Guidelines for Songwriting Contest

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

ATTENTION ALL SONG WRITERS!!!

SUBMISSIONS:

We will take song submissions all the way up to June 10th, 2010.
Voting will begin June 15th!
We are convinced that there are some amazingly talented people just waiting for the right opportunity to get their music out. So, we are excited to host this competition where you have a way to distribute your music to over 1300+ and growing churches. This will be an amazing opportunity for you to get your song out.

The Winner:

We will take the winning tune and have it produced by J. Daniel Smith and myself. It will then be distributed to our entire 1300+ member iClub family. That is over 1300 churches that could possibly be singing your song!

If your song is already professionally produced to our specs and you do not need it reproduced then you will win a NEW 16GB iPad!

We ask that you PLEASE help us and do not give your username and password out to family and friends that are not members of your local congregation. The iClub has too much copyrighted material. Please honor this. Their church will need to join in order to vote. Thank you for helping us protect our iClub and writers!

Your song must be original

You must be an active iClub member or an active tithe paying member from a church who has an active iClub membership to submit a song.
Your song must be no more than 6 minutes in length
Your song must be submitted in mp3 format
You will mail it to ~ submit@markcondoniclub.com
Your song must be Praise & Worship or Choir material. It can be all different styles but must be able to be used in a worship service or with a choir.
You can submit no more than two songs per person. Multiple people from your church can submit but the tune must be their original song.
You have never made over $1,000 in royalties on any one song.

* If we discover that someone has voted that is not part of an iClub membership the song will be automatically deleted.

Suggestions

Make the best demo that you can. (people have a hard time seeing past pitchy vocals and bad playing.)
Encourage your choir members and band members to vote for you. (each member can vote once a day. (You cannot give your username and password out to friends and family if they are not from your church. They must also have an active membership. Confirmed e-mails will be expected. The iClub has copyrighted material for only our iClub members and their churches)
Create a writing team in your church. You will be amazed at what you can come up with.
Make sure you write with congregations singing your tune in mind.
Get a great singer or a great player if that is not your strength to help you.

How will your song be scored.

All 1300+ iClub members and their singers, band members etc… will be able to vote once a day.
All voters will be required to vote by a legitimate e-mail that will need to be confirmed.
iClub members will count for 75% of the vote. 5 members from our team will each count for 5% each for the vote, totaling 100% of your score.
Once we see how many songs there are we will determine the process of elimination. Basically, we will eliminate the bottom 5 each week until we get to the top 10 then we will eliminate the bottom song each week.
We will check with your pastor towards the end to make sure you meet all of these qualifications. So, please read all of the rules before any submission.

Top 5 iCLub Downloads for October 2009

Monday, November 09, 2009

1.) I Will Sing
2.) He's The Messiah
3.) A King was Born
4.) His Name Shall be called
5.) Hallelujah To The New Born King

Top 5 iClub Downloads in September 2009

Thursday, October 08, 2009

1.) A King Was Born
2.) His Name Shall Be Called
3.) He`s The Messiah
4.) He Came All This Way
5.) Take This City

Get paid when you refer a friend!

Friday, June 05, 2009

The Mark Condon iClub is proud to announce our member referral program! Here is how it works.
Tell your friends use your email address as a coupon code when they check out.
They will receive $10.00 instant savings. You will get a check for $30 in the mail. A win for everyone!

Only email addresses associated with an active account will trigger the discount. Check your profile to ensure you are giving out the correct address.

New monthly subscriptions will pay the referral bonus after a three month waiting period. Yearly subscriptions will receive their check at the next pay cycle. Checks are mailed once per month. You will receive one check per new member.

The Flow of A Worship Service

Monday, February 02, 2009

Worship Leader ‐ Mark Condon

Preparing for a successful worship experience is much more than just a production or a combination of fast, medium and slow songs. After years of working in churches and conducting choir/worship seminars around the world I have discovered a tremendous need in this area in churches of all sizes. To pull off a successful worship service requires many elements. We will try and discuss some of them. This really is a broad discussion of which I am not sure I can adequately cover in this one article but I hope I can at least give some kind of guidance.
A successful worship experience is paramount for a healthy and growing church. People must be more than “WOWED” by talent, lights and production when they enter into our churches. We must create an atmosphere where there can be a connection from our heart to the heart of our Creator! That special moment of awe where it seems like all of heaven stands still and in return we are overwhelmed by that peace that passes all understanding.
Although I do strongly believe in excellence and have no problem with technology to enhance our services, I do not embrace the belief that talent, sound and technology are the most important ingredients for a successful worship service. I would quickly and with clarity say that relationship is first and foremost. We worship what we really love! Passion and energy are contagious and so is the lack of these elements. If you have someone who is really passionate and believes in a cause there will always be people who will follow. If you are really passionately in love with something you pursue it with such obduracy.
When I am putting together a worship service I want there to be both praise and worship. Just for a quick simple clarification, praise is what we offer because of His goodness and what he does for us. Worship is what we offer because of who He is. He is sovereign and because He is God, exclamation point! It certainly is not based on how our day or week has gone.
Psalm 100:4 says …enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise… With that as a model, I like to open a service with something that is very praise oriented. Generally it will be upbeat and energetic. That first song will be something that speaks of His goodness or a declaration that I am here to sing His praise.
After a few minutes of praise I like to segue from a time of praise into a time of deep worship. Worship to me would be songs that are very vertical. At this point we are more about talking to God than about Him. Many churches really struggle with the transition part in a worship service. Stopping and starting abruptly will almost always hinder a smooth flow. Musically, we can help make the transition but the best transition is to encourage your praise team to worship directly out of the song through the intro of the next song. Do NOT hurry these transitional moments. Some of the most dynamic transitions are made from our reckless abandoned worship moments. When you enter these moments it sets up a time where ministry can happen.
So many churches just go from song to song with only seconds of real response. I ask our worship team to worship in the mics with extreme passion and enthusiasm. The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek word enthous – meaning possessed or inspired by God! Their passion and enthusiasm ignites the people’s passion. If the singers are inspired by God they will lead the way and the church will follow.
Again, this may take time to create this culture. Learn to build on the intensity and energy of a song and the response to a song. When the people respond, do not be afraid to encourage these special moments. Also, be aware that you do not continue to sing and sing until something happens. Repetition usually brings on frustration not to mention monotony. In these moments where it feels very tight I find it more productive to take a few minutes and have the church enter into corporate prayer until you feel something break. Without notice just begin to pray and intercede for your city, people, children, families and leaders until something begins to open up. Out of that prayer begin to go into your worship. Your church will soon catch your spirit and follow.
Your team must understand their role. Their role is more than to just sing on key and help with a great blend of parts. They need to understand that THEY are the leaders. It is very difficult if not impossible to fake a great relationship. So, it is important that everyone on your team is passionately in love with Christ! A church will always struggle to rise above its leaders. In order to lead someone anywhere you need to know how to get there yourself. No person enjoys following someone who is not sure where he/she is going. Confidence always leads to success!
Be cautious as to how many new songs you introduce. My suggestion is to introduce approximately two new songs per month. Too many over a short period of time can be hard on a church. However, I cannot over emphasize the importance of ongoing fresh music! You can often gauge the intensity of your church by the freshness of the songs you are using. Momentum comes from the new not the old. This is not a license to dismiss our classics that are tried and true. (This is another whole subject)
Themes can be a great way to travel through a worship service. It may be about the blood or about victory. I am also a proponent that a true worship experience is not created for the spectator but for personal involvement. I encourage our worshippers to at least start out by standing unless there are health issues. It is just easier to be involved when you are not relaxed in a chair or pew. We also encourage our people to feel free to come up around the front. This is not the time to sit and stare at a screen. Engaging and connecting is what a worship experience is all about! There is no substitute for an awesome worship experience and every church and guest that walks into our services deserves to experience this on a weekly basis. Help us “wrap worship around the world!”

Why the iClub?

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

I know that my purpose is to "wrap Worship Around The World!" I have traveled all over and I am constantly seeing the need for a better worship experience in our churches. So many churches struggle with lack of talent, lack of equipment and even lack of leadership. The iClub was a tool to help solve this issue. And yet there are some who just excel at this area and just are looking for anointed music for their church.

If you are a smaller but growing church you can now have incredible music. Original tracks that we pay for are at your fingertips! Music from worship leaders such as Mark Condon, Trent Cory, Eddie James, Dr. Leonard Scott, Landy Maughon and many more can now help you lead each week.

All you need to do is choose three or four songs each week and download them and start play and just go from one track to the next without stopping. You can have singers sing along with and even have a leader and have unbelievable worship regardless to your size of congregation! Why limit your church's worship experience any longer.

Worship is the anesthesia to the word of God and will set you up for great church week in and week out!

In the past few months our iClub membership has really taken off and we are wanting to serve you as well! Give it a try. The worst thing that could happen is that you gave it a try for a few months. You can always cancel your membership with an easy e-mail.

We are honored and excited to serve you!

Founder of the iCLub

Mark Condon

The iClub is the real deal.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Did you know that all the resources available in the club are directly from the artist? That's right! The music you will download is the same music used in the studio to create the track. The part helps are remixes of the original singers.

It's the real deal. No homemade part tapes or third party transcriptions here. How many times have you downloaded a lead sheet from the internet only to find out it's now quite right? Not any more. The iClub is the real deal and 100% legal too. Sleep easy knowing you are getting fresh, authentic and accurate music directly from the artist that created it.

We've changed our way of thinking.

Monday, January 12, 2009

The iClub is announcing that ALL members now have access to every file. In the past members gained access starting in the month they join. Now all new and past members can download every song the club has published. We feel that this shift will increase value and help us grow our membership.

For members that have stayed with us it's our way of saying thanks.

Bill Harding
Webmaster

Our first tutorial is up!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

From time to time we get people saying that when they click mp3s nothing happens. Some people even quit the club because of it. In every case that we have investigated it has been because the default music player application is broken or misconfigured. The offending program is usually Quicktime.

If you are one of the unlucky people who can't download because of Quicktime this video is for you. It's entitled "How to Downlad File the Correct Way". It will explain how to bypass your music player so you can save the files you have paid for. Once download they can be opened with a different application that works.

This is the first in a series of tutorial videos so stay tuned...
Go There Now!

Bill Harding
Webmaster

The iClub Is About To Get Better!

Friday, December 05, 2008

We have made agreements with Eddie James, Trent Corey and Dr. Leonard Scott to place their music
in our iClub. This is an awesome benefit to all of our members. In my opinion these are some
of the best writers and artists in ministry today! You will start seeing their music in January 09!

I would imagine that you have sang their songs but may not have realized who the writer was. You are about to be blessed this coming year! Tell your friends to become a member and enjoy one of the most amazing resources available!!!

More diverse than ever! GET READY!!!