How Do I Register Copyrights for My Band's CD? (Part 1)

How the heck do I copyright my band's songs or my band's CD?

This is a very common question, and the online registration process from the Copyright Office's website is not the most intuitive thing in the world. So, I'm going to try to walk you through it in as simple a manner as possible. After I explain a bunch of stuff, there's a list of steps at the bottom that you can print out and use as a guide.

Preliminary Matters
Let's quickly clear up a couple things first.

0) "Disclaimer" - This is important stuff and you need to get it right to protect your rights properly. I intend to give you an overview in this 3-part series, but I cannot, and do not, provide legal advice over the Internet. If anything you read here, or encounter while registering is not clear, you should STOP AND CONTACT AN ATTORNEY.

1) "Copyrighting" - When you file a copyright application, you're not "copyrighting" your songs. The copyright in your songs comes into existence the moment you "fix it in a tangible medium." What the heck does that mean? Well, it just means that once you make a recording of the song, the copyright exists and belongs to you. You're simply registering that copyright with the Copyright Office.

2) Why Register? The long and short of it is that you want to be able to protect yourself if somebody rips you off. Registering the copyright(s) makes it possible for you to stop an infringer from continuing to profit from a song they "stole" from you. Without a registration, you may be able to stop them from selling any more copies, but you won't get any compensation. Having the registration allows you to receive money damages if somebody rips off your copyrighted song. It's also important, for legal reasons, to register within 3 months of releasing the material. If that 3 months has expired, you should still register. But you're in better shape if you register right away.

3) Save Yourself A LOT of Money The registration fee for online filing at the time I'm writing this is $35. If you're not too savvy with copyright registration (which is not something you should expect yourself to be savvy in) you could end up paying $35 per song to register the recordings, and maybe another $35 per song to register the work itself if the writers are not the performers. That's a ton of money. You could end up spending $840 to register a 12-song album. Do it right and you can register that same 12-song album for $35 total ($70 if the writers and performers are different). A savings of $770 is a nice American Standard Strat, a used SG or a set of bass bottoms for your PA. Follow the instructions below and save yourself a lot of money.

4) Before You Start
Collect the following information: Legal name, address, year of birth and country of citizenship for all of your bandmates/co-writers. If you don't have this, you're going to end up having to save your application in the middle and come back later to finish it.

5) !!!VERY IMPORTANT POINT!!! - What Kind of Work Am I Registering? Read this section a couple times, because it's not necessarily intuitive, but it's important. If the people who wrote the song are not the same as the people who played on the recording, you need to fill out two different forms.

Let's say I'm in a band with 3 other guys. I play drums, there's a bassist, a guitarist and a guitarist/singer. If all four of us collaborate to write a song and all four of us go into the studio and record the song (or in our basement, or wherever), we only fill out one application. In that case, we only need to register the work as a Sound Recording.

Let's say the same band is involved, but the singer and bassist write the song (think Iron Maiden or the Beatles) and all four of the band members play on the recording. In this situation you need to fill out two applications. One is to register the song that the singer and bassist wrote (that's a Work of the Performing Arts). The second application is to register the actual recording that all four band members laid down. As above, that's a Sound Recording. This means that if someone wants to use the actual recording we made, all four band members get paid. If someone wants to cover the song by making their own recording, only the writers get paid.

As I said, re-read that section if you're confused, but the bottom line is, if the list of writers is not identical to the list of performers, fill out two forms (SR and PA). If the writers and performers are the same, just fill out one (SR).

Who Owns What?
When you register a work created by multiple people, each person is presumed to own an equal share. Two writers? That's 50-50 in the PA work. Four performers? That's 25-25-25-25 in the SR. If you want the ownership to be different, you need to fill out an agreement between you afterward. That agreement is known as a copyright assignment and it lets you assign rights however you want. This is a simple agreement and you may be able to find good examples online. Note that this is not a function of the Copyright Office. This is something you do on your own (hopefully with the help of a lawyer to make sure everything looks good).

OK, let's move onto Part 2 and get started.

Disclaimer: It's very important that you do this right. While I've attempted to help you through the copyright registration process, this is not legal advice. If you have ANY questions, you need to contact a lawyer and get them to help you complete the process properly.