Shout Music Manager

I love teaching clinics and seminars on Shout Music Manager. It never fails. Every couple minutes you can hear someone gasp or moan, or see their eyes roll when they see how something they've struggled with for years can now be done with a click of the mouse.

I always start by asking the group to tell me about the tasks that eat them alive; those things that take too much of their time and keep them from doing face-to-face ministry.

In the 12 years I've been giving seminars on Shout Music Manager, and its predecessor, Integrity Music's "Worship Software," I've rarely been surprised by someone's need. I suppose that's because I have been a Minister of Music myself for over 30 years. Shout Music Manager is the codification of a career's worth of tools I've used to survive and thrive.

Here are eight of the most common issues cited.

1. Selecting relevant music for worship. I ask to see a show of hands from all those who are frustrated by the task of selecting music that supports the theme of the service. Without fail, just about everyone's hand goes up. I explain that, once they start using Shout Music Manager, they're still going to be frustrated with this task, but at a much more advanced level. I then proceed to demonstrate what I mean. I ask for someone to suggest a theme; any theme, maybe with a Scripture passage, and any other criteria they might want. It's always fun, because it's kind of a "stump the band" thing. I usually get some relatively obscure theme. I love this part. Using just one of the four incredible music search engines in Shout Music Manager, we assemble the criteria together in just seconds. A couple seconds later a list of song candidates is displayed, almost always with more than a thousand possibilities. Big grins, chuckles and moans everywhere. Lest they be daunted by more than a thousand songs to pick from, I point out how each song has been numerically ranked based upon its relevance to our criteria, and the best options, the "home-runs," are sitting right there at the top of the list. We begin to look through the titles and lyrics and point out how each song is more perfect than the one before. There are always songs that none of us would have considered or remembered. Here's where the advanced frustration comes in. "How can you choose just one or two of these when the title of the pastor's sermon is right there in verse 3?" Heads are shaking in amazement.

2. Cataloging my own music. Almost every music minister has a room full of octavos, or a drawer full of songs, or a hymnal or songbook they want to use more efficiently. I love demonstrating how Shout Music Manager has 5 different methods for cataloging your own music; each one incredibly efficient and tailored to a specific type of music. There's the Music Batch Entry method for cross-referencing hymnal and songbooks; a way to clone existing songs for your own collection, a method for downloading song data from CCLI, or importing music data from a spreadsheet or other computerized lists you may have attempted, and even a method designed specifically for going through a file drawer of octavos. There are no limits to the number of songs you can add. In fact, there are just no limits anywhere in Shout Music Manager.

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