To the songwriters out there, do you protect your songs, either by copyright or one of those on-line "registration" sites? If so, do you use written material or recordings (the copyright office appears to accept both). Ever had anything stolen or not get credit for something you wrote because it wasn't protected? Is it worth $45 to be able to say "Hey, I'm a real songwriter cause I got copyrighted material"

Just curious about others' experiences and whether its worth worrying about.

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“All music is folk music, I ain't never heard no horse sing a song.” Louis Armstrong

i've only played in 1 band that recorded originals. everything was protected. my question would be......"is it worth it for you?".
my cousin's son has very unique original band. extremely talented and driven to succeed. they recorded a cd that is being passed around and is not protected yet. i told them to either stop handing out the cd or get it protected. they are that good. maybe i'm just biased, paranoid or both.
i'm curious to what others will say.

I dont really consider myself much of a songwriter, but me and some fellers from work have a little recording project going. Since it got pretty popular here we decided to spend the 30 bucks to have the first song copyrighted just in case. My attitude is that its better to do it if you plan on, as mentioned above, handing out copies of it or upload it to a public server. You just never Know.

Most of the good stuff that ends up somewhere besides online is all protected and even some of the online stuff and collabs get a creative commons license.

Anything that I've ever sold is all copyrighted and even the tunes that sell for cheap on some of the mp3 hosting sites.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

im guessing no one would take my work, but if they do and say they wrote it, i'll sue them

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riley

strato, that's a bunch of questions Bro. I haven't personally ever done the "registration" or copyright process for written material or recordings. This oldie sums that up
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSolarcoas ... 4Dgw_LSJ5w

like you know that is Hal David and Burt Bacharach

when its SBLS I hope you can tell its SBLS

you should copyright your work Bro. I have seen some sites that will do that for you for less than 100 American Dollars, do some investigating before as without experience I don't know what they are really like.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

That's the whole point of registering a copyright. If you take someone to court with the claim that they stole your song, the court will want to see that you've registered a copyright for that song. Otherwise they won't do anything about. A legit registered copyright is the only legal way of proving that the song is yours.
That being said, I doubt that anyone would want to steal my music, but in the event that it happened, I do have all my songs legally copyrighted.

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Check out my new FB music page!

https://www.facebook.com/TheDevilandMe.Music

Legally, once you have a recording of the song (any sort of recording) or just wrote it down, it is protected by copyright.
What registration will do for you is that it will establish precedence in case of a dispute (ie some guy comes along "hey, I had the same idea before him/her").
Mailing yourself the material and keep it in a sealed envelope is still being done, but it always is a much better idea to actually register the material properly.
By properly I mean:
- register the copyright with the US Copyright Office
- send a copy of the song to the Library of Congress
- register the song with a PRO (performance rights organization - ASCAP, BMI, SESAC)
You can register a group of songs, by sending several songs on the same CD; however, you must fill out the forms for each song.

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La vie est belle, le monde est pourri, make the most of it!

I write it down and send it in a letter to myself. Address the envelope on the back, so the stamp and PO seal crosses the the evelopes flap. Don't open it when it lands. It comes back it's got a Royal seal with the date on it.

Dunno if that works in countries without a monarchy.

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No no and no

I wonder if that works in Canada, post office usually seals it across the stamp.
Well 30-40 bucks is not too bad if you have an album worth just as a backup.

Always, everytime! I think whether your a professional songwriter or just do it for fun, it's a good idea. You never know, a song you don't think much if now, may be a hit later on down the road. I'll usually do 8-10 songs on one form so I don't have to spend $45. Per song.

If by protect you mean hide from the light of the world, then yes, I do that.

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Rated "M" for meaty.

I'm still working on my craft, but when I think the songs are good enough I'll apply for copyrights and register with a PRO again. As pts295 stated above, it's cheaper to copyright a bunch of songs at one time rather than one or two at a time.

Thanks for the replies. Taking it a step further, for those of you using a written rather than recorded method, are you writing down just the lyrics, or lyrics and melody? For melody, do you use tabulature, maybe create full-on sheet music?

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“All music is folk music, I ain't never heard no horse sing a song.” Louis Armstrong

strato, a recording can change, example:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSolarcoas ... O073fekFfA

like you knew that was David and Bacharach

if anyone else tried that, I hope, it might help if an issue about writing credit happened.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.