Copyright Basics
Whether you are just making a demo, or a full-blown master for national release, you need to know the basics before you begin.
All copyrighting is handled through the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.
Since all copyrighting is handled here for everything from songs to books, you need to specify the proper form. Form PA is the standard form for songs (music and lyrics). It comes with instructions, but they can be a little confusing since this one form covers many different applications (published and non-published works, single writer and multi-writer works, music only or lyrics only, etc). Some sections may be obvious, some may not. We suggest you look it over carefully and get familiar with it, fill in in the sections you can, then give us a call for further guidance or call the copyright office info. line at 202-707-3000. You can order forms by mail by calling 202-707-9100. Or, simply click on the "Copyright Information" link below to download a form directly from the Copyright Office. One that you can print out on your own printer. Once you successfully complete one form, it becomes easier from that point on. Be sure you get it right before you send it in, or they will send it back to you for correction which can cause unnecessary delays. Or worse, it could lead to a situation where your copyright protection could be jeopardized just when you need it most.
*Tip - Send your completed form, your CD or cassette, a copy of the lyrics, and the fee to the Copyright Office via Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested. This way, they will have to sign for it upon arrival, and the signed card comes back to you in a week or so, whereas the processed Copyright form will take much longer- up to 4 or 5 months. This signed (green) card proves that it's already in the possession of the Copyright Office, which means you can safely proceed with your promotional plans without having to wait so long, or worry about whether it was lost in the mail. According to the Copyright Office, your copyright becomes effective the moment they receive all of your materials and payment in good order, althought it can take 4 or 5 months to get the processed copyright form sent back to you. This is why you should sent it Certified Mail, Return Receipt.
ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC are non-profit Performing Rights Organizations, not copyrighting organizations. Basically, their job is to monitor T.V. and Radio air play, collect the royalties, and then distribute these royalties back to the writer(s) and publisher(s). You must sign up with one of the above (of your choice) or you will not receive any royalties no matter if your song is played a million times. You only need to do this if your song is about to be released on a widespread basis; not just played on a local radio station. And don't bother if you are just cutting a demo to send to individuals such as producers, publishers, record labels, or artists.
BMI Nashville Office= 1-615-401-2000 (press #2 for "Writer's Application" to join)
ASCAP Nashville Office= 1-615-742-5000
SESAC Nashville Office= 1-615-320-0055
Publishers are basically "song agents" who specialize in getting your song to the right producer and/or the right artist. While publishers will re-copyright your song (if they accept it), it only is for the purposes of publishing and will not take away or change your being the author or writer of your original works. They must do this, or it will not be registered as a published work, which would not only keep them from receiving any royalties, but also possibly hinder the success of your song on the airwaves for being an "unpublished work." If you look on any major label release, you will see something like "Blue Sky Music, BMI," for example. This is the publisher of that work. Virtually all record labels have in-house publishing, so sometimes this will be the label's own publishing company. Sometimes the publishing may be registered under more than one company, for the writer may have gone to a publishing company first who then in turn found a deal with a record label. When this happens, they normally split the publishing royalties between themselves as per their own agreements. This still in no way disrupts or dilutes your writer's royalties (unless you decide so). Publishers are "song agents," and record companies and talent agencies are "performer's agents."
Therefore, if you don't write songs and are only a performer or "artist," then you don't need to worry about the above copyrighting, publishing, etc. This will be handled by whoever wrote and published the works you are performing. Anyone is free to record any song they want. You only need to concern yourself with the above procedures if you are about to SELL your recordings in large quantities (over 500) for profit. This is where obtaining copyright permission from the publisher comes into play if you are recording someone else's material and not your own original material.
Copyright forms
The form you will need for copyrighting a song (music and lyrics) is form PA. It's best to include a typed or neatly printed lyric sheet for each song you submit with application (+ fee & tape or CD), whether you are copyrighting songs individually, or as a group. Note: You must have Adobe Acrobat installed to open the downloaded forms below.
Get Adobe Acrobat for free here.
Get Form PA with instructions here.
Note: The copyright office insists that your form is double-sided, and not two separate sheets. Therefore, when printing out form PA, quickly take the form out of the printer, flip it over, and put it back in the printer to make a double-sided single sheet, HEAD TO HEAD (TOP of side B is directly behind TOP of side A). The "instructions" come first, and it doesn't matter on that because you don't send in the instructions anyway. The actual form PA, however, must be double-sided. For complete details, click here.
If you want to copyright your whole CD as one work, under one title, for one $30 application fee, you can. Although this is not quite as good of protection as individual copyrights on each song, it's a whole lot cheaper. And, you can always come back and copyright the songs individually at a later time as you deem necessessary (such as if one particular song becomes a hit). To do this, you simply list the "Album Title" in the first space on the form called "Title of this Work" (where you would normally put the song title). Then fill in the rest as normal. If you run out of spaces trying to list the writers (there's only 3), you can download form CON, which is a continuation sheet
Get Form CON here.
If you plan on distributing and selling your own CD's and cassettes, you can help protect yourself from "bootlegging" by copyrighting your sound recording. This is different and separate from copyrighting the songs themselves. (For just a demo, this would be overkill). The form you will need to copyright your sound recording is Form SR.
