Of all the areas of copyright law music is the one people have the hardest time understanding. Not only are you dealing with rights that are intangible, but you’re dealing with rights that come from two different sources. So let’s clear this up, taking baby steps.
What is Copyright?
The easiest way to understand Copyright is to take the word apart: Copy Right. A right to copy. Copyright gives you an interest in the content of a physical product like a book or a CD as opposed to the physical object itself. That right in the content is the right to copy, distribute, display, create derivative works of, and perform that content.
In your case, your content is the music you write and record.
How is Music Unique When it Comes to Copyright?
Music is unique because your copyright comes in two forms. You have a copyright in your musical composition, including lyrics, melody, and arrangement, and you have a separate and distinct copyright in your sound recordings, or what you put on a CD or record. The content of your musical composition is the elements of the song itself, no matter who sings it or who performs it. The content of the sound recording, on the other hand, is the music as it is on the recording itself.
To make this easier to understand simply look at the structure of the music industry. On the one side you have publishers and on the other you have record companies. Publishers want the rights to your musical composition. If you’re a songwriter, you may consider working with a publisher so your musical compositions can be licensed to and performed by performing artists. On the other side of the industry you have record labels, who want the rights to your sound recordings (e.g., your albums). If you’re a performing artist what you perform on an album falls under the sound recording copyright.
If you’re a band that writes your own music you can stake claims to both your musical composition copyright and your sound recording copyright.
When Do I Get my Rights?
Your copyright triggers the moment you put your music down in a physical format, including digital format (this includes MP3). That’s all you need to do. If you write a song and record it in any medium you have rights in both the musical composition and the recording itself.
What About Registration?
Registration is $35 if you do it online. The earlier you register, the better off you’ll be. Statutory damages are significant and are only available if you register before or within three months of an infringement. You must register if you plan on suing anyone for infringement, and many of the people you want to license your music to will require proof of registration to show that you are the owner of the rights in question. Register early. If you want to learn how to register your work visit the U.S. Copyright Office website.
What About Poor Man’s Copyright?
Before 1976 this may have been relevant. Today mailing a copy of your CD to yourself may only be useful evidence of when you recorded. It isn’t a substitute for registration.
So What the Hell Does All This Mean?
It means that if someone pirates your work and distributes it without your permission, uses your song in a video without your permission, passes of your song as their own, or samples your song in their own without permission, you have legal rights against them. Any time someone uses your music without your permission they’re committing copyright infringement. This is actionable and you can enforce your rights in several different ways, whether by selling them a license for use or filing a lawsuit against the infringer and anyone else involved in the infringement.
