Holly Emmerunderwriting director:WMSE

Copyrighting your music:

First, I should point out that I am not a legal expert in this field. For the most accurate information, one should see an entertainment lawyer for official advice. This information has been gleaned from my years of being a musician and is only to be considered my personal opinion.

Technically, you have copyrighted your work as soon as you recorded it. But, when most people think of the term ‘copyright’, they mean to say that they want their work officially registered or protected from others’ who may try to claim or use the work without the author’s permission. The length of protection of a copyright is the lifetime of the creator, plus 50 years.

There are two ways to do protect a sound recording: the quick/easy way and the official way.

The quick/easy way is to place a cassette tape of the body of work of music as well as the song titles, the artists’ information, lead sheets, lyrics and other relevant information into an envelope. Mail the package to yourself. The post date on the envelope will prove that your work was created at a certain date. When the package arrives at your house, don’t open it. Instead, put the package in a safe place.

If you have a concern about lawsuits, you should consider doing it the official way. The official way offers legal proof of ownership and copyright. To do this, find $30 and head over to the Library of Congress website to download Form SR for copyrighting your Sound Recording. (http://www.copyright.gov/register/sound.html).

Assuming that your band owns the copyrights to all of the songs and also owns the actual sound recordings, be sure to write “music, words and performance” in Space 2 of Form SR. Doing this will allow you to record both the song copyrights AND the sound recording at the same time.

(If you would also like to copyright your CD artwork, you can also fill out Form VA from the same site.)

Please note: If you are submitting your work as part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, use Form PA when registering your music.

The Library of Congress has some very informative online circulars for learning more about the copyright process. One in particular, is Circular 56 – available here: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ56.html.

If you are considering selling or distributing your music to others in the future, place a copyright and publishing notice in your CD artwork. A typical notice looks like this:

Words and Music © & (P) 2004 Joe Blow

Having your music “published” basically means that your sound recording has been/is being distributed to others, or is available for sale. When your work is being published, there are usually other things to consider, such as “mechanical royalties” and “performance royalties”. (To be addressed at this site soon.)

So, what happens to the copyright when a band breaks up? Nothing. Each member listed on the SR is still copyright owner of the sound recording. (Usually, all the fights are about the royalties. That’s an entirely different situation that we’ll address soon, too.)

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