A Primer On Rising And Falling Worship Songs In The CCLI Top 100
For Christian song writers, music publishers and worship leaders, CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) provides a strong indicator to the kinds of worship songs that churches are singing around the world. Every year, new songs rise into our repertoires, creating an interesting shuffle in the list of top worship songs. If we are looking specifically at the Top 100 Worship Songs, as reported by the latest CCLI bi-annual reporting, there are only 100 spots. That means, if a song comes into the list, a song has to move out of the list. Some songs have incredible staying power, while others lose their momentum. Some songs are for a season, while others have a deep strength to continue ministering to churches with their message and melodies. We have put together a comparison of the recent CCLI Top 100 Songs, assessing the movement of songs in this list to the previous reporting period.
Top Worship Songs On The Rise
Out of all 100 songs, there are two that deserve notable attention. The first, What A Beautiful Name, debuted on the list at number two, right behind This Is Amazing Grace. The second, No Longer Slaves, also debuted on the list just a few spots behind at number 12. These are two incredible songs from Hillsong and Bethel, making their mark in 2017. What is most interesting is that both of these songs come directly from churches, rather than typical Christian recording artists. From the church and for the church is certainly a rising theme in modern worship circles. Here is a list of the top rising worship songs in CCLI worth noting.
Top Stable Worship Songs
Next to the new songs on the block are those top worship songs that clearly have staying power. These are the top worship songs that the world has been singing for years, and they are still standing strong.
Songs That Got Bumped Off The List
And finally, it is time to pay homage to the older songs that had to give way for all the great new songs. These are the ones that got bumped off the CCLI Top 100 song list.
Top PraiseCharts Songs Not Trending In CCLI (Yet)
The CCLI Top 100 is always a few months behind. You might find it interesting to see a list of the top songs in PraiseCharts not yet trending on the most recent CCLI Top 100 list. Here they are:
Top CCLI Songs Not Trending In PraiseCharts
On the other hand, there are a of songs being reported by CCLI that don't get much traction in PraiseCharts any longer. This may be a sign that these songs will soon drop off the CCLI Top 100 list. Here they are:
What Is The Difference Between CCLI, SongSelect and PraiseCharts?
At PraiseCharts, we have great admiration for the services that CCLI and SongSelect provide. Often, we are asked what is the difference between CCLI, SongSelect and PraiseCharts. Here is a brief answer to that question. PraiseCharts is focused on providing downloadable print and audio resources to help your musicians play together with excellence and confidence. For the most part, we are not a publisher that owns the rights to worship songs. We don’t have a vested interest in any one catalog of songs. We work together with all the major publishers, creating a platform that represents as many of their songs as we can. We provide chord charts, lead sheets, orchestrations, and variety of multi tracks.
The bottom line is, PraiseCharts is focussed on providing advanced music resources for musicians. CCLI, apart from SongSelect, is not a resource company. CCLI helps churches obtain copyright permission to perform and reproduce certain resources of certain songs in the context of congregational worship. As a by-product, churches report their song use activity to CCLI, which is what makes their Top 100 list so revealing. SongSelect is a branch of CCLI that provides basic music resources for worship leaders. Many churches use their lead sheets and chord charts as their only resource. Others use the service as a means of song discovery and research.
In genreal, SongSelect has not been as focused on creating arrangements that reflect specific recordings, measure for measure. This is where PraiseCharts is distinct. In SongSelect, you’ll only ever find one version of every song. In PraiseCharts, you’ll find multiple versions of the top songs, because their are multiple recordings from multiple albums. The resources from PraiseCharts give you a foundation to work from with the recording as a starting place, measure for measure. Then, we take the best of the best songs and create music for a wide range of instruments, so that you can lead worship with a small band, small ensemble, or even a full orchestra. Wherever you get your music, let everything that has breath praise the Lord!