Useful info sheet on copyright and churches
  • This is from the legal department of the United Methodists. It is very useful. I strongly recommend having it by your side.

    In another discussion, I found myself floundering more than was useful to the questioner. And it turns out if I was right 15 years ago, things have changed. Specifically:

    Worship:
    A. Music performed by choir
    A choir may only use legal copies of copyrighted music. The music may not be copied to make additional copies for practice or teaching by staff or members of the choir. One exception is that musicians are allowed to make copies of pages of music to avoid page turning.
    If a publisher lists a copyrighted work as "out of print," the publisher should be contacted for permission to make copies and to possibly negotiate a reduced fee.
    If a choir director or musician desires to create a different arrangement of copyrighted music, written permission should be obtained from the copyright holder.

    https://www.gcfa.org/media/1366/copyright_compliance_for_local_chuches_2015.pdf