Music solutions for every ministry

No. Copyrighted music can be performed during worship services without a license. However, this exemption in US copyright law only applies to in-person religious services. All other performances, including livestreams and church gatherings, require a license.

No. US copyright law only allows music to be performed during worship services without a license. For all other uses, including livestreams, social media, and podcasts, specific licenses are required. For example, a sync license is required to publish a recorded service that contains copyrighted music to YouTube.

No. Performing copyrighted music outside of worship services requires a license, regardless of the audience size. This includes youth group meetings, Bible studies, and other small gatherings. For more information, see this article about the licensing requirements for music use in churches.

A CCLI license grants many useful rights, including the ability to print sheet music and project lyrics during worship services, but it does not grant the right to use music outside of religious services. Unlike CCLI, WavMaker provides unlimited access to an original, highly curated music catalog that can be used in livestreams, social media, marketing, youth camp and mission trip videos, VBS, podcasts, recorded sermons, and more. WavMaker can be used on its own, or in combination with a CCLI license, to cover the many ways your church uses music inside and outside of worship services.

Content that you publish while you have an active WavMaker subscription is covered forever. This means, for example, that recorded services or mission trip videos that you publish to YouTube will continue to be protected from copyright takedowns after your subscription expires. Once your subscription has ended, you can no longer publish new content using music you downloaded from WavMaker, but you can renew your subscription at any time to resume publishing new content.