MUSIC MINISTRY is a program I can finally use. It is a complete tool for a minister of music as it not only handles your choral library but your orchestrations, recordings, inventory and choir as well. I can finally see all the songs in a collection and the recordings that are associated with it in one location. Bob has been great to work with and his desire is to serve the Lord by serving us. He wants to create programs that will assist us in ministry and not sit on a shelf. I have spent hundreds of dollars on programs that don’t come close to doing what I need. I encourage you to try this program. If you see a way to improve it, let Bob know. We’ll all benefit from it. Mark Brady, Minister of Worship, Bethel Baptist Church, Chesapeake VA |
I am not often interested enough in promoting someone's product to write a letter of endorsement let alone go out of my way to make an unsolicited recommendation for it, but I have spent the better part of three days reviewing and dissecting six different music management software programs and thought others might benefit from my findings. My hope was to find a software program that was simple enough for any of my volunteers to use and feature rich enough to cover all of my needs. I found and reviewed - Church Musician, Church Music Master, Membership Director, Church Office Helper, Music Manager, and Music Ministry. One or two of the programs I eliminated because they were written for church management at large and had small or unusable portions that dealt with music. Most of the other programs were either feature poor and simple or were feature rich and complicated. Prices were all over the map. It's been a few weeks since I reviewed each product so much of what I liked and didn't like about each one is now a blur, but I slowly crossed each one off of my list for one reason or another. I finally narrowed the list to two products that were close, but not exactly what I was looking for. Undaunted, I emailed both companies and asked about their next version (hopefully in development) or if I could pay for them to make custom modifications to the program to suit my needs. Only one of the two companies, RCL Software, contacted me in return with an email followed by a phone call to further understand what I wanted them to do. They let me know that they were willing to make changes to their program for free. I couldn't believe my ears until I had a few conversations with a wonderful Christian brother named Bob Langer. Bob was interested in making his program better and was happy to make the changes that I suggested. Through these conversations, I got what I was hoping to purchase at the beginning of my search. An easy to use software program that can keep track of all of my music, including instrumental, collections, and recordings, as well as all of my member information right down to attendance records. It really has many very nice features that can be used in full, by the computer savvy among us, or can be ignored, by those of us that are still figuring out which end of the mouse to talk into (that joke was intended for all of the Star Trek fans out there.) But seriously, this is one of the best little software programs I have come across in any area of use. I have been using computers since the mid-70's and I know a little about programming, especially bad programming, and I will say without a doubt that this is a very solid program that even runs well on my old, slow computer. I have it set up on a computer network here at church and it runs equally well in that environment. The best part about all of this is the price. Bob has a link to another website that sells his software for him. They only charge $ 37.50 for it and that covers your church regardless of number of users (not that many of us have more than one or two people that would need to get into it at the same time). I really think for the money, even if you only use the library features, it is well worth the few dollars that it costs. All upgrades and tech support are free as well. Bob told me that customers have told him that he needs to charge more for the program since he has invested so many hours into writing it, and I believe that. But his response is that the Lord has laid it on him to provide good quality, useful software to churches at a very affordable cost so that they can get on with their primary task, enlarging the kingdom. Bob has also written a number of other church library and sermon preparation programs that I no nothing about. However, if it is any indication of the quality of his work, I would highly suggest that the preachers out there also download a copy of his other programs and check them out. It never hurts to find a new tool that makes life easier.
Disclaimer: I am truly writing this on my own without Bob asking me to do so. I feel that he has done a tremendous amount of work for me and has never asked for anything in return, so it's the least that I can do. There was so little help out there when I started to look into these kind of specialized programs that I thought this might be helpful information to some of you. If you are using another program that you like better, that's great! This may not be the best program for everyone. But, if you find this information helpful, praise God. I have often wondered if computers are a gift from God or a curse from Satan. Guys like Bob Langer make it easier to enjoy having a computer on my desk. Respectfully submitted, Karl Marzolf Music Director Pine Valley UMC Wilmington, NC |
Though my task is not yet complete of cataloging many years' worth of music, I genuinely appreciate having this program to help us account for all that's in our music library. Your system will GREATLY aid us. We're looking forward to using it for many years to come! As a volunteer Music Library Secretary, I've come to greatly appreciate the RCL software. Please feel free to pass this on to others who may be considering purchasing your software. Without people like you, Mr. Langer, people like me would still be trying to find things the hard way. Thank you! You've been very helpful and answering my questions and I've appreciated your speedy responses. Phyllis Swigart, Racine Bible Church, Sturtevant, WI. |
