Trying to do right by getting permission to arrange, but...

[Paul Kinney]

I want to make an arrangement of "In Remembrance of Me" by Courtney and Red for handbell quintet. I see Jason Krug published an arrangement for full choir, 3-6 octaves, through Agape/Hope. So I know it is possible to get permission.

The copyright is held by Van Ness Press. It says the copyright is administered by Lifeway Worship. I contacted them and was told their licensing is done by Music Services.

On the Music Services website their licensing FAQ has nothing on making arrangements. It does say when including a song in the medley the lyrics and melody cannot be changed.

I did a search for the tune on the Music Services site. It lists available license types as Mechanical, Photocopy, Print, Videogram, TV sync, Digital phono delivery, live performance, internet streaming, or slide/transparency. Mechanical is for sound/video recordings. It and the other options don't fit with making an arrangement.

The site's help is minimal and has no contact info.

I would appreciate any help in how to work my way through all this.

Thanks,
Paul Kinney

[silve...@cox.net]

I took a class at Pinnacle about arranging pop songs taught by Nick Hanson.  He uses the site www.arrangeme.com to look up copyright sources and even make arrangements.  You can contact him through the website www.8bithandbell.com.

 

Hope that helps!

Silver

 

Mrs. Silver D. Woodbury

Silverbell Enterprises

10012 Carnie Circle

Yukon, OK  73099

405-519-0331

silve...@cox.net or sbesil...@gmail.com

 

Artistic Director

Oklahoma City Handbell Ensemble

www.okcbells.com

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[linda mckechnie]

Silver is correct. Arrangement.com takes care of the copyright and you receive the same percent that you would receive going through a publisher. The arrangement then also goes on 

Sheetmusic plus which a lot of people are going to -to find music. Linda Mckechnie.

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[Paul Kinney]

I wrote about my problems working with Van Ness Press, Lifeway Worship, and Music Services to get permission to arrange "In Remembrance of Me." Both Silver Woodbury and Linda McKechnie replied. Thank you.

Alas, I got the impression that I hadn't defined my problem sufficiently.

I know who owns the copyright. Van Ness Press does. They turned the administration of the copyright over to Lifeway Worship. And they use Music Services to handle the details.

I am not (yet) trying to get my arrangement published or otherwise sell to the public. I need to write it first. And to do that I need permission to make an arrangement of copyrighted material.

My difficulty at the moment is that I must go through Music Services and they appear to have automated the process, but excluded the type of license I think I need. They do not provide a way around their automated system.

Any ideas on what my next steps could be?

Thanks,
Paul Kinney

I had previously written:

[silve...@cox.net]

Paul, perhaps you can try contacting Jason and see how he gained permission from them.  I see he has a website.  Here’s a link to his contact page:  https://jasonwkrug.com/contact

 

Good luck!

Silver

 

Mrs. Silver D. Woodbury

Silverbell Enterprises

10012 Carnie Circle

Yukon, OK  73099

405-519-0331

silve...@cox.net or sbesil...@gmail.com

 

Artistic Director

Oklahoma City Handbell Ensemble

www.okcbells.com

 

From: 'Paul Kinney' via Handbell-l <handb...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 1, 2025 6:17 PM
To: handb...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [HB-L] Trying to do right by getting permission to arrange, but...

 

I wrote about my problems working with Van Ness Press, Lifeway Worship, and Music Services to get permission to arrange "In Remembrance of Me." Both Silver Woodbury and Linda McKechnie replied. Thank you.

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[Sharon Guilliams]

Here is the email I used.

lice...@musicservices.com

Good luck, they wanted me to pay to copy 8 bars of a 100 bar piece for educational purposes for a class of 100.

Sharon 

Yahoo Mail: Search, Organize, Conquer

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[Mark Arnold]

ArrangeMe is a great resource, but I don’t see that piece on their list. Maybe Jason or Brenda can assist?

Regards,

Mark

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[Nick Hanson]

Hi, Paul,

Based on the information you found, it looks like you'll have to contact them directly: https://www.musicservices.com/contact or 615-371-1320.

I'm guessing you've already taken this step!

Nick

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[Paul Kinney]

In my continuing saga of working with Music Services to get permission to arrange "In Remembrance of Me" ...

Nick Hanson wrote:

Based on the information you found, it looks like you'll have to contact
them directly: https://www.musicservices.com/contact or 615-371-1320.
 
I'm guessing you've already taken this step!

I reply:

Yes, yesterday I called that number. The answer bot told me no one could come to the phone, please leave a detailed message and someone would get in contact.

So far no one has.

I'll try the contact webpage tomorrow. Then the email address.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Paul Kinney

[Paul Kinney]

Bill Ingram told me about his arrangement of "In Remembrance of Me," the song by Courtney and Red I want to arrange. Thanks Bill. I looked over the score and listened. It's a good one.

Bill wrote, "Back when I arranged it the publisher took care of the license."

I reply: To make an arrangement and have my church ensemble play it I need permission to arrange. When I get around to sending it to a publisher I'll be able to tell them how to get permission to publish.

Paul Kinney

[Linda Lamb]

Paul, i've been following your saga, and understand.  Sometimes it seems that publishers have no idea that someone might want to make a different arrangement than what's already available.  

I've tried something different with Lifeway.  I'd like to get the rights back to some arrangements published in HANDBELLS magazine, no longer published, and was informed "We do not return assigned musical copyrights at this time."  Whatever that means.  Assigned?

Anyway, I looked back through the emails connected with that issue, and came across this:

www.lifeway.com/about/licensing-permission-requests

I don't know if anyone has directed you to that address, or if they'll understand what you want to do (it's a form you fill out), or if you'll just get the runaround again.

Let us know if you ever get results.

Linda Lamb

P.S.  I had to type in that address, and although it looks right, I may have messed up.  I hope not.

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[Paul Kinney]

I got an email from Music Services this morning with instructions on how to get a license to arrange In Remembrance of Me. It said if I plan to print it I needed a print license.

So I got back on the website and the page to request a license and chose "print." Under that it asked my purpose for printing and one of the options (beyond "hymnal") was "custom arrangement."

The rest of the questions seemed to be about the nature of the hymnal, when it would be available to the public, how many copies I would print (4), and the resale price (0).

This method of doing it made me wonder if my group read the score from tablets would that constitute "printing." It also seems I don't need a license to arrange, only a license to print my arrangement.

Music Services sent an email saying they have received my request for a license. Further instructions (such as how to pay) will come later.

One step closer.

Paul Kinney