I was reading Andy Chrisman's blog and just learned about something pretty cool. I know, it's probably old news. Those of you who are CCM fans probably heard about it a long time ago. It's something called CompassionArt, and you can learn all about it here. Here's what the website says . . .

CompassionArt is a charity that joins the dots between art and poverty. It raises money to help breathe life into the poorest communities, restoring hope and igniting justice.

. . . the dream was born to gather some of the best-known writers in the gospel/Christian music scene and spend the week writing songs that could impact these issues on a long-term basis.

So after many phone calls, the team was assembled, Michael W. Smith, Darlene Zschech, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Paul Baloche, Israel Houghton, Graham Kendrick, Steven Curtis-Chapman, Andy Park, Stu Garrard, Martin Smith.

So, with so many songwriters gathering it felt like we needed a new structure to compliment and carry this dream. The usual way of doing things is for a publisher to own the songs and then distribute them to the writers. Although there's nothing wrong with this it felt like we needed a more radical approach to maximising all the income from these songs as the intention of the writers is to give every cent away. Also a lot of the publishers and managers were excited about being involved too and making a contribution.

So CompassionArt was born, a charity dedicated to seeing works of art generate income for the poorest of the poor. So these songs that will be written in Scotland in January will be owned by the charity meaning that every penny will come to it and the trust will own these copyrights forever. The publishers, the managers, the agents and the writers have waived all their rights to see something historic happen, the music business coming together for something great, something that is about something greater than any individual could achieve.