I’m often asked where to get good praise & worship music to listen to. For me, the best way to learn new music is to listen to it a lot. There’s a few main sources I go to for music in this genre.
- I buy a lot of my favorite songs on iTunes and listen to them on my iPod. I have a praise & worship faves playlist that I like to listen to when I run, clean the house, fold laundry, cook dinner, drive around in the car, etc. I’m listening to music all the time and let it soak in.
- I listen to K-Love. If you have a K-Love or similar contemporary christian radio station in your city, it’s a great place to hear a lot of music that is popular today in modern worship services. There isn’t as much live actual worship style music on the radio as there could be, but more studio versions. Regardless, it’s a great place to go. You can listen online as well.
- Pandora has become my favorite place to find new music. It’s free for a basic account. I have an app on my smartphone and tablet. I’ll hook them up to my stereo at home and blast it! I have 2 favorite playlists set up based on the two groups that in my opinion are the model for modern praise bands: Hillsong United & the Passion Conference Band. Hillsong of course leads worship at Hillsong Church in Australia. Most of their albums are live worship settings and to me, this is the model for what we are trying to accomplish in leading prayer through this style of music. The Passion band is made up of some of the most gifted worship leaders in the world like Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Charlie Hall, Christy Nockels, Matt Redman, Kristian Stanfill and many more. Their albums are also mostly live recordings directly from their conferences.
- Finally, when you want to share music or need to find a specific song, Youtube is the place to go. It’s easy to share videos online or via e-mail. I’ve heard that Youtube has become the second most used search engine in the world next to Google. It’s no wonder there’s so much music found there! The audio quality isn’t always as good as Pandora or by purchasing a song, but for the purpose of listening to a new song or sending it out for your band to listen to, Youtube is very convenient.
I’m sure there are countless ways to share music and listen to praise & worship music. Is there anything I missed that works well for you or your group?
Here’s a few more examples. Enjoy!