot of in-print music (i.e. stealing potential sales
from the artist/copyright owner) which I always have and always will
strongly
condemn. There's probably many more blogs that are still going
strong and which are still offering rare Christian music for free, but
one thing you'll find out, as I have, is that the amount of material
available is still overwhelmingly large even now. Usually only
focusing on a few blogs at a time is all that you'll be able to handle
before you amass a ton of downloads, and then the problem is actually
listening to them all after you've downloaded. But if you're like
me, if/when you hear something you want to add to your regular
rotation, you're going to want to go and find a hard copy so that you
can make the best quality audio files for your portable music
players.
Many of these free downloads on the blogosphere are probably
purposefully done in the lower bit rate conversion range to encourage
those who like what they hear to try to get their own copy. And,
of course, always check the internet to see if the artist has recently
set up a bandcamp.com site which will usually have the choice of a
legal paid download of lossless files which are as good as downloading
original WAV files from a CD.]
Q - Can I buy [some music album title
you've see on my site] from you?
A - First, be sure that I do have a copy of what you think I
have. My discography listing pages (A,
B,
etc.)
are
not
a
list
of
what I own. Those pages are my reference
source contribution to the world of Christian music fans like
myself. My official collection list is here. I do
presently have a substantial number of unlisted CDs and CSs, both
duplicates of what I already have that would be available for
sale/trade, as well as a large side collection that I don't consider to
be part of my "official collection" which I have been acquiring for
other reasons. I have not yet, however, compiled a list of these
items yet. Generally, most items in my posted collection are not
for sale, and only might be available for trade depending on what is
being offered. I do hope to eventually get all of my sale and
trade items on the internet somewhere (GEMM, Musicstack, etc.), but
that's still not high on my priority list at the moment. If you
are interested in trading, then feel free to email me a list of what
you've got for trade as well as a list of what you're looking for, and
we'll go from there. If you don't know what you're looking for,
or are just looking to swap some rare music and want to know everything
I have, then I'll be willing to prepare my list if (and only if) you've
got something I really want. But it might take several days for
me to prepare the list. If you're just looking to buy something
you've been trying to find for a while, then please reference the page
that is linked above in the previous question to see if you can find an
online seller or a bidding opportunity on eBay. If and when I do
post all of my sale and trade items, I will try to give plenty of
advanced notice on a few pages of my site, as well as update this page
(if I can remember) to indicate this.
Q - Can I help you improve this
site?
A - My site has been pretty plain-Jane from the beginning
back in '97 or '98...whenever it was that I first posted it. I
started out on Netscape Composer and have now "graduated" to SeaMonkey
composer. I would love to eventually have a jazzy looking modern
site based on php or whatnot with frames and a nice easily printable
layout, but won't be willing to pay the labor for someone else to do
that until possibly after I have finished paying off my house...which
will probably be a long time from now. What I've found out over
the last decade is that the chances of me doing this on my own without
a substantial period of interim unemployment or disability are slim to
none. I've had a few people contact me in the past who were
interested in helping out with the website layout, but they were
basically looking to take it over and completely redo it
themselves. This would be cool, except that they would have to
then become the new manager of the website and make all future updates,
etc., unless they could quickly teach me what I need to know to make
all necessary updates and to keep everything current for future web
browsers, etc. I would also want to get copies of the most
current files and all of that, and wouldn't know if I was really
getting everything I needed if I wasn't familiar with the website
format being utilized. The bottom line is that I doubt this is
the sort of thing somebody would want to do (for me) themselves for
free...at least not for very long. So, keeping this in mind, the
most valuable sort of (free) assistance I could use from somebody else
is advice on which books or programs to focus on that would give me the
skills I need to make a substantial improvement to this site without
getting a computer science degree and without being distracted by a
bunch of programs that I don't need to learn about. Anybody
who's not a computer science major and has attempted to find books in
Barnes and Noble or Books-A-Million on web site design probably knows
exactly
what I'm talking about. If I could make a cool site like this one by only learning one
or two programs or reading one or two books, and which would not
necessitate the buying of an update to the program every year or two,
or a resaving of every file in my site every couple years in order to
get the latest and greatest most secure html programming content, then
that might be something I could realistically tackle on my own.
In other words...I need to talk with somebody who really knows what
they're doing and is willing to share some of their valuable advice
with me free of charge. If that sort of advice won't come from
somebody else without the entry level fee of a computer science degree
to my name (i.e. paying my dues) then...fair enough. What I've
already got here is just fine for my purposes and hopefully anybody
else who might profit from the content within.
Q - Are you still working on
the discography listings for your site? Are you ever going to try
to expand it past 2000?
A - Yes, I still have as much desire to continue on with my
maintaining and updating of the discography listings through 2000 as I
ever have. I've reached many of the financial goals that I've had
since graduating from college, and only recently reached the goal of
home ownership...or home residence might be the better term. I
won't own this home I'm currently in for a few more years at the very
least (15 to 20 more realistically)! And I recently arrived at
the need to find a new host for my site, and have managed to do that
within the last 9 months. I've continued to acquire discography
related sources over the last decade, most of which have done little
more than sit on a shelf or in a box. I still hope to begin going
through those one day soon. And I have wanted for I don't know
how long to find a way to carve in regular work on this site into my
weekly schedule. Each year, I think I'm getting a little closer
to that point, but haven't quite gotten there. Unless I get a
command from the Lord to sell all my music and to go in a completely
different direction of service to Him, then my desire will still be to
have the best and most complete discography list of Christian music
that can be found in one place on the internet, and I'll be looking to
reach a point as soon as possible where regular work on the discography
listings can continue and be maintained. I've had a few false
starts in the past couple years because it's such a time consuming
task, and I usually drag my feet starting something that doesn't have a
quick ending in sight. So I'll continue to say at this time that
I think I'm closer still to a point where I can begin the sort of
regular progress updates that I have wanted for a long time. As
for expanding the lists beyond the year 2000...it's highly doubtful I
will ever do that. The only way that could happen is if I were to
suddenly strike it rich and become financially independent overnight
(house paid for, etc.) through no particular effort of my own, and
might then be able to go part time on my regular employment in order to
be able to devote 20+ hours a week to this site. Otherwise, I
think finishing out a discography of Christian music from 1960 to 2000
is plenty ambitious for a lone wolf like me. Another thing that
makes this unlikely is the fact that there have been very few new and
upcoming CCM and Christian rock artists debuting after 2000 that have
interested me or grabbed me as so unique that I just had to add their
music to my collection. For the most part, I think most Christian
music of the last decade can't hold a candle to the ministerial value
and passion of the pioneers of Christian rock back when it was more
about the ministry than the money because...it had to be....because
there wasn't much of any money to be made unless you had something that
turned out to be a really big commercial success, like Stryper.
Q - I still have a
question/comment, or would like to ask your help with something.
A - If you still need to contact me for some reason (correction to
the discography listings, ask my assistance with something, or just say
"hello"), then my current primary email address is linked below.
Please be smart with your subject lines so that the email will be sure
to make it into my primary inbox or my spam filter box. I do
glance over subject lines in my spam folder...briefly...before
deleting. I'm honestly unsure if any of the emails I receive at
the address below are automatically deleted, bypassing the spam folder,
but if so, then subject lines like "Hi", "Hello", or "How's it going"
will likely be the triggers for such automatic deletions. So
choose your subject line wisely, and I'll try to respond soon afterward
if we are not previously acquainted. As I mentioned earlier, if
you are needing a quick response, and I do not give one in one or two
days, then your best bet would be to seek out other internet forums,
discussion groups, blogs, etc., and post your question to all of them,
and you'll probably get your answer quickest that way.
[this page was last updated on May 21, 2011]
