Most worship leaders we know did not get into ministry to read licensing contracts. The questions still find them anyway. Can we put the livestream on YouTube. Can we print the lyrics in the bulletin. Can we use that new song the youth band wants to play next Sunday. The good news is that the licensing landscape is more navigable than it looks once you know which pieces cover what.
CCLI Church Copyright License is the foundation for most congregations. It covers printing lyrics, projecting song words, creating song sheets for the band, and making custom arrangements for your team. It does not cover streaming or recording. A surprising number of churches we talk to assume it does. It does not.
CCLI Streaming License is the separate add-on that covers livestreaming and posting service recordings to your website, Facebook, or YouTube. If your church streams Sunday services and sings copyrighted songs, you need this. It is not optional, and it is not expensive relative to the risk of operating without it.
OneLicense is the parallel system for hymns and worship music from Catholic and mainline publishers. If your church sings from traditional hymnals or uses music from publishers like GIA, OCP, or Augsburg Fortress, CCLI alone does not cover you. OneLicense fills that gap and has its own streaming add-on.
CCS WORSHIPcast is the third option some churches use, particularly for streaming. The coverage overlaps with CCLI's streaming license but the catalog is slightly different. Most churches end up with one or the other, not both.
A few practical notes that save real headaches. The reporting requirement is real. Both CCLI and OneLicense ask you to report which songs you actually use, and this is how royalties make it back to the songwriters. The reporting is also how the licenses get renewed. Make it a habit, not a scramble.
If your church plays a song that is not in any of these catalogs — for example, an original by a friend, or a less commercial worship artist — the safer path is direct permission from the publisher. A short email is usually all it takes.
Compliance here is not legalism. The people who wrote these songs are doing the same work we are doing in a different form, and licensing is how that work stays sustainable.
If your church is working through what coverage it actually needs, reach out through our contact page. We help worship and tech teams set up the small systems that quietly keep things in order.