There has been much concern over the decline of many of the largest providers of sacred choral music for evangelical churches in the last months. This Baptist Press article noted, “Brentwood Benson became the latest in a line of major church music publishers closing their doors. Last year saw the bankruptcy of Lorenz Corp., which had purchased choral giant Word Music in 2017. Then a few months ago, Lifeway released its last box of new choral offerings for churches.”
Choir leaders have been concerned with where to find new music for their choirs.
I have great news! There are new publishers rising up to fill the gaps and the arrangers that you know and love are still at work providing great music for your church choirs. Here are a few for you to take a look at:
Semsen Music
Songwriting couple, Daniel and Christy Semsen created their own company and are bringing in other composers and arrangers to provide some amazing arrangements with all the accompanying products you desire. Check out their site and find some great music for your choir. Christy specializes in children’s music, so you will find a lot to help your children’s choirs there as well. Semsen offers print and digital delivery of anthems. CHECK IT OUT
Daywind Worship
Daywind has been around for a while, but they are beginning to expand their choral music more now with their specialized site, DaywindWorship.com. Their anthems have all the additional products you will need as well. Many of their anthems are only downloadable, so you will incur additional charges for printing. Digital delivery is probably going to be more widespread in the future, but it is a great cost-saving to the consumer to get the physical product for their choirs (unless they are using tablets), especially when the digital product costs as much as the physical one. CHECK IT OUT
PraiseCharts
Most everyone is familiar with PraiseCharts, but the great news is that they recently hired Craig Adams, formerly of LifeWayWorship, as Director of Choral Publishing, to head up their new emphasis on their choral music holdings and distribution. Be watching for much expansion in their offerings. As expected, all their content is delivered digitally and will require printing if desired. CHECK IT OUT.
Prism Music
Prism is in no way a new player, but I feel it is worth mentioning since many people are not aware of this publisher. They offer lots of great choral music that is digital and physical. CHECK IT OUT
Discover Worship
This publisher has been around a long time, but I find few people seem to know about them. They offer a subscription service for you to get all your music from them. CHECK IT OUT
Other Publishers
Most publishers are still producing choral music. Continue to check them out. While many publishers may be struggling, they are still holding on and producing music. Only Brentwood Benson has completely shut down–and their archives may resurface at another distribution point one day in the future. LifeWay is leaving the choral music world as we knew it, but they still have much of their product available at LifeWay.com. LifeWayWorship.com also has solutions for choral music.
Bottom line: Don’t be distressed about finding choral music for your choir. Great composers are still at work preparing amazing music for the church to voice its praise and worship!
If you have discovered other sources, let me know!
