Copyright Owners

Supporting Artists and Publishers

If you’re a publisher, songwriter, or author, you can trust CCLI to provide a simple and legal means for churches and organizations throughout the world to use your work, and ensure you’re fairly paid if they do.

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Trusted by copyright owners across the world

Equitable

Through agreements that are legal and equitable for all parties, we provide a simple means of global authorization for your work.

Ecumenical

Our licenses are comprehensive, enabling legal access to more than 600,000 songs, drawn from almost every denomination, tradition, and style as well as countless other works.

Established

We’ve been administering the fair and accurate payment of royalties to our members for more than 35 years.

Protecting and publishing your songs

In many countries copyright is automatic, meaning that once a song is written down or recorded, your rights are protected by law. You do not need to register your work with any kind of authority. However, if there is a chance your songs will be used by others, it may be wise to take steps to prove your ownership. In time you may wish to sign with a publisher, who will administer your rights for you, and may help to promote your songs. CCLI partners with more than 3,500 publishers, connecting the catalogs they represent with churches throughout the world.

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Artists and Publishers Q&A

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CCLI is not a publisher and we are unable to recommend a particular publisher that would be best for you. The contact details for numerous music publishers, whom you may wish to contact directly, can be found in our Copyright Owners Lists.

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Signing up with an established publisher may be the best way to protect and administer your rights. However, if you choose to self-publish your songs, it is possible to become a registered copyright owner with CCLI provided you meet certain conditions. Please contact our Intellectual Property departmentfor details.

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It is a requirement for all CCLI license holders to report the songs they copy and reproduce on a regular basis. Based on these reports, CCLI pays out royalties to registered song owners twice a year.

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The value and convenience of CCLI’s Church Copyright License® lies in the vast number of songs it covers. This means that not all publishers will receive a payment each payout. However, copyright holders are not deleted from our database, even if no copy activity is reported.

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