Submissions & Rights

• Send your submission through the form at the bottom of this page.
• Include email address or other contact information for all copyright holders of the work.
• If you have any followup questions, please reach out to [email protected].

We will reply to let you know whether your work is accepted, and it will be published online shortly thereafter.

• We are looking for new and existing texts and tunes, especially those written by Anabaptist authors or composers.
• We are looking for a range of a cappella church music, such as hymns, Psalms, scripture songs, and readings with sung responses.
• In general, write texts and tunes for the average member of the average congregation.

• We particularly encourage texts and songs with Anabaptist themes (as well as others). See our suggested themes page.
• (None of the following applies to direct scripture quotations.)
• For strophic texts (i.e., with verses that conform to the same metrical pattern, like hymns):
  • Original texts and paraphrases of scripture should preferably be rhymed and metered; rhyme and meter should support and not detract from the content.
  • Scripture arrangements do not need to have, but might be stronger with, rhyme and meter. They should be near enough to metered that they can fit a single tune, however.
• For non-strophic texts:
  • Texts should either be fairly short or should contain strophic elements (to which the above principles apply)
  • Texts should have heightened poetic language to make up for lack of rhyme and meter
• The syntax of a text should be readily understandable by ear, and not forced, unnatural, or relying heavily on punctuation (which can’t be heard when sung!).
• Texts should employ common vocabulary (though if the syntax is straightforward enough, unusual or archaic vocabulary is not always a drawback)
• Texts should have a worshipful, reverent sense and vocabulary.
• Texts should include fresh poetic devices such as imagery and metaphor, and should be a fresh and interesting treatment of their subjects.
• Theology
  • Texts should tend to have depth of theology, truths that can be contemplated.
  • Texts should inhabit a good middle ground between concept density and sparsity, so that all can gain from hearing them. Another way of putting this is that texts shouldn’t have too many weighty ideas that can’t be understood without time and thought, or the text won’t mean much when sung through just once. But texts should certainly contain weighty ideas that are worth time and thought.
  • Texts should contain theology and doctrine that is biblical and does not contradict historically Anabaptist theology.

• In general, tunes should be easy for the average congregation to learn.
• Utilize common-practice tonal harmonic language and voice leading.
• Contemporary departures from the common-practice style are permitted when they positively contribute to the composer’s style (e.g. open fifths, parallel perfect intervals, non-authentic functional progressions, etc.); composers are expected to learn and understand basic common-practice rules before breaking them.
• Tunes should have fresh and interesting melodic or harmonic progression.
• Melody-only songs are acceptable.

SCMC will pay $35 for each accepted text or tune, sending the payment no later than the end of the fiscal year (Oct-Sept) in which the content was accepted.

What if you submit a song with both text and tune?

• Only the copyright holder/s of a text or tune (or both) will be paid.
• For example, if your song text is basically straight out of scripture, without significant new material or form, you are not the creator of the text.
• For another example, if you are submitting someone else’s tune with your text, that person will be the person paid for the tune.
• But if you wrote both text and tune, you will be paid for both (for a total of up to $70).
• In the case of multiple collaborators on a text or tune (e.g., composers and arrangers), the payment will be split between them.

By submitting your text or tune to the Church Music Hub, you agree to the following rights, should your submission be accepted.

SCMC requires the following rights in order to license content through the Church Music Hub (“the Hub”). All copyright holders of a work need to consent to these terms in order for the Hub to publish the work. (This means that we can’t generally publish something already licensed through a publishing house.)

• The right to distribute the content as part of the Hub (for a statement of the rights that the Hub gives to members, see the License Terms page). Basically, we have the right to license the music to churches, schools, and other groups who sing congregationally. We do not have the right to license the music for choirs who are presenting it at a program or singing it for an audience.
• The right to print and sell 500 copies of a booklet including this (and other) content.

The creator or copyright holder retains all rights. This includes, but is not limited to, the rights

• To distribute and sell the content without limitations, either for congregational use or for performance.
• To arrange or alter the content.
• To enter into agreements with other publishers, so long as they do not infringe on this agreement.
• To do anything else with their work, so long as it does not infringe on SCMC’s rights in this agreement.

• Creators may choose to withdraw their content from publication, with the following constraints: The content must have remained published through the Hub for at least one year, or SCMC’s payout to the copyright holders must be returned. Members of the Hub who are already using their published content may continue to use it in the same contexts. Future printings of a booklet in which the content is included will not include the content, but already printed booklets will not be withheld from circulation.
• SCMC may make changes to the standard licensing terms of the Hub, especially during the first several years of this program. In the event of any significant or substantial changes, we will attempt to notify all copyright holders, and concerned copyright holders may withdraw their content from publication (according to the constraints listed above).
• If SCMC should print more copies of the booklet in which the content is published; that is, more copies over and above the 500 copies agreed on, SCMC will make a reasonable effort to both 1) notify the copyright holder before printing and 2) pay royalties (at the standard rate for hymnals) to the copyright holder from the income generated by the sale of the booklet. The creator may deny or withdraw the right to publish the content in further copies of the booklet (over and above the 500 copies already agreed on).
• For any songs published here which SCMC and the creator/s have also entered into other agreements about, the rights that SCMC required in those agreements will not be diminished by this agreement. For example, if SCMC has commissioned a song with the agreement that SCMC may print it in any SCMC publications, SCMC retains that right as well as the rights given in this agreement.