River City Music publishes songs of many types! But our focus is on songs designed for congregational singing that don't require a guitar / band / organ to carry the song. We do like and publish songs like that, but our emphsis is on songs that can "stand alone" in voices-only singing. Why? Because any song that can stand alone can easily be scaled to add instrumentation. Think, for example, of "Amazing Grace". It's great as a 4-part hymn. it's great with an organ, it's downright amazing with bagpipes. It's just a great song. So ... if you are writing songs intended primarily for radio-play, we're probably not your cup-O-tea. We emphasize the worship experience where everyone is singing.

Our business model is to license songs for publication and pay a royalty to songwriters based on the sale of products that contain their songs. Our license agreement is non-exclusive so that songwriters can pursue additional avenues to promote their songs (as long as they don't directly conflict with us). Our catalog of songs is listed with CCLI (www.ccli.com) so that groups that want to project the lyrics can be ethical and legal about it.

We aim to be amateur-friendly. Some of the greatest Christian songs of all time were written by amateurs. You may be able to write a great 4-part arrangement -- or not. You may simply have great lyrics and a tune. Either way, we want to help great songs find a voice. Most people need help in a couple of areas: 1) getting a song written down (notated/engraved); 2) figuring out what all four voices should be doing (arranging); 3) understanding the legalities of publishing and distributing a song. We aim to provide information and good advice in all of these areas, and we strive to keep our legal arrangements "user-friendly".

If you've got a song that you want us to consider publishing, please contact J. Brian Craig (jbriancraig@earthlink.net).