Copyrighted music

[standing by the door]

We livestream our church service on facebook. Now that we are using the obs software it cuts out the copyrighted music. We have CCLI. I was wondering how we can play the background music by attaching the CCLI licensing #

 

[lhargrove]

Hello,

I'm not an expert; however, I don't think OBS is blocking your music. It may be Facebook. At ;my previous church we had that issue but it was only in certain markets/countries. After several disputes we got blocked less and less in certain markets.

 

[AaronD]

It's not OBS. OBS doesn't care. Facebook probably does, like all of the other major platforms.

Don't know how Facebook works with this, but on YouTube, I put my church's license numbers at the bottom of the description. Hasn't been a problem yet.

And yes, we are licensed to stream what we stream. If you're not - if you just grab what you like and toss it up there - yeah, be glad that you *have* that insulating layer! Much better to have your stream taken down and possibly even blocked permanently, and nothing more, than to be sued into oblivion.

 

[AaronD]

By the way, "having CCLI" is not enough.

The standard license that everyone seems to have - at least, before Covid - only covers lyrics, and only for the in-person service! That came about because the U.S. Federal Law was written for essentially a 1950's country chapel that bought their hymnals with the relevant licenses already included in their purchase price. Nothing more was needed, except to allow the free *performance* of music. And in keeping with the separation of church and state, it includes ALL music...so if you want to play Metallica in church without payment or permission, that's legal too!
So the standard CCLI license that everyone has, only covers what that law doesn't, which is the projection or hand-out of *lyrics only*, that were not included in the purchase of a hymnal.

You need a separate license to stream. CCLI also has that, but you need to add it explicitly, and there are other places that offer it too. However you get it, put THAT license number in the description, and either stick to the list of songs that it actually covers or get special permission for what it doesn't (and include that permission in the description too), and I think you'd be okay.

---

Until the law updates from a 1950's country chapel to a modern broadcast church, you have to think like a commercial broadcaster. Nothing is free, you have to license absolutely everything, and you have to be a stickler for that. If you don't have a license or permission for some part of the service, even if it's a kids' korner or some other really important special thing, you need to not have it on the stream. Period.

I have two ways to do that, depending on whether it's a video or just a soundtrack:

• I can mute the audio, and put up a lower-thirds note about not being licensed for broadcast, while I continue to run the cameras
  OR
• I can replace everything with a silent graphic about the video not being licensed, and we'll return momentarily

I'd rather not have either one, but such is the reality. And after a year or two of using them somewhat regularly, the leadership has mostly figured out now, how to get that permission so that I don't have to block out that part of the service.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

For our service livestreams, I include a copyright slide in our Service Bulletin slides (slide #2, with a title slide that becomes video thumbnail is slide #1). I also reference our livestream music license in our stream description. A few months ago, Facebook flagged a live performance (pipe organ, choir) of a hymn (clearly public domain)... but that was a first. We disputed the copyright flag and haven't heard anything since, and haven't had any more performances flagged. I'm assuming Facebook changed a back-end algorithm and messed up... and then fixed it

That said, FB flagged the entire video. FB did NOT mute just certain music sections.
So what exactly happened? Is copyrighted music, and ONLY that music, muted in your livestream? or remains muted for same video in your FB video library as well?
if you are dealing with selective 'muting', Have you checked any OBS Studio plugins you are running? or even your audio setup in general? ie, if you Record only (not stream) do you have same issue (ie FB not involved)?

 

[AaronD]

if you are dealing with selective 'muting', Have you checked any OBS Studio plugins you are running? or even your audio setup in general?

That reminded me of "Noise Suppressors" that people often slap on without really understanding them. They don't "just reduce noise". They're designed to figure out what speech is, specifically, and remove *everything* that is not speech. So musical instruments often go away, with varying success. Likewise for repetitive sound effects in games.

So you can't use a Noise Suppressor for music, or anything really beyond *just speech*. If you have one, take it off. If your computer itself has one, dive into the settings to find it, and turn *that* off too, along with everything else that is not a "straight dumb wire" between the physical connector and OBS.

Windoze does have one by default, and it's hidden, so that the business and casual home users that it's really designed for, can have their conference calls "just work" without having to think about acoustics or background noise/music...

If you then have too much noise, having taken the Suppressor off, you need to address the *source* of the noise, so that it's not there in the first place to remove...

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Ok, yesterday while perusing our House of Worship FB livestream video library and related (looking to see if possible to create FB chapter markers in a video.. only reference is Workplace.. argh.. anyway, side rant... back on topic)

While purusing, I came across a a recent Lessons and Carols livestreamed service video which had a copyright/monetization warning notice... and apparently there was 51 seconds of Muting apparently in place for select countries (didn't really impact us, BUT... clearly a fake license holder (or overly aggressive claims)? Problem is, I can't recall where exactly I came across the indicator (monetization?) I was checking out Meta Business Suite while perusing, though not sure if it was there? I was unable to find any other video of ours so flagged?? I'm feeling completely OUT of the holiday spirit towards that supposed license holder...

FYI - I came across the 'flag' NOT while looking in our Organization's FB main page under Videos, it was someplace else that listed all our videos... so you may need to go looking .. I see Meta/FB articles on identifying flagged 'Reels' but not livestreamed videos... I'm guessing in similar place and indicator??