Lloyd MacLean is on the staff of Gathering magazine, is a church musician, was on the More Voices editorial team, and also works for Wood Lake as a Sales Representative.  He responds to some copyright and licensing questions...

If our church purchases enough songbooks to supply the entire congregation can we project the lyrics on our sanctuary screen without paying licensing fees?

No, if you choose to project or reproduce lyrics in any way (in bulletins, for example), you need to be covered by a license from LicenSing (www.licensingonline.org/) , OneLicense (www.onelicense.net/), or CCLI (www.ccli.com/).

Do we acknowledge copyright when we use a selection on the screen? 

Yes, usually on a title slide, although some people put the copyright acknowledgement on each and every slide.

If a song is under more than one license do we have to pay multiple fees?

When you report usage of songs, you report them for each license that you hold that apply to each song, as some writers and composers are listed with more than one licensing agency.  This doesn’t cost you more, it just means that the copyright holders will be paid royalties from all the licensing agencies they work with.

Is the average fee $150.00 per annual license?

Depends on how many people come to your church on an average Sunday. Annual license fees are determined when you apply for your license, and are based on average total congregational attendance on an average Sunday (ie, not Christmas, Easter, or a funeral, but the total for one or more services on an ordinary Sunday.)

As I understand it, we would need to buy three annual licenses from the three different licensing companies?

That is correct, in order to cover every piece in More Voices, you would need three licenses – LicenSing, OneLicense, and CCLI.  Coming soon, we will list which songs are licensed by which agency on our website, www.morevoices.ca. An approximate breakdown of the material goes like this: about 60% is covered by LicenSing (most Canadian content, major American publishers), about 30% is covered by OneLicense (including Iona material and Taizé), and about 10% is covered by CCLI (mainly Christian Contemporary Music).  Again, keep in mind that some copyright holders are covered by more than one license.

Is an annual fee more cost effective than paying per single use?

In most cases, yes, unless you are hosting a special event.

 If you have further questions or would like to know the copyright around a specific song, please write to Lloyd at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The United Church of Canada has created a guide to copyright and you will find this at:

http://www.united-church.ca/local/copyright