Your Favorite Rapper is Poor: Want to Retire Rich? Copyright Your Music

If you are dedicated MyMusicExec.com reader - as you should be! - you know how important registering your work with the Copyright Office is. Disregard all that nonsense that you've heard about the "Poor Man's Copyright" theory, that does not exist and will not hold up in court, if by chance you find yourself in litigation for an infringement. Why do so many songwriters, authors believe in this theory? Why do so many songwriters, authors believe that mailing in your recordings will provide sufficient protection against copying/stealing all your hard work?

Maybe because times are tough, money is short and hard to come by. Maybe $35 bucks is too much to spend on protecting your investment that has the possibility to make a 1000 times its earnings- or more. I continue to stress this issue because life is not nice guys- rarely is life ever seen as "fair" and it tends to never give a crap about you. So why would you cheat yourself? Why would you cut yourself short, with a potential ground breaking record? Listen- the "Poor Man's Copyright" theory holds absolutely no weight in case of copyright infringement. Although a "copyright" is established once the work is placed into a tangible form - it still does not fully protect you.

#Sidebar: According to several Entertainment Attorneys, if your work is not registered with the US Copyright Office and you file for litigation, no court will hear your case.

Let's dive into what form to register your copyright under. (Many fail at this step)

The PA form is used to register works dealing with Performing Arts. This includes songs consisting of words and music , or just music. There are two forms of registration, in either unpublished form (starts with a registration number of PAu) or a published form (starts with a registration number PA). The main difference is that the PAu registrations protects the work even if you have not yet distributed copies to the general public.

#Sidebar: A good thing about first copyrighting your work as unpublished, is that you are demonstrating that the work is unfinished and any changes to it constitutes as a derivative work!!

Let's say you send a song you've written-recorded or produced out to a recording artist for a placement opportunity, and you have already submitted a PA copyright in a unpublished form. If they, at a later time decide to add more to it and change up a couple words here an there and don't tell you. (YES IT HAPPENS!) You can stop them in their tracks.

#Sidebar: Do Not submit material to any industry personnel without registering your work with the copyright office.

Another way of registering a song is as part of a sound recording (SR copyright) registration. This can be done only in limited circumstances where the ownership of the copyrights in the sound recording and in the music composition is exactly the same. For example…If you and another writer intend to jointly own the MASTER recording but you are the sole songwriting claimant, this is not the form for you.

Work for Hire

A work-for-hire song is written under a person's scope of employment. The results and proceeds of that work do not reside with the "employee for hire" but rather with the "employer for hire" - this includes the right to claim authorship and ownership. Alright without being too wordy an example of this is if someone hire you on a work-for-hire basis to write a jingle or to score a film or tv show. The ad agency or studio is the legal author of the music and the legal owner. Unless your agreement with the agency or studio provides for additional compensation or royalties, your fee is your complete payment.

#Sidebar: Work for hire agreements are not subject to termination of transfer, so be careful and think when entering into these agreements.

Save Money, Do It Once!

I've come in touch with a lot of songwriters who register one song at a time. Well, I mean if you can afford $35 a pop times however many songs you write, I can see why you may beholding back a little bit. Here is #IndustryInsight for you guys. You can register multiple songs as a catalogue of music for one price of $35 bucks. Here is how.

The first thing you might want to do is copyright your songs and your masters if possible. This can be done on a PA or PAu form for a cost of $35 online! ($45 by mail) You can aggregate a bunch of songs onto one form and call it "I Write A Lot Of Music" or something - then get it covered under on fee. Further, if you also own the master recordings, you might be able to cover both the master and the compositions embodied therein on a single SR form.

As always remember that the music industry is 50% game, 30% business and 20% talent, and any artist who is serious about their craft must seek consultation.Feel free to schedule yours with MyMusicExec.com today! Become a smarter artist!