Every musician has had their music copy written and if they haven’t they should. This protects them from other people stealing their work, whether it is the lyrics, melody or music composition. When copy writing your songs this protects you and you will receive the proper compensation and above all credit for your work. As many musicians today are recording in their own studios copy writing has never been more important.
Once you have recorded your song (s) they are basically copy written, long before having to fill out the form. This keeps the drummer from recording the song for his own purposes and selling it as his own. But you must register your song, it’s like owning a home, you have to have the legal paper work to show you are the owner. If you do not register your music it will be extremely difficult to sue someone that you think has stolen your work.
You can register your music and have it copy written online these days. Using the U.S. Copyright Office’s web site, you can see the forms that you need to fill out, download them and sent them on their way, whether online or by mail. This web site also offers a lot of good information on everything you need to know.
There are different types of copy writing, such as the arts, music, books, poetry, etc. since there are so many musicians that are doing their own recordings many ask if they can copy write the whole CD, with many original songs on it. Yes you can but it is not really advisable. It is not cheap to register your music, so they are trying to save some money. If you have your CD copy written with more than one song on it, it will be legal but if a problem should arise about one song or the other, you might not be able to prove you are the holder. Besides copy writing this way, it only lasts for five years, after that, it’s free game.
For those who do not have a lot of money, go ahead and file your music, it costs about $45.00 per song, and register ten of them if you can, if not one at a time will work as well. And you really should find an attorney that deals with musicians and the music laws, they will cost you money but in the long run, they will make you money.
Source by Richard Johnstonn
