CCLI - Lawyers and Worship?

By admin on Mar 21, 2008 | In Indie Worship | 4 feedbacks »

As I have mentioned before, I’m on a bit of a quest to find ways to make quality worship for free. I have also mentioned, that to make quality music it takes money. (paying musicians, studio fees, equipment ect.) I have been looking at ways to advertise on free worship sites (much like the whole open source Linux community) and various other ways to produce quality worship for free. One thing that kept coming up was this CCLI (www.ccli.com) many indie worship musicians made sure to “mention” that they are part of this organization. Because I am looking for creative ways to finance free worship, I immediately went to the site and looked around. I must admit I was first quite excited about it, because basically they give you royalties when your music is played in churches. I was so intrigued I even wrote them of my interest to join. As I began my dialog with “CCLI Copyright Department “ I started to get a mixed feeling. I began to think about why they are charging churches and for what are they charging them. I know that it is legal for a church to sing songs without worrying about copyrights ect. So I did some research and realized they were charging churches for (and I quote the website) “1) copying music without permission, and 2) showing videos/movies without authorization.” …….
…… I was like…. What?? You are charging churches so they have the right to photocopy a song for people to play and sing to worship God? Is this not a new low even for North America and Europe? It makes me laugh when I think about it, what about the underground church in China, what if they hand out paper with words of worship songs, as they sing in secret places and the middle of the night hoping to escape persecution for their Christianity, are the lawyers going to find them and start charging the underground church. I have been a Christian my whole life and I have never heard of a musician suing a church because they photocopied their song …..lol. It is funny even to think about that and yet this company seems to be based on “protecting “ the church from these type of lawsuits. Oh, they do have other “services” included with the membership, but from what I see copyrights are the just of the business model. The thing that bothers me the most is that Worship music is probably 50% if not more of phrases and poems and psalms directly from the Bible. So are worship musicians and CCLI using the words of a public domain book and charging the church for the “right” to put it on an overhead or a piece of paper so they can worship together. To me it just seems bizarre. The CCLI website says that over 150 000 churches in North America alone are part of the organization (which seems to be a global phenomenon ) and I noticed that a church with 25-99 people pay $112 dollars annually. That makes their North American operations bringing in $16 800 000. (that’s if the 150 000 churches were small) Now there is many parts of the world where people have no money to eat or in China Christians are being killed and persecuted, but here in North America we choose to take resources from the church body that could be used to feed children or lobby against our brothers and sisters who face persecution so we have the “right” to photocopy songs. I know the comparison my be a bit dramatic but even still with that much money we should ask some questions and make some comparisons. Am I saying that CCLI is an bad organization? I am not sure at this point what it is, I do like the fact that musicians are making some money, I am just curious about how much of it is going to the musicians and how much is going to CCLI. I DO NOT however approve of a musician writing a song with 50% or more of its lyrics coming from the Bible and having the audacity to charge the church to make a photocopy of it.
All of this is just my views of course and I know very little about the company so I would never judge any musician who is a part of it. I just want some answers to questions I have and would love any comments from anyone reading this. In the meantime I’ll ask CCLI a few questions.

Cory Broersma

www.freeworshipsongs.org

Comment from: Linda DuMontier [Visitor] · http://www.myspace.com/joeldumontier
I just contacted CCLI because we are looking for a service such as they offer in song select. My husband has just been asked to lead the worship team, but needs a database of worship songs for some new material. Plus being able to print chord and leadsheets while transposing them would be awesome. However, with CCLI you must first purchase the license and then the song select is an additional cost. I was also put off. like you by the "need to legal". Aren't churches non-profit?Therefore I don't see how copyright would apply since they aren't putting on a performance. Can you recommend any sites that are similar to song select, but don't demand licensing first?
09/09/08 @ 12:18
Comment from: cory broersma [Visitor]
I wish their was.... Their used to be websites with words to the popular christian songs but the labels are shutting them down... :( I guess worshiping God had become big business.
09/17/08 @ 06:26
Comment from: RG [Visitor]
I think an important point is being missed here. While churches may be "non profit" as you say, they are still subject to expenses. They have to pay their electric bill. They have to pay their phone bill. And by the way, so too do the composers of the music they use. CCLI simply allows composers to collect earnings on the music that they have made available for churches to incorporate into their services. The payment a church makes allows the church permission, from the copyright holder (via CCLI), to reproduce the material that is under copyright. That sounds very fair to me. Why shouldn't a composer be properly compensated for their work? Isn't the elecric company properly compensated for the service they afford the church? Doesn't the baker get paid for the bread the church serves?
09/17/08 @ 13:07
Comment from: admin [Member] Email
I agree with you on the point that a composer should be compensated for their work ... and of course this is just my own personal opinion .... but I find ccli a company with many secrets and seemingly no accountability. I have tried to get their pricing scheme via email and the website and continually come up against brick walls. In fact, I find the way they advertise their services misleading, because churches are made to think they cannot use worship songs without their approval when in fact all they do is basically give a church a "right" legally to use the overheads ( according to my own research... which may be wrong but as far as I can tell is not ) .... Anyhow, I want to know what percent the composer actually gets !! Another thing which is funny is that they only "accept" composers who's songs they believe are used enough.... Basically doing the work for the composers who make them the most money, while excluding those whom they deem are not cost effective enough.
To me it all seems like another scam perpetuated on the Christian Church. If a composer is getting a decent check from CCLI they are already making alot from their record sales ... All the rest will get a few dollars once in a while .... while CCLI reaps millions from the huge volume of small accounts they have.... I don't know if I'm correct but this is the way I see it ...
09/18/08 @ 05:25

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