Music Resources

Copyright

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.

According to U.S. Copyright law, a new creative work is copyrighted at the moment of creation and all rights for that work reside with the creators immediately. However, registering your copyrights with the U.S. Copyright office provides a level of proof as to the creation of the work.

Every song contains two copyrights:

1) Musical Composition: consists of music, including any accompanying words, and is normally registered as a work of performing arts. The author of a musical composition is generally the composer and the lyricist, if any. A musical composition may be in the form of a notated copy (for example, sheet music) or in the form of a phonorecord (for example, cassette tape, LP, or CD)

2) Sound Recording: results from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken, or other sounds. The author of a sound recording is the performer(s) whose performance is fixed, or the record producer who processes the sounds and fixes them in the final recording, or both.

Copyright in a sound recording is not the same as, or a substitute for, copyright in the underlying musical composition.

Although they are separate works, a musical composition and a sound recording may be registered together on a single application if ownership of the copyrights in both is exactly the same.

To copyright your work: 

All copyright applications are handled through the Library of Congress.

The electronic form eCO is the most current form for song registration.

Please see this list of frequently asked questions regarding copyrights.

Publishing and Liscensing

A music publisher works with songwriters to market and promote their songs. Music publishers “pitch” songs to record labels, movie and television producers and others. The National Music Publishers’ Association explains music publishing in greater detail.

Music licensing refers to the process of obtaining permission to use a copyrighted work.

More information on music licensing can be found using the resources below:

Indie Slate: Music Licensing 101
Art-List
ASCAP
Audiosocket
BMI
CDBaby
Directional Music
Marmoset
Musicbed
Music Vine
The Harry Fox Agency
SongFreedom

Performing Rights Resources

ASCAP, BMI and SESAC are the three main performing rights organizations in the United States. Members of these organizations receive royalties when their music is used commercially. You may also contact them to determine the current publisher of a song or to access resources for licensing and royalty distribution.

Other Music Publishing Resources

Harry Fox Agency (HFA)
HFA is now the nation’s leading provider of rights management, licensing and royalty services for the music industry and issues the largest number of mechanical licenses on behalf of its affiliated publishers for the use of music in both physical and digital distribution formats.

Sound Exchange
SoundExchange is the independent nonprofit performance rights organization that collects and distributes digital performance royalties to featured artists and copyright holders.

International Standard Recording Code (ISRC)
The ISRC is the international identification system for sound recordings and music video recordings. Each ISRC is a unique and permanent identifier for a specific recording, independent of the format on which it appears (CD, audio file, etc) or the rights holders involved. Encoded ISRC provide the means to automatically identify recordings for royalty payments and is recommended for all music producers by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).