BMI & Christian Copyright Solutions Announce New Church Performance License
Broadcast Music, Inc.® (BMI) and Christian Copyright Solutions (CCS) recently announced the launch of a new church performance license for non-exempt music performances. Representing more than 375,000 composers, songwriters and music publishers in all genres of music and more than 6.5 million works, BMI has entered into a music licensing agreement with CCS that enables churches and non-profit religious organizations to comply with U.S. copyright law through an easy, one-stop annual license by signing up here.
The CCS PerformMusic License allows churches and non-profit ministries to legally play or perform all of the United States performing right organizations catalogs, including BMI. This license covers all non-exempt activities such as concerts (non-ticketed events), conferences and seminars, social and youth events, music-on-hold, exercise and dance classes, church coffee shops and bookstores, and playing music throughout church facilities. No reporting is required. The license covers church premises, which may include satellite or campus locations that are under the licensee’s legal and financial umbrella. BMI also collaborated with CCS in 2006 to launch the WorshipCast License, an innovative one-stop song internet performance license that authorizes churches to legally webcast 16 million songs.
“BMI is always looking for ways to better serve our customers,” says Tom Annastas, Vice President of Licensing. “We’re happy to work with CCS to provide churches a way to secure copyright clearance at low cost, with less administrative burden for everyone,” Annastas says.
“We greatly appreciate BMI’s innovation and desire to find easy solutions to complex copyright issues for churches,” says CCS Founder/CVO Susan Fontaine Godwin. “We know that churches want to do the right thing when it comes to honoring copyrights,” she explains, “And BMI has once again taken a pro-active role in developing a solution to help churches with their commitment to compliance.”
“If churches go direct to the PROs for annual licenses, they face the complexities of managing three different agreements with three different fee payments spread out various times of the year,” says Fontaine Godwin. “In addition, complex activity reporting is usually required throughout the year. Churches usually pay minimum license fees of $650 for all three. In some cases, they may need several licenses at additional cost from each PRO for various types of events or activities. We are thrilled to work with BMI in developing and offering a simple compliance solution for churches to cover all their various non-exempt music activities in one license.”
The one-stop license simplifies the application, reporting and payment process with one easy online application and just one annual fee starting as low as $184. Fees are based on the size of church congregations or regular attendance.
“The PerformMusic License saves me time and money,” says Bellevue Baptist Media Minister, Steve Cowart. “It gives me peace of mind knowing that we make just one annual payment and I’m covered for all our performance activities for 16 million songs. I save an incredible amount of time by not having to keep up with reporting responsibility.”
CCS’s innovative online Education Center features multimedia download education materials, like books, white papers, articles, videos and webinars. “Education is an essential part of our mission in helping Christian organizations become fully copyright compliant,” explains Fontaine Godwin. “We are excited to provide greater and easier access to educational information from professional copyright experts.”
Community
Connect with BMI & Professional Songwriters