It’s a difficult task to talk about the professional music career I have had over the past 45+ years. Yes, there is extensive experience managing comprehensive instrumental, choral, and worship music programs (e.g., 35 yrs.). Yes, as a composer, arranger, and transcriber, I have published works around the globe, in a variety of genres, seen a variety of organizations perform and record my works, and met some extraordinary people along the way. Yes, I have written commercially, and have often arranged for popular, well-known artists in a variety of genres. And, yes, I have intentionally chosen not to list the works on this site.
When I started my career, my efforts were all about me. I sought every opportunity to write, to promote myself, to validate that I deserved to be treated with respect. In time, I saw how people chose to exploit and use me for their own benefit. Publishers readily accepted my works, offered me contracts, and chose to keep the royalties for themselves. Performers chose to promote their own names or organizations, failed to acknowledge and report their performance to ASCAP or BMI, and thereby discarded my efforts as composer and arranger on their CDs and digital collections (e.g., Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, et al.), effectively putting an end to my career.
My story is not unique. I don’t want it to be yours!
In the silence that followed, I found what IS meaningful is the knowledge that God chose me to love deeply, and to use His holy and sacred gift of music as it was intended: to praise Him, to bring Him glory, and to invite the Spirit of Christ to inhabit the praises of those who hear it. Now, deeply grounded in Christ, I have returned to my first love––to write and arrange for people worldwide begging for mercy, for hope, for sincere and unconditional love, and for restoration.
And, I want people around the world to see, hear, and experience these works freely. I want the choice to set a pricing structure that people can afford, or give the works away freely if I so choose. So, I have built Christian Ontos Publishing (COP) with the intent of giving myself and other composers, arrangers, and transcribers around the world the opportunity to publish their works with a company that is creator-friendly. That means, the primary goal is to give emerging artists the chance to bring their ideas to the market by means of a small independent company that IS NOT money-centric (e.g., with little regard to the goals and interests of their artists), but artist-centric, bringing you a quality product that is often overlooked or abused by larger companies in the publishing world.
And, I am searching for musicians waiting to be discovered–those who write, arrange, or transcribe quality music that is worthy of attention and scholarly analysis–and, making these works available to the general public; that being, you! COP provides these artists a low-risk publishing alternative (e.g., you maintain the rights over your work for the duration you publish with us), the industry’s highest percentage of profits from ever sale or license (e.g., 45-55% depending upon the circumstances), and a unique no-risk termination clause. Unlike most publishing houses, COP will NOT indefinitely retain the copyright for works we acquire, but will, with proper notice, return an artist’s publishing rights should they choose to leave us as their publisher WITH NO ADDITIONAL COST to the artist.
If you are interested in what COP can do for your works, feel free to contact our office.
In the meantime, it is my hope that you will find the works on this site something impactful to your life journey, and an aid in your transformation by the life changing reality of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
I hope to hear from you soon!
-Christian Ontos