Introduction: How To Register Music Works

There are tons of people who are not completely squared away with the differences

between copyrighting and when they have to register music they have written. They are not the same thing and are in fact a bit different. According to the laws that are in place in the United States, once a person has written or recorded some type of music in permanent form it is automatically protected. But for people to understand the differences between copyrighting and registering, they need to know what the definitions of each of those actions are to begin with. A copyright is a certain, specific type of legal protection that is offered to people who compose creative works. Creative works can be any type of art, written word or music. There are limits that people are legally allowed to place on the amount of time that their material is exclusively protected, and then it becomes public domain or public property. This time frame usually is something like the life of the original creator plus 75 years, for example.

If you copyright a piece of music or anything else, as opposed to registering it, you and only are going to have the right to use the music and to grant permission for other people to use it. When you copyright it, you are also going to have the right to distribute and sell copies of it. It does not matter if the copies are sheet music written on paper or it is recorded music, the copyright laws include the right to perform your music for the public as well. The Fair Use Doctrine states that anyone can use your written or recorded music for the purpose of research, criticism, commentary or reporting. There are times when the use of copyrighted materials is appropriate without the consent of the person who holds that copyright.

As you can imagine, though, in some cases, copyrighting alone is not enough to protect your music, and this is when it comes time to register music. There are many stipulations in place regarding technicalities of protecting music. The easiest thing for you to do to protect your work as much as possible is to simply give notice of copyright. This means that somewhere on the actual original copy of the sheet music, demo disc or album cover even you put the word Copyright, the date and your name. Some people will even put this information on the actual recording itself, verbally stating this word and information.

Back to what it means to register music You have to have your music copyrighted and registered in order to be able to file a copyright infringement suit against someone. You must register music not only during the creation process, but before your work is shared with anyone else when it could be stolen and claimed as someone else. To register music, all you have to do is fill out an application, pay a filing fee and include a copy of what it is you want to claim.

by: Phoenix Delray

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