Hey, it’s TJ Miller and I am Unda The Hat as always, and I got a Tip for ya.  

Last week we talked about branding, this week ownership. Let’s go. 

So after you’ve written and/or recorded your song, you will want to legally own it. Time to copyright ©? A copyright is the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute one's own intellectual property (that’s actually anything you create, but we’ll stick to music), in other words - ownership. Ownership that gets you paid, and if anyone else gets paid off or your copyright you have the right to sue. The copyright belongs either exclusively to the one person that wrote the song, or to all members of the writing team, lyrics, music, beats whatever. Note if it’s more than one person you all will need a document explaining the terms or your splits, something we will talk about later, just know that everyone that wrote it is a part owner.  

Ok, let’s keep this simple, if you are in the U.S., to obtain a copyright you will need to fill out certain forms that you can obtain online from the copyright office through the Library of Congress. Now there are several types of copyrights, but we will discuss two. The PA (Performing Arts) form, and the SR (Sound Recording) form. The links I provided are for the paper forms but you can also apply online here.  

The PA form protects the song, the music, the lyrics, beats etc, and is owned by the songwriter, or publisher. The SR form protects the sound recording (the track) of that song, and is usually owned by the label or an artist. Now since I’m talking primarily to DIY artists you will probably own both the song and the recording, so it’s best to just fill out the SR form. Now who ever owns the songs has to be the same person who owns the recordings to do the SR, and if you do, you can do multiple songs on one form; does that make sense? Yeah it gets complicated so feel free to hit me with any questions.  

For my book writers out there, you can sit this one out, the moment our words are written on paper or saved to a digital file, that work becomes protected under intellectual property law. But if you want to take it that extra step you can. You would fill out a TX form. Just remember copyright = ownership, and in this game you want to own your ship! 

This weeks Independent Artist of the Week is Eric Willis, or as we call him, “The Incredible Mr. Willis.” Click on the name, scroll past the blog to hear, buy and support.