how can you legally play a petra song in public?

[biggestfan]

Hey. I was wondering. Do you need to pay anything to play a petra song at church or in a concert? Do you only have to pay if you're making money off of it? I'm gonna join the worship team next year and maybe'd be able to convince them to play some Petra songs. That's why I'm asking.

[axelegend]

If your church pays annually for a CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) license, then it already has the ability to legally play Petra's music. In fact, the CCLI license allows Christian non-profit organizations to perform the music and to display the lyrics (as in on a projector screen). It even allows the organization to record its own version (NO samples of the original recordings are permitted, however - that requires a totally separate license), and sell it on CD (for no more than $4 per CD). All of the songs penned by Bob Hartman are part of the CCLI database.

For further information, check out http://www.ccli.com/

Here is a quick overview of how the CCLI works: http://www.ccli.com/US/WhatWeOffer/Chur ... rview.aspx

If your church does not already have a CCLI license, it would be a great thing to look into, because all of the popular "praise & worship" songs are in the CCLI database as well. This allows churches to play the music live, display the lyrics, and more - and it's 100% legal. The cost of the license depends upon the size of your church.


The other option, which would be more expensive, would be to contact the performing rights societies (such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc.) who are responsible for granting licenses and permissions for artists to cover other artists' songs (they also handle royalties and a ton of other business-related stuff in the music biz). Each organization has a searchable database, where you can search by title, author, artist, etc. Once you look up a particular song, you can get the contact information for the music publisher. For example, our own Bob Hartman publishes his own music through House of Bob Publishing, which is a registered member of SESAC (check out the credits in the CD liner notes and you'll see it listed by the lyrics and writing credits for each song). You can get the contact information through SESAC's website and go through the process of obtaining licenses for each individual song (licenses are required for broadcasting, performance, recording, duplication, etc.). Check out the websites for SESAC, ASCAP, and BMI to search the databases for which song(s) you would be interested in performing. For your convenience, following is the contact info for each of the 4 major performing rights societies:

ASCAP
One Lincoln Plaza
New York, NY 10023
(800) 95-ASCAP
www.ascap.com

BMI
320 W 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
(212) 586-2000
www.bmi.com

SESAC
55 Music Square East
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 320-0055
www.sesac.com

Harry Fox Agency
711 Third Ave
New York, NY 10017
(212) 370-5330
www.harryfox.com