One big consideration that is often overlooked as churches step into live streaming is copyright law. It might be hard to believe, but copyright law applies to everything from printing chord sheets for rehearsal to recording a worship service to streaming even a few minutes of pre- and post-service music. While it sounds complicated and you might be tempted to disregard it entirely, it’s important to understand the heart behind these laws: to protect musicians’ and songwriters’ abilities to earn an income from their work, which empowers them to continue pouring the best of themselves into that work and blessing church communities around the world. While this alone is enough motivation to uphold these laws, there is also the reality that disregarding them opens you up to several consequences. The correct and legal way to uphold these copyright laws centers on obtaining licenses to use copyrighted material in a certain way. Here are some of the common licenses that you will need!
While going through these licenses, it is important to denote the difference between “recording” and “live streaming”. While they may sound similar, they are completely different, and different licenses are needed for each!
Licenses
The most well-known option is the CCLI Church Copyright License, which covers the ability to access lyrics, display lyrics, print your lyrics and chord charts, record the live music portions of your services, and other features. This license is the bare minimum you need to play and record music and display the lyrics for these songs during your service!
https://us.ccli.com/
There are two optional add-ons for the CCLI Church Copyright License, which expand the coverage to include streaming: the CCLI Streaming License and the CCLI Streaming Plus License. The basic streaming license will cover streaming your services, while the Streaming Plus license covers adding multi-tracks to your service, streaming master recordings, and other added features!
https://us.ccli.com/streaming/
Another license is the CVLI License. This license allows you to play videos, movies, and other clips during your services. This license is necessary for movie nights, or to play videos during your service.
NOTE: This license does not allow you to use this content in your live stream. We recommend that if you are using a clip from CVLI, your stream is muted and doesn’t display the clip.
https://us.cvli.com
Another license you can get is the MultiTracks.com Church Streaming license. This license allows you to use their multi-tracks while streaming! This license also allows you to display lyrics from their library. It is highly recommended that this is used in conjunction with a CCLI license, as both cover separate portions of the service and uses.
https://www.multitracks.com/products/churchstreaminglicense/
The PERFORMmusic Facilities License and the WORSHIPcast Streaming License from CCS are additional options in this space. These licenses include access to some pretty extensive song libraries that your church may want to use, though it is important to note that they are completely focused on playing or performing songs and do not cover displaying lyrics or printing out materials for those songs.
https://christiancopyrightsolutions.com/
Even with all of these options, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Read more about each license on their respective websites or speak to their licensing advisors, and try to think about all of how your church will need to use copyrighted material. Once you have a good understanding of what coverage you’ll need, you’ll be very well-equipped to select the right license (or combination of licenses) for your church!
Frequently Asked Questions
How do these licenses apply to Facebook and YouTube syndication of my streams?
YouTube and Facebook both have strict copyright terms and enforcement. Become familiar with their terms so that you do not run afoul of their copyright process, as this can cause your stream to be taken down, or demonetized, and in extreme cases, your Page or Channel can even be deactivated. In addition, the automated screening that both services use to detect copyright infringement is not designed to account for media that is properly covered by one of these licenses, so it is entirely possible to have your media taken down for copyright violations even when you are truly legally covered. Your best recourse when this happens is to appeal the takedown decision with YouTube and Facebook, though they do ultimately have the final say in this and have been known to be difficult to work with at times.
Do these licenses allow me to play music from Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Music on my stream?
Unfortunately, no. No license covers adding Spotify/Apple Music/similar services to your streams, and all occurrences of this are illegal unless the recording being played is in the public domain. We recommend using royalty-free or original music for pre- and post-service music.
If you have any questions about these licenses, we encourage you to reach out to the respective support teams so that they can get you the information you need!