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Christian Worship: Playlist is the successor to HymnSoft

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Christian Worship: Playlist is a flexible and practical solution that will work for the broadest number of congregations possible, requires only a minimal level of computing resources and technical skill, and avoids obsolescence by making use of reliable existing software.

Many congregations, my own included, have relied on products like HymnSoft to lead congregational singing in the Sunday service. Christian Worship: Service Builder will offer an optional, add-on product called Christian Worship: Playlist as the successor to Hymnsoft.

It is not a feature-by-feature update to HymnSoft, rather it is a new product with a different approach to solving the particular technical problem that HymnSoft had set out to solve. At the heart of the solution is encoded audio.

Encoded audio is an audio recording in an MP3 or M4A format. In this format musical attributes like key, tempo, and instrumentation cannot be adjusted. That is because encoded audio is a recording of a real musician playing the music through a high-quality digital instrument. This is in contrast to sequenced audio, like MIDI, which is a set of digital musical instructions. With sequenced audio, it is possible to make adjustments to key, tempo and instrumentation, but the musical performance can feel mechanical and sound artificial because it lacks the human element of playback. 

MIDI is a very powerful system, but because it is technically challenging, because it has a very limited market, and because copyright holders are extremely reluctant to grant digital permissions for MIDI distribution we have moved away from MIDI as a technical solution in the successor to HymnSoft.  Therefore, Christian Worship: Playlist will offer only encoded audio.

So, how will Christian Worship: Playlist work? The software will integrate directly with your Christian Worship: Service Builder worship plans. Christian Worship: Playlist will generate a set of encoded audio files based on the music you have scheduled for a particular service. You can customize the number of stanzas in a particular hymn and can select organ or piano recordings. 

After creating the service, users will download a zipped package of the relevant encoded audio files for each service to be loaded into the playback software of their choice, such as Apple Music, Windows Media Player, or other audio players. The device used to play the service music could be a computer or a mobile device connected to the church’s sound system and does not need to be connected to the internet during playback. Other options include connecting the computer or mobile device to the AUX IN jack on a digital organ to play through its speakers or to a standalone powered speaker..

This new approach will require an adjustment by many, but we have concluded that this approach makes the best use of our resources and provides a solution that reaches as many as possible. It will be a flexible and practical solution for making use of the Christian Worship suite.

Christian Worship: Playlist will launch in 2022 after the main launch of Christian Worship: Service Builder targeted for late 2021.

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Christian Worship: Service Builder provides a generous trial mode at no cost

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An enduring challenge we’ve faced in this time between the early preview of Christian Worship: Service Builder and the coming launch has been describing the software and its capabilities. Congregations and their leaders naturally have dozens of questions about what they can expect Christian Worship: Service Builder to do for them week in and week out.

But, rather than dig into every little detail about the software, we’ve chosen to speak in broad terms about the most prominent capabilities of Christian Worship: Service Builder. We know that, in fact, the best way for people to learn what Christian Worship: Service Builder can do is to use the software.

Imagine trying to describe a new vehicle. You might describe the styling of the exterior or the performance under the hood. You could explain what it feels like to sit in the driver’s seat or how the car handles under braking. This communicates something about the car, but you and I both know the best way to get the new car across is to show someone the car, or, even better, to have them drive it.

The same applies to Christian Worship: Service Builder. To understand the software and appreciate how it will fit into your congregation’s worship ministry you simply must take it for a spin. You’ll learn more that way than you could learn from listening to me explain it. This is why Christian Worship: Service Builder provides a generous trial mode at no cost.

The trial mode in Christian Worship: Service Builder has no practical time limit. It does not expire after 30 days. You can try Christian Worship: Service Builder for as long as you’d like before committing to an annual subscription. The only limitation on the trial mode is that you cannot export material for printing or presentation. Granted, that’s a significant limitation, but it does mean that you can explore everything about the software up to that critical point.

And because trial mode includes access to the entire content library and all the software’s features, we cannot offer trial accounts before the launch. Trial mode is the finished product, not an intermediate, half-finished beta. Trial accounts will become available on the same day as launch later this year. Then you’ll get answers to many of your questions by taking Christian Worship: Service Builder for a test drive. And I’m quite certain that once you’ve seen for yourself all that Christian Worship: Service Builder can do you’ll be eager to put the software to use in your congregation.