I started out typing a long explanation of copyright law for some church leaders who have recently been asking me questions. There are plenty of sites out there that do a good job explaining things in detail, so I’m just going to give you the basics.

1. If you are performing a song in what the Copyright Office would consider a religious service (”in the course of services at a place of worship or other religious assembly”), then you can perform the songs without any kind of permission whatsoever.
2. However, you cannot print or display the lyrics, record the service via audio or video, nor can you reproduce chord charts for your band even if they include the title of the song or any of the songs lyrics without written consent from the owners of the copyright.
3. That is where CCLI comes in. They cover chart printing (not choir or orchestra sheet music copying), recordings (not distributed or sold), and lyrics displayed among other things I don’t specifically use.
4. If your band plays other people’s songs for community events or anything that is not a “religious services,” it is considered a non-exempt public performance and you would be breaking the law without permission from the copyright holder. Contrary to popular belief, CCLI does not cover these types of performances along with many other things.

• CCLI has a limited library and includes no secular tunes or many popular songs heard of Christian radio. If you just perform the song without displaying lyrics, you’re in the clear so long as your band members learned the song on there own you did not create and distribute charts.
• CCLI also does not cover web broadcasts of the music you perform - but Church Copyright Administration does along with everything else including video. CCA is expensive and requires serious planning-ahead skills - like 4-8 weeks out planning-ahead skills. They describe themselves as the difference between buying turbo tax (CCLI) and hiring a professional personal accountant (CCA).
• With so many new artists and so many new songs that are not registered with CCLI, it is legally up to you (whoever is in charge of reporting) to locate the copyright owner/publisher and report to them your use of their song and pay the PROs (publishing rights organizations) the proper royalties.
• If you are a member of the Willow Creek Association you can get discounts on licenses that are not covered by CCLI.

Bottom line, it is expensive, complicated, and extremely time consuming to be compeltely covered, but there is a slight bit of room in the U.S. copyright law for liberal interpretation. Churches are similar to schools as they are non-profit organizations that a teach reproduces copyrighted material to a face-to-face audience for educational purposes. In that regard, the “fair use” clause in the U.S. copyright law allows for even more exemptions. Though I’ve never heard of any church being taken to court over this gray area and the chances are pretty slim it ever will, it could happen and you would not want it to be you.

Tim Stevens discusses copyright a bit in his book “Pop Goes the Church.”

This site is a nice resource and much easier to read than the pages on the official U.S. Copyright Office’s website. The laws have changed from time to time, so make sure your info is up to date.