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We
have been involved with religious/Christian media since 1979.
Word
of Life Distributors as we were known back then, imported and
distributed books and music to all parts of Australia and surrounding
countries. During this time we developed close relationships with
many publishing houses and music publishers throughout the world.
Acting as distributing agent for these companies gave us much insight
into how publishing companies operate and the difficulties they face
in keeping active in this day and age.
During
the eighties, it was brought to our attention that many churches and
schools and other organizations were looking to expand their range of
music for worship. The older hymnbooks were becoming a little
limiting at times and the music was not reaching the wider community
any longer in some circumstances. The search for new music had
started to bring about changes in styles, types and tempos. Importing
this new material into Australia and distributing music for local
artists and publishers, gave us first hand information as to where
the Christian community was looking to find new inspirational music
for worship. The task now was to seek permission to reproduce this
newer music for all to enjoy.
It
was clear to us that there was a great deal of confusion with regard
to copyright, many churches and schools found seeking permission to
reproduce a chore, time consuming, costly and not always fruitful.
There was no doubt that many people were copying hymns without
seeking the proper approvals and there were many misconceptions, such
as " we are only copying this hymn/song so that our choir can
use it in church worship and so we are doing this for God and we
should not have to pay any copyright fees to glorify God" and so
on. Many people had a false understanding of the purpose and impact
of the copyright law, and with Christian communities not abiding by
the law with regards to copyright, this action was endangering
Christian music publishers' survival, and the creators of the music
were not receiving just compensation for their work.
Churches
and schools seeking the copyright permission to reproduce music were
now paying a high price for copyright permission. Many Christian
organizations were finding it too expensive to introduce new music
which they knew their church, school, retreat house/camp and
travelling ministry etc, so desperately needed to accommodate their
congregation's desire for modern musical expression in their worship.
In
1989, we set out to address this issue to the benefit of all
parties. We approached a number of Christian music publishers with
the idea of establishing an agency in Australia which would offer a
combined license at a reasonable rate to assist churches and schools
etc, to conform with the law and enhance their liturgical
celebrations. Over a period of two years we negotiated a common
license which was finally introduced in 1992. This formed the basis
for the range of licenses that are available today. This initiative
was warmly welcomed by Christian communities and publishers alike.
Churches and schools could abide by the law at a reasonable cost,
publishers would be more viable now due to higher royalty receipts
that reflected the amount of copyright use of the songs they owned or
administered the reproduction rights to. More importantly though,
composers would now receive fair remuneration for their work, which
would enable them to continue creating the wonderful array of music
we have today.
From
small beginnings of acting on behalf of 40 publishers during the
early nineties, we now act on behalf of over 1100+ publishers who
control the rights for over 80,000 hymns/songs.
Our
original vision has not changed, and that is to provide a service to
the Australasian Christian community that encourages the use of
musical celebration. We believe that music is a core activity which
binds humans together and it is therefore an essential part of any
church worship. It is our aim to assist anyone to have access to a
very wide range of hymns to use in liturgy. We are very conscious
that there is a great deal of quality music that could be made
available from local sources if composers were able to receive an
adequate return for their creative efforts and the use of the annual
copyright licenses has helped bring financial justice in this area.
We
see ourselves as a link between the Christian community and the
Christian music industry which brings benefits to all.
We
welcome your comments and suggestions as to how we might further the
use of Christian music. From our pioneering beginnings, we have
developed a range of products to suit the needs of our license
holders and we are open to expanding our services to better serve the
needs of all parties concerned.
©
2000 Word Of Life International |