How to Obtain Copyright Protection for Music
From the moment of its creation, an original work of music is the intellectual property of its author. Copyright for a piece of music can be granted for both the composition and for specific recorded performances, which are counted as two separate copyrights. Though registering to obtain copyright protection for music is voluntary, however, a copyright must be registered to be enforced in a U.S. court. The so-called "poor man's copyright", in which an author mails himself a copy of their work to establish a creation date, does qualify as registration for purposes of enforcement.
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Instructions
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Complete registration form CO to the U.S. Copyright Office. The copyright registration form CO is eight pages long, but is straightforward and easy to understand. Primarily, it asks for basic information about the work, its publication, and the author. Other pages take information regarding on contact persons regarding the work and any other interested parties.
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Submit a specimen. For each copyright being requested, a copy of the original work must be submitted. For music, this can be either a transcription of the composition, or a recording of a performance.
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Submit and pay the filing fee. The registration form and the specimen must be submitted to the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress along with the filing fee. The fee is subject to change, so check with the Copyright Office before your submission.
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Tips & Warnings
Registration of a copyright is necessary to bring a suit for infringement, but the copyright can sometimes be registered after the infringement occurs solely for the purpose of bringing the suit if there is proof of prior use and original authorship. If a work is registered within 3 months of publication a suit against infringement can claim not just damages, but attorney's fees as well. The duration of a copyright is the life of the artist plus 70 years, after which the work enters the public domain.
The three elements of registration, the form, the specimen, and the fee, must be received together or they will not be processed.
