In preparation for the new assignment I've taken on—developing a worship team to lead the youth at our church—I've spent a good bit of time lately learning new songs and writing out chord charts. Inevitably, I've turned to Google for help, only to find that some of the sites it returns have posted notices that they have been forced to remove their posts.

The music industry, overall, is arguably flawed, as seen by the plummeting demand for the sale of physical CDs. Michael Arrington (tech writer) argues that record labels should give up trying to make money from music sales, and instead use CDs and audio downloads as a marketing tool to promote concerts, which still sell out and prove to be a lucrative venture.

Whether Arrington is right or not, the question I have is, Should Christian artists, who offer their works as ministry or worship, hold fast to the traditional model of profit?

The sites I referred to above weren't being shut down because they offered tabs to Britney or Linkin Park—they were being shut down because they offered tabs for worship.

Here's my bottom line: if a song is written with the motive for profit, wrap it up in DRM and seal it with the bindings of the rest of the music world (even if that business is dying). If it's written and recorded with the motive of worship, or in the service of ministry, then offer it as worship, or service, and let others have open access to use it in the same spirit.

Otherwise, we might as well charge a cover to enter church.

Postscript

To those who think an artist suffers by not receiving full credit when a song is used in worship, I offer my own experiences: I've never had someone tell me that they went home and looked up the CCLI number to a song after it was introduced, but I have had people tell me that they searched by lyrics, downloading (from iTunes) a song that they connected with. They connect with the lyrics, not the artist.

Of course, the irony in all of this is that such a connection will drive more sales.