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(excerpted from his book, Indie Marketing Power: The Guide for Maximizing Your Music Marketing).
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It is not essential to register your copyrights with the government’s Copyright Office (copyright.gov) but it is advisable. Registration creates a clear paper trail in the event of an infringement on your copyright. Plus (and this is ultimately most important), formal registration allows you to collect statutory damages as well as attorney fees from the infringer when you win your case. ‘Nuff said.
There are five music-relevant copyright registration forms obtainable from the Library Of Congress. They are:
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- Form PA (Performing Arts)
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Form SR (Sound Recording)
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Form TX (Non-dramatic literary works
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Form VA (Visual Arts)
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Form CA (Corrections & Amplifications)
A CD project can easily involve every one of these forms. For example, when the tracks were just “unpublished” songs on a rough lead sheet, you could have registered each one with form PA. When the tracks were recorded, you could have filed an additional SR form to register the sound recording version of the songs registered under the previous PA form.
You may have some special liner notes written for the CD which can be registered using form TX, and the CD graphics registered using the VA form.
What about the CA form? Well, listen up and save some dough.
A person may register as many songs as they wish on a PA or SR, call it “The Collected Works of Joey Singer”, Vol. 1”, and be granted full copyright protection for each song listed on the form. This is great because for one $45 fee each song gets protected.
But what if someone hears one of these songs and wants to cover it? How will they be able to find it in the Copyright Office records?
“They won’t”, says Page Miller, a senior copyright information specialist in D.C. “This is why we created the CA form.” The CA (Corrections & Amplifications) form allows you to “amplify” your PA or SR filing so that each of your songs can be individually indexed at the Copyright Office.
Now if a band or artist wants to cover a song you’ve written or recorded, they would be able to look up your name as the song’s copyright owner. If the song in question was merely one of, say, twenty songs registered on a PA or SR form, it would be protected but it would not allow a person to find it in a copyright search. A CA form registration has nothing to do with giving the song additional protection, it just provides a tracking path to the song’s author.
You file the CA after you receive your registration number back from the first filing. The total process can take several months.
So for a total amount of $160 ($45 for initial registration and $115 for the CA) you can register and protect all your songs, and provide a tracking route to them as well.
Btw, the Copyright Office is currently experimenting with online registration and the uploading of copyrighted works. As with most government processes, however, it’s right now a bit complex and, though you save a few bucks, it’s still in “beta” mode and you might want to just stick with the good ol’ mail-it-in approach.
Office of Copyright Contact Info:
Download any form you’ll need at: http://copyright.gov/forms/
If you want to speak with an Information Specialist at the office of Copyright call: 202-707-5959
Peter Spellman is Director of Career Development at Berklee College of Music, and author of numerous music career guides. Find him at mbsolutions.com
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