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Listeners around the world discover today’s Army music via Saytunes.
by Karl Larsson –
Have you ever thought “Burning, Burning” should be “one louder” or wondered what Madonna would sound like if she converted from Kabbalah to Christianity and sang in a Polish accent? Maybe you feel rappers should focus less on their Glocks and more on commissioning weekend?
If you answered yes, saytunes.com is the place for you—a place that Phil Laeger, a popular New York singer/songwriter calls, “the best-looking, most innovative Army site on the web, period.”
With an average of nine new songs a week since its launch in September 2006, saytunes.com continues to grow—its fan base now touching every continent. Regular listeners in countries as diverse as Brazil, Saudi Arabia and China have contributed to the 30,000 song plays to date and the over 1,300 people who have registered with the site, giving them the ability to vote for best songs, download free MP3s and create custom play lists.
Matt Leeder of the English band Electralyte, is surprised and encouraged by the interest generated by their music on the site. “We’ve had new friends from around the world email, asking us if we could come over to gig and minister with them,” he said. “Saytunes has birthed a fresh catalyst for new expression and new creation in the music we make as a Christian movement.”
The Southern Territory’s official worship band, transMission, debuted their recent release on Saytunes. “We discovered an accessibility and an audience of younger evangelicals and worship leaders to release to—even people in our own backyard that we had no idea were recording and working with contemporary Christian music,” said Bernie Dake, music publications production and marketing director for the Southern Territory.
As Lincoln Hawk, a youth pastor from the Long Beach, Calif. corps said, “The music that’s on Saytunes is the current and future sounds of The Salvation Army.”