Live Streaming of Church Services…
In these extraordinary times, many churches are looking at streaming services to their congregations.
If music is involved, unless all the music is in the public domain written (both words and music) by composers and authors who died over 70 years ago – up to 31st December 1949, a licence is required.
At present, there are a number of options:
- 1. A OneLicense licence grants churches, schools, religious communities, retreat centres, and other worshiping bodies permission to reprint or project music for their congregations from any of their Member Publishers. A OneLicense Podcast / Streaming Licence grants permission to podcast or stream religious services that contain music from their Member Publishers. This would negate the need for a PRS licence during this period.
Click here for details of OneLicense.Net licence.
- 2. Those wishing to live-stream via platforms such as Facebook, Spotify or YouTube should be covered by the existing licensing agreements in place with those platforms. Please ensure you follow the terms of use and copyright requirements of each respective platform.
- 3. If a church wishes to host a live-stream on their own website then they can apply for a limited online music licence (LOML) from the PRS.
- 4. If a Church is utilising Zoom or Skype for live streaming their services, they should enquire directly with those platforms in order to determine the terms of use and relative copyright requirements.
It should be noted that whilst OneLicense covers many publishers, including OCP, Oxford University Press, Stainer & Bell and Taizé, it doesn’t cover ThankYou Music or Integrity Music.
CCLI Now offer a streaming licence. Their new Church Streaming Licence, combined with the Limited Online Music Licence (LOML) from PRS for Music, permits you to legally webcast your services, including the worship music.
Together, the CCLI Streaming Licence and the PRS for Music LOML allow you to stream or webcast both the video and audio of worship services from your usual meeting place.
The CCLI Streaming Licence provides coverage for every one of the songs covered under the CCLI Copyright Licence. It should be noted that whilst CCLI covers many publishers, it doesn’t cover Taizé or OCP composers such as Bernadette Farrell or Dan Schutte.
Coverage is immediate, so you can begin uploading services to your church website or other streaming platforms straightaway.