Navigating the world of music licensing for live streaming worship services can be complex, but it's essential for churches to ensure they're legally covered. Whether your church uses CCLI or OneLicense.net, specific streaming licenses are required to broadcast copyrighted music online. This guide explores the streaming license options available from both CCLI and OneLicense.net, helping church leaders understand what permissions they need to legally and ethically share their worship services with a wider audience through live streaming platforms.
Two streaming license options are available for churches with an existing CCLI Church Copyright License:
CCLI Streaming License: Covers live streaming and archiving of worship services, including music performances and lyrics display.
CCLI Streaming Plus License: Includes additional features like streaming of master recordings, multitracks, and backing tracks.
Both licenses start at $157 per year, with pricing based on church attendance1. They allow streaming on various platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and church websites2. When using these licenses, churches must include their CCLI Copyright and Streaming License numbers in the description of each stream3.
The CCLI Streaming License covers over 300,000 Christian songs from the CCLI catalog, allowing churches to legally stream their worship services online1. Key features include:
Live streaming and archiving of entire worship services
Displaying song lyrics on screen during streams
Streaming on multiple social media platforms
Coverage for podcasting worship services
Permission to leave archived streams accessible as long as the license is maintained12
The Streaming Plus License offers additional capabilities, such as safe streaming of master recordings, multitracks, backing tracks, and stems to enhance the sound of worship teams1.
OneLicense offers two types of Podcast / Streaming Licenses for churches looking to broadcast their worship services online:
Podcast / Streaming License add-on: Bundled with the Annual Reprint License
Limited Podcast / Streaming License: Standalone option without requiring an Annual Reprint License
Both licenses cover live streaming and posting of recorded worship services on various platforms like YouTube, Facebook Live, and church websites. They allow the use of copyrighted music from participating OneLicense Member Publishers, but do not cover commercial masters or publisher-owned recordings12. Churches must report all music used in streamed services, including preludes, anthems, and postludes, to ensure proper royalty distribution3.
To comply with OneLicense streaming requirements, churches must include the attribution statement "Permission to podcast / stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #[Your License Number]. All rights reserved" in their stream or on the website containing the link1. The number of views is limited to three times the upper limit of the license category, for example, 2,100 views per stream for a license covering 401-700 people1. It's crucial to display copyright information for every piece used in the service, in addition to the license attribution line2. The license does not cover liturgical content or Scripture readings, which may require separate permissions13.