Jo Lane
From Bewdley Baptist Church
12 May 2009 - 9:15pm
I want to encourage all the worship leaders in our church to download and listen to new songs as we introduce them. What is the best (and legal) way to do this? Is there a way of making and copying a CD of downloaded songs that is legal or is the only way to get them to download them themselves?
All thoughts much appreciated.
irish_admiral
From Cardiff Vineyard
13 May 2009 - 3:03pm
Hi Jo
Knotty problem this. The most legal way is to get each of them to buy the CD or the MP3. However, not always the easiest as it costs money.
Few other ideas... perhaps try and make a recording yourself to distribute to people on MP3 or CD so they can practise with it; lend people CDs or email them MP3s and let them sort it out. I'm not entirely sure as to how the rules work with song sharing like that for a limited period but I tend to not worry about it too much and just let the other guys deal with it on their own.
I tend to work by the rule that (for some things at least) it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission...
Joe
"One, two, three, here we go..."
Hi Jo
An easy option is to use YouTube
You can usually find a good rendition of most songs on there and send round a link for folk to watch / listen too.
Neil
Neil - good call!
Joe
"One, two, three, here we go..."
Spotify is another option, its free software that allows you to stream loads of music legally, you have to listen to a few adverts though...
Spotify is awesome.
Youtube is good.
And recording it yourself is feasible, also useful if you want to do it in a different key. They can then practice in the key you will be playing it in.
I also find that lending people your cd is a good one.....not illegal, and you can't be held responsible for what they do with it (or maybe you can...?)
Thanks for the replies everyone. Haven't heard of spotify so will check that out. Agree Youtube is good. Jo
K what I do is just buy the cd or go to someone you know who has the cd to burn it onto a blank that you can make copies of. But as far as legality goes, im just a youth worship leader, I use limewire
www.calebjoelsmith.ning.com
This is a tough one and has been discussed elsewhere on this forum. Lending CDs is not strictly legal and making MP3 copies or full CD burns certainly isn't. YouTube is a good idea although often the songs themselves are not legally uploaded to YouTube. Recording the song yourself is illegal too. Even typing or printing out the lyrics is outside the restrictions of most publishing rights too! Spotify is a very good idea, but unfortunately the vast majority of Christian worship song publishing rights do not make it at all easy to distribute songs within worship teams.
Matt
No, I agree Matt MP3 copies and full CD burns are not good, so don't do it!!!
Matt, have you been able to write up about your chat with CCLI yet?
And I think this is an important question to ask anyway so I'm gonna do it:
The worship "industry" seeks to equip the church, however, not everyone is fortunate enough to keep up to date with the latest albums/songs etc. So how can we go about equipping those who can't afford to buy into this industry?
Also, I get why CD's need to be sold, I study music, and you cant be a full time musician for free, you'd probably starve. But there must be a way out there of helping out those that struggle to buy CDs.
maybe ( I just thought of this) there is a way that CCLI and the record companies can sell collections of songs/albums to churches, CDs that are coded so you cant put them on the computer. and then churches can have a lending system.........
It's a struggle.
A way that we do it (not the best way....) but we take a rehearsal purely to learn a new song. Usually we have 3 or 4 copies of it (legal ones!) and we'll split into groups, drummers, guitarists (and bassists), and vocalists. Then there'll be a "leader" in each group, who will go through the parts, and get the musicians to play along to the track. Then we join together and put all the separate pieces together.
Technically, playing the radio, CDs etc at any workplace / some public places is illegal without a special license, and I suspect it's the same at church gatherings as it's a public place. How many of us just bung a CD on before the service starts though, or have plugged an iPod into the speakers at a party?
Are practices one of these scenarios? It's a bit grey isn't it. If you take your CD round to a friend's house and play it, it might not be legal, but it could be legal if you live there. Do you have to be officially domiciled there or just staying for the week? Is it still legal if you're not there?
What a load of hot air...
This is one of those areas that I tactfully ignore some of the rules on as it makes the practicalities of worship and just the life of the church a bit of a pain otherwise.
I remember at a university event when we recorded the talk & band's worship set and wanted to host it online so it was available to the students to download, but when we checked with the record companies although Vineyard Music UK were absolutely fine with anything ("from the church, for the church"), Kingsway clammed up faster than a rat-trap and said we couldn't do it with their songs without paying ("you must first cross our palms with GOLD"). Heck, what sort of student organisation has that money?
I tend to go on the 'do I feel like i've got a clean conscience' feeling, and for something like this, yes. Absolutely. I've bought my CDs and the church has a CCLI license (don't get me started on that). If i've got it wrong according to the letter of the law, well, the Lord can chastise me when I see Him. And as I said, for some things it's just easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
/rant.
Joe
"One, two, three, here we go..."
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