How to copyright a song? Well, first a bit on what a copyright is. It is precisely that: the right to copy a song or intellectual work. For the purposes of our blog, this post will apply to copyrighting a song. The copyright law stipulates that the author or copyright holder is the individual or group of individuals that actually own the song. And as we said, the owner of the song has the right to reproduce or make multiple copies of a song. When a song goes under the process of copyright, it means the song is given protection under U.S., and in many cases, international law, against infringement or illegal copying. Whomever wishes to use that song will need to go through the appropriate clearance process. This process is the process of asking for permission or asking for "licensing" to a particular song.
Now how are song initially copyrighted? Well, songs are automatically considered copyrighted as long as they're original and in a "tangible" state and it is an original piece of work. The song needs to be recorded, written on a piece of paper along with its melody, or stored somewhere like a USB memory drive, etc. So as long as it's an original song and it's recorded or written in some tangible form, it's automatically copyrighted.
However, the mere fact of writing it along with writing the music to it will create the compositional copyright. This is the most general form for the initial song to be simply copyrighted. But IF the song is also recorded in some form, then this will create the second most common conceived copyright for the same song. This second form of copyright will be the recording copyright.
These are two separate copyrights and will be treated as such. Which is more important? Well, the first composition copyright will take over in any infringement case. The second recording or "master" recording copyright is almost always exclusive and will almost always be held by a record company. Each time a song is recorded, it has its own copyright, the copyright for that version of the song. But the idea of the song, the intellectual copyright, which, in the case of music, is often referred to as the composition or the work, is a separate copyright and will always be the same for all the versions.
So for example, if someone records their own version of the song you wrote, they would own the copyright to that recording or "master" recording, but you still own the "composition" copyright of the song.
Now a bit on what we all hear as registering the work with the copyright office. Although under intellectual law, the song is automatically copyrighted when it is conceived, it will always be in your best interest as the author of the song, to go through the registration process with the copyright office.
Some of the benefits of registering the work is that in order to have the right to sue someone for "copyright infringement", a registration with the copyright office is required. You may register your work online. First, make sure you have a copy of your song on your computer in an electronic format such as a WAVE or MP3 file format. Instead, if you wish to register the composition in a written format, you may do that instead and will serve the same purpose. If the song is written down, you can submit it to the US Copyright Office as a PDF, a Microsoft Word document or a JPEG if you take a picture of your written composition.
Registering more and more can start to get pricey in many cases. The cheapest way around this, however, is to copyright an entire album. That way, you only pay a single registration fee and you only have to fill out one registration form, and ALL the songs contained on that album are still protected under copyright law and most importantly REGISTERED. For more info go to the US Copyright Office and get familiar with the process.
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