How to Legally get Kids Media Content
The following is a Facebook Post from our friend Jeff Mac at JumpStart3. This post is used by permission from Jeff and shares Jeff’s heart and our heart at Church Visuals as it relates to how to obtain music and media legally for your ministry.
Hi friends,
I’m going to be very vulnerable and transparent with you right now. I hope that you will take a moment and read this and consider it educational.
My name is Jeff and I’ve been a music producer for 35 years. I used to produce music for Sony and Disney. 11 years ago I answered a call on my life and began making Scripture Songs for my family and for children’s ministries like yours.
I walked away from my career and security in the music industry and dedicated myself to serving the children’s ministry world.
I realize that there is very little training in the ministry world about intellectual property. And with the advent of computers it seems very much as though, if you find something you like can do something why wouldn’t you just use it. But that doesn’t make it right.
Thou shalt not steal.
Tonight I was looking on YouTube for one of my own songs that I created for my band JumpStart3. I was going to send a link to my pastor as he was preaching on the passage that the song was written about. I discovered the video and realized it was hosted on the YouTube channel of a small children’s ministry. As I looked over the channel I noticed that this church’s videos had an average of 8 to 10 plays. Then, I noticed they had two of my JumpStart3 songs uploaded to the channel and they each had over 10,000 views.
As an artist I am extremely flattered that someone thought enough of my work to share it. That said, there’s decidedly more legal ways to do this. Sadly, what has transpired is somebody took something that they did not create and do not own and uploaded it for many people to consume for free thus robbing my family and MINISTRY. This makes it much more difficult to continue creating the great content you are enjoying.
This is the third church that I’ve had to reach out to in just a few weeks that has done the same thing. Uploading my music for everyone to use for free.Each time the churches channel had less than 150 subscribers and yet the videos of my songs that they uploaded had tens of thousands of views. One place had over 100,000 views.
The reason I’m posting this is that you might realize that you have innocently done something similar by uploading a video that you did not create and do not own. It might have been a song from VBS that you wanted to share with your kids or something that came with a curriculum that you purchased. I understand YouTube is an awesome way to get information to people easily and inexpensively. If your intention is to distribute something to your small team at church you can use YouTube set to private and then remove the content when it’s no longer needed. But if you send a video to public, know that that video will be searched and consumed by people who are not part of your church.
When this happens it takes away resources from the very people whose materials you love. It takes away the ability for those people to continue to make more resources for your ministry.
I have been told by children’s Pastor‘s to my face that I shouldn’t release my videos if I don’t want them to be pirated.
All I can say in response is please do not fill your ministry with stolen things. It does not honor God.
I am writing this out of love and in hopes that if you are a person who has done something like this you would consider repenting and removing those videos from your channel. I have had some churches respond with humility and honor and even sent us a small offering to cover the loss revenue. I can tell you that when that happens it’s amazing and restores trust.
We each invest our whole hearts in ministering to children. If you’ve ever spoken to me in person you’ll know that I will tell you that I live as a missionary know if anyone needs anything from my ministry it’s theirs for the asking. If you can afford to support our ministry we ask you to do it. This is in order for us to be able to support those who cannot support us.
The best way to support artists and content creators that you love is to purchase the materials that they create from them or from an official distributor. YouTube is for personal use only and should only be used to preview things. If you’d like to use those resources in your ministry they should be purchased. If you are in possession of something that you purchased you do not have permission to re-distribute that to thousands of people for free. This is still a crime even if you were not making money on it. It robs the person who was going to sell it of their income.
If you want to share JumpStart3 songs and videos we are listed on every major streaming platform. YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify and many more. Make a playlist and send it to your families. They will appreciate it and more importantly, the families will realize that we have over 100 songs that they can learn from and use to disciple their children.
If anyone is interested in supporting our ministry and getting some awesome unique Scripture Songs that really work in helping kids know God‘s word so they can do what it says, please visit our website www.JumpStart3.com
If you’re in need of great resources and don’t have a budget don’t be shy about reaching out to us. We live to serve you. Thank you for reading this. Please help educate your friends in ministry and help them to learn about this important topic.
I can’t wait to upload new songs to our channel soon! Your support makes it possible!
