Thursday, December 29, 2005

We'll Sing the Songs of Zion

UPDATED -- See Updates Below:

I just ran across a new web site you might find interesting via Mark Hansen's Blog.

If you like LDS music, you might want to tune in to KZION - a 24 hr/365 days a year Internet LDS "Radio Station". It is based out of St. George, Utah, and is commercial free. It is funded by donations. Here's an excerpt from the KZION Home Page:
"More than a music format, LDS Music is a lifestyle designed for all audiences that enjoy great music from an LDS perspective. At kzion.com we're not afraid to mix it up a little, delivering music from many different genres and musical styles. We dedicate Sundays to Sabbath appropriate music.

KZION is made available under the donationware principle. That means it's offered free of charge, and if you find it valuable, you are invited to Support this work by donating. All donations go directly to the operation of KZION."
I've been listening to KZION at work the last couple of days, and it seems quite nice. To listen to KZION, you will need the Windows Media Player, and for best results I would anticipate you would need a high-speed internet connection, and a fairly good amount of RAM memory in you PC.

So if you are looking for a good source of LDS music, you might want to give KZION a try.

UPDATE:

Maren points out a couple of additional alternatives for great Internet music listening:

BYU Radio offers Two Channels: A vocal channel, which plays vocal music, and occasional talks and LDS news items, and an Instrumental Channel, that plays LDS instrumental music only. -- (Great for listing to when preparing talks or lessons!)

Maren also recommends another music service called Pandora.com. Pandora builds a "virtual" radio station for you. You type in an artist name, or a song title, then they search their music database and will then stream similar music by similar artists. I tried to type in a couple of LDS artists, but they weren't in the Pandora database. Then I typed in "Gordon Lightfoot", just for the heck of it. They did a search, and then started playing a Gordon Lightfoot song, next came a song by the Beatles, that was in the same vein. This was followed by a Cat Stevens tune, and tunes from other artists that I wasn't familiar with, but were of the same genre. I really enjoyed the songs that Pandora pre-selected. If there was an occasional song that I didn't care for, you can just click the fast forward button on their player, and it immediately goes to the next song. Pandora has the capability to program several "radio stations" for you, each with its own unique flavor. -- The Good part is that there are no commercials. If you want to store your radio stations, you can sign up for a free membership.

Thanks Maren for your excellent suggestions!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like listening to KZion. I haven't in awhile--thank you for the reminder. I also have listening to BYURadio.org instrumental for nice church music.

Recently I also discovered Pandora.com--you type in an artist or song that you like and they play ones that are similar that you also might like. I love the internet.

Marti said...

Making a list to thank everyone who commented on my blog in 2005 - you did - thank you! List to post later today. Best wishes for 2006!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you tried Pandora and liked it. They don't have LDS, but they do have many others that I like. If you don't like one of the songs they play, you can also click on it that you don't like the song--they will then skip it but also slightly change their selection and not play songs similar to the ones that you don't like. It is very interesting.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the shout out David and Maren.

John
KZION LDS Radio