Who Decides the Christian Music You Sing on Sunday
A YouTube musician spent ten episodes investigating how contracts and record labels shape the worship we sing on Sunday.
Jonathan Allen Wright's series "The Untold History of CCM" takes a close look at the Christian music played in your church. In an interview with The Christian Post, the creator of the series explains why.
Wright grew up in church circles, and his father was a pastor for much of his life. His interest grew out of his experience as a musician and a curiosity about what lies behind the financial machinery of each production. What he found led to a ten-episode series, about five hours in total.
Three labels and almost the whole catalog
His central concern is the weight of multinational corporations in the repertoire that gets sung. "Universal, Sony and Warner pretty much own almost everything the Church tends to sing today," he said. He made clear that the problem is not that an industry exists, but how that structure pressures the people who write and sing.
«The business does not decide the value of the work, but it does decide which work makes it to the Sunday service»
From there he turns to money. A big label may not have the same zeal for the church that a small independent one does, and the message to the artist becomes concrete: there was a budget for a worship album, so it has to sound a certain way and meet commercial parameters, or it won't sell. According to him, that is what really carries weight when a project is approved.
It helps to separate two things. A song can worship God even if its contract is complicated; the business does not decide the value of the work, but it does decide which work makes it to the Sunday service.
What happens in Nashville and Los Angeles
Songwriting sessions in cities like Nashville and Los Angeles, he said, run on setups similar to those of the secular industry: contracts and financial agreements that look little like what a believer imagines when thinking of a ministry.
There is an understandable silence. Several songwriters wrote to him privately to thank him for his approach, but acknowledged they could not speak frankly while they had active contracts. Wright said he treated each case with empathy, aware of the dilemma of sustaining a career while making the art you are passionate about.
His intention, as he put it, is not to point fingers at anyone: he wants the church to look at what it brings into its gatherings and how it handles money, business and transparency.
The independent route
There are also encouraging signs. The independent artist movement is growing, and today you can record with a laptop, publish on platforms and sell physical formats without a conglomerate behind you. Even artists under contract are reviewing clauses, streaming royalties and live performance agreements.
For anyone who sings in their church, the practical question is not whether art should be professional. All well-done work is a calling, and Scripture makes it clear: "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" (Colossians 3:23, ESV). Your calling does not depend on which ladder you climb.
The next time you sing, look up the credits: who wrote the song, who produced it, which label it belongs to. Not to judge anyone, but to know what you are singing and why. If something doesn't sit right with you, talk it over with your worship leader, respectfully and with facts in hand.
