According to the research I have done anyone who writes a song is instantly the copyright owner. So, I am wondering if members here goe through the sets to formally register their song(s). If not, do you take any alternative measures to prove that your are the creator of your songs? What do you do?

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'09 Am Deluxe Ash Strat
'09 Mex Standard Strat
'10 Mex Standard Tele
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'65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue

http://www.copyright.gov/ and search the forum you find a lot of great info on it. Alot of people dont but I do you never know.

Briese, ascap (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers)and bmi (Broadcast Music, Inc.) are the not-for-profit organization and corporation to help artists "formally" register/copyright/license their art in order for those artists to be paid when that art is used by others.

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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.

People do all kinds of wacky stuff in misinformed attempts to "poor mans copyright" their original music. One example is the old "record it on a cassette or CD and mail it TO YOURSELF" method which is supposed to prove you wrote it and when thanks to the postmark. However it really proves NOTHING and this method has failed in multiple court cases since envelopes can be steamed open and resealed. Don't waste your time or money on that. It is no protection at all.

The only iron clad way to legally protect your intellectual property, which is what an original song actually is, in a court of law is to copyright it. Read this page. http://www.musicbizacademy.com/internet/how2copyright.htm

Do not be tempted to post that original song on youtube or myspace until you've filed the copyright application. The Copyright Office account is free but it costs $35 per song submitted online and $50 per song submitted by snail mail. If you think that is too much to spend on a decent song just imagine how it would feel to have someone steal your uncopyrighted song and sell a million copies and keep all the income for themselves. Granted all your songs might not be hits, but you should know which ones get the best reaction from the audience so copyright those first.

Additionally if you do not already have a music publisher, you should next also register your song with B.M.I. for free. Since it takes up to 15 months for your certificate of copyright to arrive from the copyright office, in the meantime the BMI registration will serve as proof of exactly when you listed it for royalty collection on BMI. It is FREE to set up a BMI account and free to list as many songs as you like. Also by listing the song for royalty collection on BMI it is all set up to collect royalties if it does become a hit. Then if a song you wrote ever gets played on radio then you automatically get a check in the mail. If you do have a publisher then the publisher usually handles BMI registration as part of what they do to earn their hefty commission for handling your publishing. It costs the publisher nothing but labor to do this for you.
http://www.bmi.com

ASCAP functions the same as BMI but has a $35 application fee for composers and is more choosy about approving applications, so you have to wait for "approval" of your ASCAP account before registering anything. Both BMI and ASCAP serve the same purpose which is royalty collection when your composition is broadcast. BMI's zero fees makes it more attractive to someone just starting out, yet they are totally professional and just as effective as ASCAP. Once your account is approved at ASCAP you can also list as many compositions as you wish free. http://www.ascap.com

One way to maximize your income is to own your own publishing company. Many artists like Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, the Beatles, the Turtles, Michael Jackson and others owned their own publishing company. They were wise to do this and anyone starting a serious music career should follow their example. Ray Charles did this very early in his career, the Beatles and others later in their careers. None of them ever regretted it. It will cost at least $500 for the accounts you'll need at the broadcast royalty collection organizations of BMI and ASCAP. But that way you'll get 100% of your royalties and always own your own songs. If you sign with an existing publishing company you will only get a percentage of royalties. Additionally you will retain all rights to the music yourself and can pass it on to your estate and also the publishing company. Songs often have very long lives, frequently outliving their original creator. I have a friend whose family gets quarterly royalty checks from his grandfather's original compositions even though he died over 35 years ago.

The disadvantages to being your own publisher is the initial overhead for account fees at the royalty collection services and the fact that you have to "pitch" your own songs to artists you wish to have record them. Pitching your songs to others isn't actually required if you are going to record them yourself. You can use your home address, set up a cheap website, get the local business licenses required and you are in business. The list of artists who wish they'd done this early is way longer than the list of people who actually did it. Networking with other musicians as we tend to do can lead to you entering into a publishing management agreement for other composers you know which will earn you a commission on their original works. Music publishing can be quite lucrative.

I believe the question was "Do you copyright your songs?"

Yes, I do. Copyright is automatic at the moment of creation, but I either register my songs with the Library of Congress (if they weren't written for a specific commercial purpose) or make the copyright details in a signed license agreement (if they are written for a client).

Not trying to tweak anybody, but there is a lot of information in this thread already that was unasked for and slightly wrong. For example. ASCAP and BMI don't help you copyright your songs, and listing with a Performing Rights Organization doesn't protect your property. It's true that the "poor man's copyright" is useless, but it has not "failed in multiple court cases," because you can't even bring a copyright infringement suit to a US court unless the work is registered with the LOC... the court won't hear it. The approval process at ASCAP doesn't need to be put in quotes as if it were somehow arbitrary: ASCAP only accepts applications from people who have published work or air credits to show (I couldn't join until my first documentary score was aired on PBS). Etc., etc.

Here is the best advice on the subject: don't ask for legal advice on the web, ever. Read the US Gov's copyright info that goodinbed linked, read the FAQs at ASCAP and BMI's sites, get a copy of This Business Of Music and read it, and when you encounter something that isn't covered in one of these two iron-clad sources (which will be rare), ask an IP lawyer.

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Jim Bordner
Gravity Music - www.gravitymusic.com
Composer, producer, Egnater Artist

Dude-- I would be happy to give a song away for free if I knew it would go somewhere. All this copyright stuff for people who sit in the basement recording and thinking about copyrights is like a mental saftey net thing. Face it- the chance of anyone wanting your song is slim to none. Let's be real.

I sat at a friends kitchen table for 10 years writing songs with him and trading licks.. He wouldn't play some of his stuff for me because I might rip it off and record it! HA!!! That was 10 years ago!!!! Can we see how silly this is? It's like a person giving status to themself that they don't really have. *** If I have a copyright that REALLY means my songs are great and everyone will love them******" If I don't have a copyright everyone will steal my songs and just make tons of money and I'll end up under a bridge with a can of Sterno"

Okay so you record your big album. If you feel you should copyright it-- I have no problem with that and you don't care one bit what I think and that's okay. I hope you are the next ""Big" thing.

Agreed!

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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!

There's a Peanuts cartoon where Snoopy is sleeping in the grass when Linus and Charlie Brown walk by talking about how strong a mule's kick is. Snoopy wakes up and hears them as they walk by and Linus is saying, "I heard that a mule's kick is so powerful they can kick down a barn door!"

Snoopy puzzles over this for a panel, then gets up and for the next three panels takes a few wild practice kicks. Finally, he lies back down in the grass, closes his eyes, and thinks, "Ridiculous."

Just because you feel your kitchen table songs weren't worthy of protection doesn't mean that the OP's aren't. And there's much more to the music business than making a "hit album." I do sit in my basement making recordings of my songs, for a living. Last year, among 30 other projects, I wrote a musical ID that is being used on cable TV and radio across North America... that one :60 tune paid more than most people make in three years.

There's nothing stupid about protecting your work if you intended to get paid for it. And you don't have to be The Next Big Thing to do it.

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Jim Bordner
Gravity Music - www.gravitymusic.com
Composer, producer, Egnater Artist

****
I did not say it was stupid to protect your music-- please point out that word in my post. I vaugely understand the snoopy thing. Of course I understand that proffesional songwriters need protection so they don't get ripped--- but two guys sitting at a kitchen table ? Think of all the people who sit in thier basement recording. Do you honestly think they all need to register thier music?
Either way I know I'm on the losing end of any conversation here so.............................

Mr. Eg, "Poor Man's Copyright" is not admissible in Federal court, but is admissible in state or local district court or local superior court in many states including mine. In NC all you need to sue someone is $36 and a grudge. You do not need any evidence to file a lawsuit in NC. You go to the county Clerk of Court office, pay your $36 and file suit whether you have any real evidence or not. In such a case you need other evidence or testimony besides that sealed envelope but it is admissible in lower courts. If that envelope is all you have then you are probably going to lose. Of course if you do win it probably will get appealed and drag on until you eventually lose or give up as it gets more and more expensive.

BMI takes all songwriters, published-aired or not, which is why I posted them as an additional source for emerging songwriters and attempted to explain that ASCAP does not take everyone. You did a better job of that than I did. SO KUDOS on that.

I do, with the library of Congress. We have had lots of discussions on here about this subject, and some have actually gotten heated, but I still think registering is a good idea. And I do with all of my songs.

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Check out my new FB music page!

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

Well, fine, Dave, but a local or county court is not going to hear a copyright infringement case. So it doesn't matter if you file in small claims for 36 bucks... they can't pass judgement, because copyright law is federal law. Local and county courts try local statutes, state courts hear cases relating to state constitutions. If you want to press a copyright case, you do it in a federal court.

I will again, before withdrawing from this oncoming clown pile, repeat this mantra: don't get your legal info from an online forum. Get good source, get a lawyer, learn the real stuff, and if you intend to shop your music around then get it registered.

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Jim Bordner
Gravity Music - www.gravitymusic.com
Composer, producer, Egnater Artist

Thanks for the replies. I'm still learning guitar and just getting a couple pieces of equipment to do some home recording. I do not have any songs that I am protective of... yet. So, I started this topic to just get some starting points. Copyright.gov, bmi and ascap are just the type of references I was looking for, thank you.

I certainly didn't mean to post a topic that would get heated. (I must have used some poor choices of keywords when search for previous threads of this type.)

Thank you for the caution about getting legal advice from the internet. That was not my intent and I am aware of the dangers of free advice. (Actually, I make a living as a consultant so I have a very good understanding of this point )

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'09 Am Deluxe Ash Strat
'09 Mex Standard Strat
'10 Mex Standard Tele
Champ 600
Blues jr.
'65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue

Just to clarify, the $35 fee is per submission, not necessarily per song. For example: You could submit 10 or 12 songs under the name of the album (or any name really) and it would still cost only $35. So save them up rather than submit them one at a time.

BTW - If you do your submissions online, the wait for the cert is only about three months.

if i actually get signed and record an album, yes i would then, but for now hey just stay in my room

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riley