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History
How did we get our start?
Our story begins in 1984 when a Portland, Oregon pastor first learned of a pending $3.1 million copyright lawsuit against the Archdiocese in Chicago. The pastor asked his music minister, Howard Rachinski, to ensure that his own church was covered.
In January 1985, Howard began to develop a “permission of use” concept, whereby churches could obtain blanket permission for specific “non-commercial” copying activities. He called it Starpraise Ministries, which became CCLI’s predecessor.
It became abundantly clear that copyright licensing for a church and the songwriters and publishers creating music was an issue that needed to be addressed. The market agreed and by the end of the second year, 1,150 churches signed on with Starpraise.
In January 1988, Starpraise Ministries was incorporated and in April the corporation name was changed to Christian Copyright Licensing, Inc. (CCLI)
What we still believe. Our roots began as a ministry of the church and a service to the church, in order to better educate and equip the church about copyright laws, to protect the church from the consequences of copyright infringement and to encourage greater utilisation of copyright material in church services. As our products and service continue to expand and evolve, we remain evermore committed to that cause.
CCLI now serves more than 250,000 churches worldwide.

Our Founder, Howard Rachinski
A History of CCLI
1984
Copyright suit filed against Archdiocese in Chicago
1985
Howard Rachinski establishes copyright "permission of use"
Starpraise Ministries is founded
250 churches become licence-holding customers

1986
1,150 churches sign on as licence-holding customers
1987
Starpraise Ministries meets UK counterpart, CMA
Starpraise Ministries and CMA establish church copyright agreement
1988
Starpraise Ministries is incorporated
Starpraise changes name to Christian Copyright Licensing, Inc. (CCLI)
CCLI launches Church Copyright Licence
1990
CCLI expands to cover Canada
1991
CCLI assumes British CMA operations
1994
CCLI begins licensing schools in the UK
1995
First SongSelect logo used on floppy discs in 1995

1995

1995
CCLI expands to cover South Africa
1997
CCLI expands to offer Photocopy licence in Australia and New Zealand
1998
CCLI expands to non-English Nordic Countries
2001
CCLI partnered with MPLC to establish CVLI in 2001, providing the Church Video Licence

2001

2002
CCLI started to sell Copyright Licences to churches in Benelux
2004

2006
CCLI expanded to Germany
2007

2008
CCLI started in Singapore
2009
CCLI expanded into Brazil
2012
CCLI started in The Republic of Korea
2012

2016
CCLI is now able to license worldwide with the signing of global agreements.
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