New Technology Brings New Ways To Worship

July 23, 2019

PERFORMmusic Onsite Facilities License vs. Soundtrack Your Brand

New technology is facilitating an explosion of ways to proclaim God’s Word, especially through audio, video, media and internet productions. The result is increased uses of copyrighted material, so it’s more important than ever to know how to avoid copyright infringement and risk of fines. 

As a church, you have various options for licensing music you play outside of your services. Recently, we’ve had a lot of customers ask about Spotify’s Soundtrack Your Brand. With this service, you pay monthly for curated soundtracks or put together one of your own. So what are the differences between the PERFORMmusic Onsite Facilities License and Soundtrack Your Brand?

PERFORMmusic conveys public performance rights for ALL music, BUT you still have to legally source your music from somewhere. Soundtrack Your Brand provides the actual music and the public performance right but does NOT cover music from all three of the major Performance Rights Organizations (PROs).  Let’s take a closer look…

What songs are covered?

As mentioned, a major difference is the PRO song catalogs covered. 

Soundtrack Your Brand does not include any content from SESAC. It filters out all SESAC content which includes artists like Adele, Neil Diamond, Mariah Carey, and Lee Brice – just to name a few. However – it does include SOCAN, so for Canadian churches, it may be the only option.

With the CCS PERFORMmusic license, you receive instant access to over 25 million songs from all three major PROs – ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. PERFORMmusic is only available in the United States.

Where does the music come from?

Soundtrack Your Brand only covers music sourced from Spotify. It does NOT cover music played from another source other than  Soundtrack Your Brand curated content. It does not cover music sourced from CDs or any other format including DJ, karaoke, other digital streaming services, or live music. 

With PERFORMmusic ALL your music is covered. Background music before services, in your church office, hallways or bookstore, live events, CDs, on-hold music, sing-alongs,  VBS – you name it!

Of course, it is the church or user’s responsibility to understand and abide by the Terms & Conditions of any service you use. In many cases, it is advisable to obtain legal counsel regarding how to legally use the service and avoid copyright infringement.

If you’d like to learn more, you can call and talk to a copyright expert at 877-394-5566 or chat live with one of our copyright experts right from our site.

About Christian Copyright Solutions: CCS’s quest is to help churches and Christian ministries “do music right.” CCS is an expert on church music copyrights and our primary focus is providing licensing and clear educational resources to churches, as well as representation, administration, and advocacy for copyright owners. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. The information contained herein is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice or a substitute for legal counsel.

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