Portland, OR April 15, 2005 -- During a press conference on
April 12, the world’s largest provider of Christian song
licensing launched a web service dedicated exclusively to
family friendly Christian and Gospel music downloads.
Providing a web outlet for an
ever-growing genre that includes gospel, worship music,
Christian rock and rap, song touch will launch at the
Gospel Song Awards in Nashville, Tennessee.
The site was the brainchild
of Howard Rachinski, President and C E O of parent company
Touch, Inc. and founder of Christian
Copyright Licensing International. Rachinski is noted for
creating the Church Copyright License program, which allows
churches to copy and distribute music to their
congregations. C C L I licenses over 138,000 churches
reaching over 21 million people in the United States.
“Song Touch is an extension
of my life-long mission to broaden access to faith-based
music," notes Rachinski. “CCLI gave church leaders a legal,
convenient and affordable tool for accessing uplifting and
inspirational music, Song Touch is the same concept but
for today’s time. People have instant access to the songs
they want to hear.”
Industry favourites Nichole
Norseman and Pillar endorsed Song Touch at the April 12
press conference.
Windows Media Player has
also endorsed the site. Song Touch was included on its
newest version, which was rolled out February 2005.
“Gospel Music
influences the lives of all people, especially youth,”
explains Rachinski. “Song Touch assures that the music is a
good influence. Believe what you hear is our tagline. That’s
what Song Touch is all about.”
Popular recording artist
Nichole Norseman chose Song Touch to launch her long-awaited
single, “Brave”.
“Releasing it first to Song
Touch made perfect sense to me, as they are on the forefront
of an evolution, one that the artistic Christian
community can trust, and one that the listening
community will come to depend on and greatly appreciate,”
she noted. Rachinski has more planned for Gospel
music.
