We have just finished distributing royalties for our semi-annual payouts to song owners. In the process of doing that we find out which songs are most reproduced for the Church Copyright Licence. You can see the latest list of top songs here: Top 25 Songs

Here are the top 5 songs for Australia:

1. How Great Is Our God, by Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves and Ed Cash
2. Here I Am To Worship, by Tim Hughes
3. Mighty To Save, by Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan
4. Shout To The Lord, by Darlene Zschech
5. How Deep The Father's Love For Us, by Stuart Townend

And here are the top 5 songs for New Zealand:

1. How Great Is Our God, by Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves and Ed Cash
2. Blessed Be Your Name, by Matt Redman
3. Here I Am To Worship, by Tim Hughes
4. Hosanna, by Brooke Fraser
5. Mighty To Save, by Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan

The Grove Studios will be running a Masterclass on Songwriting early in 2008, led by Pat Pattison, Professor of Lyric Writing and Poetry (Berklee College of Music).

The Masterclass will be on Friday, January 18, at The Grove Studios, Narara, NSW.

Here are the details:

For more details, please contact Kathy via info@thegrovestudios.com or phone (02) 4362-3299.

Andy Rowell's blog has a great review of SongSelect "CCLI's SongSelect - Why Every Church Should Get It"

It highlight "Seven reasons why every pastor should make sure their church get a 1-year subscription to SongSelect Premium from CCLI."

This blog is located the USA so the pricing is in USD but the reasons speak for themselves.

[LINK]

We have just finished distributing royalties for our semi-annual payouts to song owners. In the process of doing that we find out which songs are most reproduced for the Church Copyright Licence. You can see the latest list of top songs here: Top 25 Songs

Here are the top 5 songs for Australia:

1. How Great Is Our God, by Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves and Ed Cash
2. Mighty To Save, by Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan
3. Here I Am To Worship, by Tim Hughes
4. Shout To The Lord, by Darlene Zschech
5. Lord I Lift Your Name On High, by Rick Founds

And here are the top 5 songs for New Zealand:

1. How Great Is Our God, by Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves and Ed Cash
2. Here I Am To Worship, by Tim Hughes
3. Blessed Be Your Name, by Matt Redman
4. In Christ Alone, by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty
5. Shout To The Lord, by Darlene Zschech

(If you'd like more details about how we do distribute royalties, see the Royalty Process page on the CCLI web site.)

All three of these songs below are congregational favourites, but do you know which are in copyright and which is public domain?

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Shout To The Lord

Rock of Ages

Many people are not aware that two of these songs are still in copyright, and therefore reproducing the lyrics without a licence is an infringement of copyright law.

Many churches maintain a database of lyrics on a computer to print lyrics in the weekly bulletin, or to project lyrics onto a large screen or wall. This is for the sole purpose of encouraging their congregation to enhance their worship experience, and ultimately grow in their relationships with God.

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The Australian & New Zealand SongSelect sites are now online. We have included an online video demonstration and sample sheets. This is a fantastic resource for churches and best of all it includes a 30 day money back guarantee*

www.songselect.com.au
www.songselect.co.nz

* conditions apply

Were you aware that making a photocopy or printing of a song's lyrics, without the permission of the songwriter, is a breach of the Copyright Act, and could make a church vulnerable to legal action?

It's true. Churches are not exempt from any aspect of the Australian Copyright Act 1968, which means that the simple act of making copies of songs for your choir or musicians could be putting your church at risk if you do it without a proper licence.

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