It’s been way too long since I’ve made such a list, probably since early on in the days of CMZ, so I figure I’m way past due for pointing all of our readers to some other sites that they just might enjoy if for some reason they haven’t already stumbled upon them. Some of these I read more frequently than others and I get most of our news items from emails, twitter and facebook, but some of these sites do have info that we miss. I like to think of us (Christian music bloggers) as a team, all of us, trying to help each other minister to you all in getting out info about bands that we can have fellowship with in Christ through music. Where others might find it to be a competition, that shouldn’t be how the Kingdom of God works so I try not to work that way. So here we go…
CMZ Links:
CMZINE on twitter
Like CMZ on facebook
Friend CMZ editor Tyler Hess on facebook
Subscribe to our youtube
Other Christian Music Websites/Blogs that I use frequently:
HM Mag – Probably the godfather of all Christian music magazines, having started out as a metal fan zine, is now trying to stay strong in the midst of a dying breed of music magazine.
Jesus Freak Hideout – This site is pretty much like our site, except more established by about a decade, with a better design and a much larger readership. If you didn’t know about HM and JFH already then you must be new, so welcome and have a nice, long stay.
Indie Vision Music – The best there is in covering independent Christian bands (they cover the label stuff too) and once upon a time I was a reviewer for the site as well. Go say hi to my good friend and IVM owner for over a decade, Brandon Jones, he has more music than you can imagine existing.
New Release Tuesday – Although I find much of the site to be a navigation nightmare, they do tend to have the best updated list of what release dates are available and are generally very accurate. I try to verify the information independently before putting up anything on CMZ, but I do sneak a peak at NRT from time to time.
TVU/RADIOU – Yes they play music videos and yes they are sort of a radio station, BUT they also keep us updated w/ news info sometimes!
Absolutepunk - Warning! This is a secular music website and I try to not read comments because they make my eyes bleed, but they do have some good coverage of a lot of the bands that we happen to cover that are scene friendly.
Some newer or smaller blogs to the scene that are similar to CMZ:
The Free Christian Music Blog - My friend Matt has been running this site for years and there are a lot of updates on how you can receive free, legal digital downloads of songs or albums from Christian bands and artists.
Christian Rock Rocks – When I keep saying that I’m friends with all these guys, it’s what I call someone after I’ve made fun of them on twitter for a few months. Brooks runs this one and he has a lot of reviews and occasional news bits.
The Classic Christian Rock Site – A different Matt runs this and he happens to be on our staff! Matt does all of our Flashback Friday segments and with good reason, he’s an expert on that old stuff and is the last known holdout on using a CD player instead of an ipod.
Air 1 Music Blog - I know that Air 1 isn’t small, but their blog is less known than their radio station, so I’m tossing this in there because they do have the occasional good news tip.
Jay’s Music Blog – Jay is new to the scene, and therefore gets the most freshman torture out of yours truly, but he still does his thing…which is mostly reviewing music.
Some sites that I just want to plug:
Swagbucks - This is a great way to earn a little bit of fun money (via Amazon Gift Certificates) so that you can buy mp3 albums of the bands that we recommend!
The Art of John Holcomb – A good friend of the blog, John is a super talented artist that has designed some album art and even a cover for HM!
I’m sure I missed something. That’s what the edit button is for. Otherwise, check all these sites out…it might kill some time while you’re waiting for new music.
I knew I’d forget some…
Hopecore - Only comes out once a month and covers more hard music than i care for, but Jamie Ketchum and his crew do a bang up job with this digital mag.
P&F – This is our interviewer Cara Fisher’s blog.
Thank you for reading Christian Music Zine, home of the best new Christian music!
Well I will shamelessly plug http://thegracenotes.net (I’m terribly inconsistent at linking to this or linking to my Twitter when I comment in places online) Even though I’m doing more posting for IndieVisionMusic these days, I still post some interviews and do a summary of 5-6 albums every month with links for checking out. And I’ve been linking to you in my sidebar for some time
ive seen that url before, but didnt know what it was or who ran it, good to know!
Sweet! Swagbucks and I! Thanks Tyler!
You should totally check out the site I work for its called Christcore.net: http://www.christcore.net/index.php
Hey Tyler thanks for the hookup and positive words. When I am not so insanely busy I like to trek on over here for fun articles and stories. We are all like one big family in the Christian music realm. It’s too ba I don’t have a lot of extra money to spend on getting ivms name out there within the industry. I can’t even afford to print merch. Oh well. Keep up the good work
Brian, I’ve been to that site from time to time, is it running full time now?
Brandon…I feel ya, if I had someone who could do design work for the site i’d try to make this site totally legit instead of just a fun little thing…there are too many really lame sites and far too few great sites. i’m thankful that you keep running ivm though, i check it daily because i know there’s bound to be something cool that i missed
when i move back to so cali we’ll have to find a show to hang out at 