A strategy and a system for publishing, distribution, release and content, so the music isn't carried by one person.
What we see
Free Chapel already has what most churches spend decades trying to build: the songs, the singers, the platform and the room. The opportunity is the structure that carries it forward.
Free Chapel Music has released eight times in eight years, in bursts. Two releases three weeks apart in the autumn of 2018, then fourteen months of quiet. A live single from Forward 2019, put out five months after the conference. Three releases inside three weeks in June 2021, one in June 2022, and then four years of nothing until The Well on 26 June 2026 — which landed during Forward itself, off a two-week turnaround.
Every FCM release, 2018–2026
Spotify, cross-checked against Apple Music and Amazon Music, 12 August 2026
Eight releases in eight years, clustered into four short bursts with long silences between them. Nothing that has ever worked like a release calendar.
What happened when they did release is the part worth noticing. The Well has done 115,915 streams worldwide in its first six weeks, on a two-week turnaround with no release plan, no pitching and no editorial support. It held level for three weeks before it started to decay, which is not what a launch spike does. People were finding it, and nothing was built to catch them.
The platform underneath it keeps growing. Seven campuses plus Online, with Destin planned, and Forward fills an arena every June.
The audience already in the house
YouTube subscribers, read from each channel on 11 August 2026
Free Chapel has spent decades building a community of believers, across its campuses and far beyond them. The music is the newest thing in the house, and it hasn't been put in front of them yet.
That distance between Free Chapel's reach and the music's reach is the gap worth closing. It doesn't take more people. It takes a strategy and a system.
Where the music sits today
5,335Free Chapel Music, Spotify followers
0editorial playlist placements
1release since June 2022
What happened when they released
The Well — weekly streams worldwide, Luminate, 26 June to 6 August 2026
115,915 streams in six weeks, with no release plan, no pitching and no editorial support behind it. The first three weeks hold almost flat, which is not the shape of a launch — it is the shape of people finding a song on their own. Week four is where a calendar, a pitch and a follow-up would have gone.
Why this matters
The point of all of this isn't to run a music business. It's to give the songs legs.
Registering with CCLI, working with MultiTracks and the resource partners, building a real release calendar: none of that is overhead. It's what turns a song written in one room into something a church across the country can pick up and sing on a Sunday.
That's the goal underneath everything below. Songs that travel as far as they're meant to.
What we've discussed
From our conversations so far, this is where things stand on the questions churches frequently get stuck on:
Equal writer splits, rather than negotiating contribution percentages song by song
Free Chapel owns the copyrights; writers participate through a revenue split
Self-published, with 50/50 co-publishing
Song-by-song agreements, papered by Matt Anthony, with a first-offer mechanism if a writer is approached elsewhere
Direction to sign an administration deal and a distribution deal
Those are good decisions, and fair ones. What's missing isn't the philosophy. It's the machinery underneath it.
Where we'd start
How much of this Good runs, rather than advises on, depends on the level.
Appoint a publishing administrator. We shortlist, negotiate and stand up an administrator who registers every composition, collects at the PROs and collection societies, and issues the quarterly writer statements. This is the answer to the administrative burden: a vendor doing it properly, paid directly by Free Chapel, rather than absorbed into someone's week or billed by the hour.
Register the catalogue in one pass once the structure is set: the PROs, The MLC, CCLI, and — on the recording side — SoundExchange, correctly attributed the first time.
Review the existing agreements for gaps, not to redo them. Specifically: what happens on an outside co-write, whether song-by-song should become blanket at some threshold, and how the first-offer mechanism is documented. Matt Anthony continues to paper it; we identify what needs papering.
Negotiate the distribution deal already under discussion, on terms that still work at three times the current volume.
Build the release calendar and asset spec. Twelve months, with the real decision points marked and what has to exist by when, so a two-week turnaround is never the process again.
Map the team. What comes off Aaron's plate first, who inside Free Chapel picks it up, and what, if anything, needs to be hired.
It lands as one operating document: structure, agreements, distribution, calendar and team, in a form Free Chapel's leadership can govern from.
Who you'd be working with
Johnny Rays
Co-founder
Previously at Hillsong Music, where his work included Hillsong UNITED, TAYA and Brooke Ligertwood. Built Woodlands Worship's publishing, distribution and release structure end to end, from no structure at all to a functioning operation. Leads that side here, along with deal work, paid digital and industry relationships.
Abbey Nordberg
Co-founder
Works across artists including Aodhán King, Benjamin Tan, Joel Houston and Benjamin William Hastings, managing release schedules, campaign execution, and the coordination between artists, labels, agents and partners that gets releases across the line. Background in live-event production and talent relations for significant US-based Christian festivals, conferences and concerts. The person artists look to when a tour or a shoot has to actually happen.
Good Management's current clients are Hillsong UNITED and Joel Houston, Aodhán King, Benjamin Tan and Woodlands Worship.
Three levels of engagement
Each level includes everything in the level before it.
All month to month.
Level one$7,500 / month
Music strategy set alongside Aaron and the team
Ongoing structural advice as writers, releases and deals come up
The right producers, writers and mix engineers recommended for each project
Input on song selection, release timing and supporting assets
Digital strategy advised and reviewed
Calls every two weeks; on site twice a year
Level two$10,000 / month
Everything above, plus:
Those producers, writers and engineers briefed, booked and managed through each project
Distribution partner relationship managed day to day
Paid digital run by Good: creative direction, copy, targeting, performance review
Marketing and asset direction across the release cycle
Calls every two weeks; on site quarterly
Level three$15,000 / month
Everything above, plus:
Playlist pitching to Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon, and the YouTube Music route through the distributor
Christian radio across the AC, Hot AC and CHR formats: song selection with a promoter, and pitching to program and music directors
Church resource partners such as MultiTracks, worked actively so worship teams can play FCM's songs
Writing camps cast and run: the room filled with writers and producers from outside FCM's circle
Weekly call, quarterly planning session; on site every two months
SocialAdd on$5,500 / month
At any level, month to month, for FCM's main handle.
Organic social and content strategy: platform approach, content pillars, posting cadence and the release-cycle calendar
Content briefs and shot lists for what FCM's team captures, tied to the release plan
Day-to-day posting
Artist and worship-leader positioning, and review against benchmarks each cycle
Run by a social manager: a twenty-client portfolio across book launches, tour content, album release cycles and brand rollouts, including a single family enterprise with talent accounts, retail brands and faith-adjacent organizations running side by side. Average follower growth of around 25% a year across those accounts.
On pitching: getting FCM's music in front of the people who make these decisions is work Good does on every release, properly and on time. No placement, playlist add or radio add can be guaranteed.
Terms
Fee
A flat monthly retainer for the selected level, plus the social add-on if taken. No commission, no override, no participation, and no share of any revenue.
Term
Month to month from the first of the month following signature. No minimum, no fixed term, and either side can stop on 30 days' notice.
Changing level
Levels and the add-on move up or down by agreement, effective the first of the following month.
Ownership
Good acquires no interest in Free Chapel's masters, compositions or copyrights.
Royalties
The administrator collects what falls inside its mandate and accounts for it to Free Chapel. Not everything passes through it — each writer's performance share is paid to them directly by their PRO. Writers receive statements quarterly on a published schedule.
Third-party costs
Legal, administration, distribution, advertising, production and radio promotion are contracted and paid by Free Chapel directly.
Approvals and decisions
Free Chapel decides what gets released and what gets spent. Good has no authority to sign, commit or contract on Free Chapel's behalf.
Relationship
Independent contractor. Good is not an employee or agent of Free Chapel, and this is an advisory and operating engagement rather than day-to-day management.