Getting Songs To Your Teams

[worshipnfreelnd]

So I'm a little new at this and have alot to learn....I'm curious if you hear a song as a leader and want your team to hear it and begin to learn it how do you send them an audio of the song legally? Am I missing something or is youtube like to only way to do this? Are there ways to send MP3's legally without each member buying the songs?

Looking for answers.....

[e.andersen]

Planning Center Online gives us the ability to upload a song for them to listen to but let's us choose if it's available for download. That way they can get it legally.

Other than that, I'm not aware of a lot of other solutions.

Eric

[russhutto]

Hi welcome to TWC. Great to have you here!

I think ultimately it's illegal to reproduce music for any purpose. the laws are pretty strict. I think there is an ETHICAL debate to be had though and some people fall on the I think it's ok since we're doing it for worship side and others tend to fall on the if it's against the law I want to do everything Ic an to stay above the law.

Here's another forum on the same topic: http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/forums/leaders-teams/642-copying-cds-band-members-useful-tool-copyright-infringement.html?highlight=copying+music

You can also use our search tool to bring up this topic. I seem to remember several threads already about this subject.

Blessings!

[betnich]

That's what I do...

[RStrait]

Most the time I simply go out and purchase the music. At one of the upcoming rehearsals we will sight read the song. Sometimes I am able to have the local christian radio station play the song too. I find out what time the song will be played and then I ask the musicians to listen at one of the times the song is playing.

Faith in Christ
Rich

[hitchface]

Most of the time you can get the songs on Youtube, but for the odd one I can' find, I have no problem emailing an MP3. There are provisos though...

I only email an MP3 for instructional purposes. It is never for personal enjoyment. If someone sends me an MP3 for a song that I need to learn, I do that until I don't need it, and delete it. If I want the song, I buy it. I don't have any music on my computer or on CD that I didn't purchase, and I wanna keep it that way.

[pian0dude]

I'll chime in with my two cents...

1. Regarding sending people to links on Youtube... this seems like it'd be an okay option, however, the person posting it on Youtube has violated the copyright laws also, by posting it in the first place... unless of course, they received explicit permission from the label or have the proper licensing.

2. CCLI has told me that in no way, shape or form is it permitted under their license to reproduce an actual recording of a song. This is a reply that they recently sent me after I inquired about permissions we had.

"Under our license, we cover making copies of the songs that are covered by the CCLI license and those would be copies specifically for congregational singing only. You would need to make sure that we cover those songs before you make copies of them. The types of copies that we cover would be song sheet copies; recordings of your “live” worship service by audio, video, DVD, or CD; and also projections of songs for your congregation as well. We do not cover making backgrounds for projections—that would be completely separate from the music license; and also, we do not cover making a video slideshow or audio to the projection. To do that, you would need to get in contact with the publisher for permission. We can help you look up publishers to see if we cover them. "

3. By providing an MP3 via e-mail, you are basically saying to your team "i know I'm not supposed to do this, but I'm making the decision / exception because it's only for practice and I know you'll delete it when you're done with it or buy it if you like it". I'm not sure if this is a good stance or not as a worship leader.

My team is probably very irritated by my "by the book" attitude about this, but I try to honor the "law" vs. the "ethical debate" in this area as best I can.

A service like planning center allows you to link to Amazon MP3 recordings of songs.. which I'd assume PCO has been granted permission to do. This provides your team members the option of purchasing a digital mp3 of the song or not.

When it comes to rehearsals, I typically bring the MP3 file I purchased with me on my MP3 player (yeah, I don't have an iPod) and play it through my keyboard's USB jack. I also bring the sheet music / chord charts, which is permitted under CCLI's license agreement.

Aside from everything stated above... I do think this is an area where the record industry as a whole is WAY behind the ball. There should be various methods available to make stuff like this easier for bands in general, not just worship leaders.

As an amateur songwriter myself, I"d be honored to know people are downloading my recordings and performing them. I don't write songs for the money of it.. however, the majority of what people are performing are songs done by artists who have labels behind them that need money. It's a mess honestly....

Sorry to go on a rant...

[livin4jc445]

I have the same problem also. What i have done was burn a cd for the team to learn the music, create a email for them to download it to listen to it and send out youtube videos to them in their email and i am giving up on the first two. I found the best way is to show it to them on youtube and half the team normaly has it.

[mikeymo1741]

We tend to listen to music together. We have time set aside during our rehearsals for "new music." Anyone on the the team can suggest a song, and they are responsible to bring an audio recording of it for us all to listen to, as well as charts if they can.

If they want to purchase the recording for their own use, that's fine, but we don't provide it for them.