Christian Copyright Licensing International

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CCLI logo

1 Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI)
2 When a CCLI license is unneeded
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI)

CCLI is a privately owned company that was founded in the US in 1988 by Howard Rachinski, who is the President/CEO. CCLI was launched after being developed by Howard for 3 1/2 years while he was a Music Minister at a large church in Portland, Oregon. This prototype was called Starpraise Ministries, which began in May 1985. CCLI offers copyright licensing of songs and other resource materials for use in Christian worship. The aim of CCLI has always been to provide services to facilitate worship (see the Vision and Mission below), benefiting the churches, while at the same time also benefiting the copyright owners.

Since its foundation, CCLI has expanded around the world to: Australia, Botswana, Canada, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Swaziland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe.

The licenses / services offered by CCLI have expanded, including:

Church Copyright License: for the reproduction of songs
Photocopy / Music Reproduction License: for the photocopying of worship music
SongSelect: online access of worship song lyrics, sound samples and download of lead sheets, chord sheets & SATB hymn sheets
Video License: in a joint venture with MPLC, under the company name of Christian Video Licensing International, for the copyright licensing of the playing of videos / DVDs for church activities
ScreenVue: movie scenes and illustrations for use in sermon illustrations via ScreenVue
SongTouch: MP3 song downloads via SongTouch

As of July 15, 2007, the annual fee for a US CCLI license ranged from $49 (for a church size less than 25 people) to $4260 (for a church size greater than 200,000 people).^[1] License fees are similar for churches in other countries, taking exchange rates into account.^[2]^[3]

"CCLI distributes the majority of the License Fee to the copyright owners (i.e. publishers and songwriters) as royalties."[1] More information about CCLI's royalty distribution policies is available on the CCLI web site.^[4]

[edit] When a CCLI license is unneeded

Organizations, including churches and campus fellowship groups, do not need a CCLI license if, in their services and other functions, they use exclusively public domain, their own original works or works covered by something like the Creative Commons licences. For the most part this would be songs within the public domain. As an example, most hymns are in the public domain.

CCLI maintains a list of songs that are in the public domain [2]. If all of the songs that an organization uses are in that list, then the organization does not need to pay the CCLI license fee. As of July 15, 2007, CCLI's list contained 7270 public domain songs.