Many churches hold the idea that it is wrong to charge what God has given a person. We can debate the merits of that all day, but there is a school of thought that says when a person writes a worship song that they claim was inspired by God, they don’t have a right to charge for it’s use.

The odd thing is that I have never met a song writer, or artist who has ever cared about this. My church puts out praise and worship albums as well as albums for groups and individuals. We have never had an artist not allow the use of a song on a CD, nor have they ever asked for royalties from it. (Our artists do the same thing – if someone wants to use a song they wrote on an album, they have the artist’s permission.)

It is usually the record company that raises the stink – not the artist. Of course, it can be said that the record company does not have the same interest as the artist, but that is another discussion.

I have seen the agreement, but not read it, that our church has to cover “praise and worship” songs as well as “cover” versions of songs used in services. It is a general agreement that covers the use of the songs in a specific venue. It is similar to the same agreements bars and nightclubs have for live music. The bar pays a fee and the bands can do cover songs of other people’s works.

Anyway, there are a lot of people who write choral arrangements for schools, etc. It would be unfair to have a “school exemption” because it would simply put them out of business….

Same way they did before the modern expansion of the performance right.

I blame Powerpoint. Before you had to buy a Hymn book for each seat in the auditorium. The cost of the song was built into the song book. Now songs can be typed up from memory and beamed onto a screen without paying.

I am assuming the people who do special music also buy sheet music and perform from that, but I could be wrong. All the sheet music I’ve ever seen had ASCAP stuff on it.

That, and we can pass laws allowing the copyright holders to let a few things like this slide without endangering their property. that is part of the problem, too. IP holders are almost legally required to act like jerks to protect their property, because if they let a school perform a given song, next thing you know, a cover band can take it without permission.