Tuesday, July 4th, 2023.
Hey, it’s TJ Miller, “you want some game?” Let's #tipundathehat!
For the best indie music from indie artists, click, and follow Indie Artist Of The Week Unda The Hat. This week, Eric Majied. Be sure to hit the like button and follow this amazing group of indie artists. They will be big time soon.
Name it and claim it!! - Let’s go -
Well, allow me to say Happy 4th of July (I heard somebody call it Juneteenth part 2 🤣) to everyone in the US. For all of my UK and African readers, have a beer and a barbecue and enjoy on us.
So this conversation comes up quite often, so let’s talk about it. Do you really need to fill out a copyright form? The copyright law goes all the way back to 1790. The Constitution says that an author of a work may reap the fruits of his or her intellectual creativity for a limited amount of time. The law also provides, in the case of specific works, a right to publicly perform or display the work; in the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of digital audio transmission. So let me take you to the conversation, “I don’t have to copyright my songs because they are all on my 
hard drive with the timestamp.” I said wow. Please if you want to believe stuff like this, keep it to yourself, and don’t share mistruths with folks who might mess around and believe you. Here’s what he was trying to say; copyright protection exists from the moment an original work is “fixed” in a tangible medium. For example, fixation occurs when a song is recorded in an audio file or when a musical work is notated in sheet music or a digital file. However, as the owner of your music, a completed copyright form gives you the right to make and sell copies, distribute those copies, make new works based on your work, and, with some limitations publicly perform or display the work. So in other words, without a copyright, yeah you own it, but it’s not protected if you want to do anything with it besides talk about it.
The thing about a copyright form is that it legal documentation for all you intellectual hustlers out there. Copyright covers things like Musical works, including any accompanying words. Sound recordings, which are works that result from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken, or other sounds. Literary works (like my book Murder By The Collar - shameless plug right there). Dramatic works, including any accompanying music. Pantomimes and choreographic works. Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works. Motion pictures and other audiovisual works. Even Architectural works are covered by copyright law.
When you record a song, you may be creating two works that are protected by copyright: a musical work and a sound recording. A sound recording and the music, lyrics, words, or other content included in the recording are separate copyright-protected works. These works are subject to different rules and are commonly owned and licensed separately. Conversely, there are several types of copyright forms, that you can access and learn about right here on this link.
Once your copyright is registered, you are able to legally protect your work in court. Without registration, you are not able to seek compensation for any cases of infringement. You can also secure yourself additional benefits depending on how quickly you register your copyright.
So what’s next for copyright? So I’ll say this out loud about the RIAA. They tend to move behind technology and not alongside it. Therefore things like Napster got the jump on the music industry, and now Discord, an app primarily known by the gaming community, which has more than 142,000 members, had been pointing people to AI voice models of artists including Bruno Mars, Frank Sinatra, Rihanna, and Stevie Wonder, which could be used to make deepfaked tracks impersonating those singers. And they are making NEW songs. Who owns the copyright on this now??? 🤷🏽♂️so now the RIAA has written to Discord asking it to shut down a server called ‘AI Hub’ on copyright grounds. And yes I know it’s hard to keep up, but bruh, we got caught with our heads in the sand with Napster and Limewire, let’s not let it happen again. Ok….got that off my chest.
Bottom line….copyright your work, and keep an eye on this new AI stuff. Ok, go get your 4th of July barbecue on.
This week's #IAOTW - Independent Artists Of The Week is - Eric Majied. 
This self-proclaimed vibrapercussionest (which is a Vibraphone player crossed with a percussionist) from Flint Michigan now lives in Dallas Texas and teaches music in the Dallas School System. This is his second project release and is about to release an accompanying EP with this single called “We’re Strolling.” Click on his name link, scroll down to his picture, then click and support. You won’t believe how talented this cat is.
For more information on this or to hire Unda The Hat as your brand or label consultant send a message via undathehat.com. See you next week!!