[Richard Crowley]

"Scott Dorsey" wrote ...
Carey Carlan wrote:
This is not pre-recorded music. The church uses copyighted sheet music
for
their live-performance anthems and service music.

Do they pay fees for the performance? Wherever that money goes is where
the money for podcasting rights go.

Schools and houses of worship are exempt from performance
fees (at least in the US, dunno about other venues?).

However if your church choir went to the city concert hall and
performed the same music, performance fees would be due,
even if the performance was free to the audience.

I'll also point out that there is plenty of excellent PD church music out
there.... and most of the really good stuff is PD anyway if you go
searching
for older arrangements. The Magnificat is getting a little old these days
but it stands up against anything currently fashionable...

Beware that the original compositions may be PD, but is is
nearly impossible to find usable scores for sale that are not
copyright-protected new "editions". You are essentially
stuck with "Kalmus", the bane of musicians everywhere
(because they publish facimilies of old PD european scores
which would be difficult for modern musicians/singers to
read even if they were reproduced in focus. :-) Or you
could go to a major library and find a PD copy and make
your own "edition" or "engraving" using modern software
(like my favorite Sibelius). This is almost an FAQ in some
of the music forums.