We’re doing everything we can to help out churches during this really unique, really fast-changing season. Perhaps more than ever, people feel the need for the Hope the Church is offering—and more than ever, churches are finding media to be a crucial element in communicating that Hope. Our goal is to be a useful resource for all things media-related during this time. Have a question for us? Reach out at info@ignitermedia.com.
LIVESTREAMING: THE NEW NORMAL (FOR NOW)
By far, the most common question we’ve been asked lately is, “Can I use this in my church’s livestream?“
In short, the answer is an almost universally YES.
Thanks to the generosity of ALL of the producers we’ve partnered with on the Igniter website, virtually every product in our library can be used during the duration of the COVID-19 outbreak. There is still a small subset of videos that are restricted because of external licensing agreements, and those can be seen here.
COPYRIGHT FLAGGING?
Possibly the most popular follow-up question to the one above is, “Will my YouTube/Facebook stream get flagged if I use it?”
For the most part, the answer is NO; for any of our content that doesn’t contain music (the vast majority of our library), you should be fine.
For those products that DO contain music (mini movies, sermon bumpers, lyric media, and some countdowns), it’s a little more complicated. If the music in the product you’re using is licensed music (like a popular worship song, for example), there’s a high likelihood that the platform you’re using (mostly talking about Facebook and YouTube here) will flag you and, in some cases, even delete your stream.
As of the time of this writing, YouTube has admitted that because of staff reallocations, Content ID (their copyright flagging department) was entirely software-driven, and would likely therefore be more strict:
“…automated systems will start removing some content without human review. As we do this, users and creators may see increased video removals, including some videos that may not violate policies. We won’t issue strikes on this content except in cases where we have high confidence that it’s violative.”
Again, this mainly applies to content that contains recognizable, licensed songs, so 99% of our library should be flag-safe.
HOW DO I LIVESTREAM?
Unfortunately, that’s outside the scope of this blog post, but keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks for more posts that you’ll find helpful as you navigate some of these questions.
In the meantime, join the conversation in our private Facebook group, Artists, Geeks, & Storytellers, to ask questions and learn from other church leaders facing the same challenges you are.
Our design team created 30 completely free social graphics specifically created for churches to use during this season.Download them here. Plus, we’ve curated a collection of media from our library that you’ll find useful during this season. Find the full collection here.
