How to Copyright Music

Video Transcript

"ANTONIO NEAL: Hey, this is Antonio Neal with Artistic Soul Entertainment on behalf of Expert Village. Today, we're going to talk about copyrighting a song and also publishing a song. Now, let's talk about copyrighting your material. The first thing you have to do, which most people don't really know, that once you put your song either--down--lyrics down or you create sheet music or you create a disc or an audio tape, your piece of material, your intellectual property is actually copyrighted. And what we're trying to do today is really show you how to register your copyright so that someone can know that it's legally yours. And you can also check out copyright.gov and they could help you with any forms or any questions you may have, and I even believe that they have a 1-800 number you can call and they can help you with all your copyright needs. The first thing you got to do when you copyright something, you have to write it down. So if you have lyrics for a song, you're going to have to write those lyrics down. If it's a book or something of that nature, a play, an idea for a recipe, or anything, the first thing you have to do is get it out of your mind. Get it out of the intellectual RAM of your mind and write it down. And after you've written it down, you want to say, "Antonio, how do I register my copyright?" I got a copyright. I wrote this thing. I have this song. What do I do? You can go to your library or check out the Library of Congress. They have books. They have web sites that you can go to. Just go to your Google and type in copyrights. And you can find some easy, easy, easy form and easy ways to copyright your material."