How to Copyright Your Music Are you a songwriter or producer worried about copyright infringement of your music? You’ve come to the right place. Every artist wants their music to be protected from anyone who might steal it and earn all the money they deserve. If you’re a songwriter, then you have the copyright to every song that you finish. It means that if another artist writes a piece the same as yours, you can claim your copyrights. Not to mention that you can only claim a song to be yours, which is officially copyrighted under your name. Now getting copyright to your music might sound a daunting task, but it’s not that tricky. Read on to explore everything you need to know about how to copyright your music. What is a Music Copyright? Copyright implies that a person or a group owns the intellectual property. Music copyright also means that a songwriter has official rights to all the songs he wrote. It also means that the person may earn money from the piece he owns. Music copyright works differently in each factor. If you wrote a song with a partner, you both would have the copyright for that song. If you work under a label, the chances are that your label will own the copyright of your recordings. How to protect your songs from Copyright Infringement? There are many ways that you can use to protect your songs from copyright infringement. You can always write your musical work, or you can have an audio recording of your music. Another way is the poor man’s music copyright used by many artists, but it’s useless. In this way, the musician mails himself a copy of his song via certified email. The artist doesn’t open the envelope as it has the official date mentioned on the outside. This idea used to help if someone tries to steal your work, but this practice is now obsolete. In 2019, the Supreme Court issued a rule that artists register their work with the U.S. copyright office. It’s the best way to sue someone who may have stolen your music. Types of Music Copyright There are two basics of music copyright “the composition” and “the sound recording.” The composition includes the lyrics and music of a song usually owned by songwriters. And the sound recording consists of the recorded version of lyrics owned by artists. How to register a Copyright for my Songs? Now that you know how copyright is crucial for you as an artist, you might wonder how to register it. Well, you need to go to the Copyright Office for official copyright if you live in the United States. There are specific rules that copyright offices have. And every country has its own intellectual property office. You can register yourself online on copyright.gov if you live in the United States. Artists who don’t have a copyright office in their country can register in another country. Suppose someone wants to record their songs to copyright in the U.S., they can go to copyright.gov. The process to register for copyright online is very simple. You need to search for copyright.gov on google and go to the “U.S. copyright office.” Sign-up for registering copyright and fill in all the information they need along with the fee. Once you’re done, you are registered as copyright, which will hold you up in court. Also, after some weeks, the U.S. Copyright Office will send you a letter in the mail with an official stamp. And it works as official proof, so keep it safe in your essential documents. This way, if a person steals your song or claims that you stole their song, you have the copyright and are backed up in court. Can I hire copyright services? There are tons of copyright service providers who do all the legal work for you. It’s like hiring a music manager, but the tasks are different here. Online copyright service providers like Cosynd and CD baby pro handle all the heavy work for you. The online service-providing companies use straightforward steps for registering a copyright. It’s best for people who don’t have time to go through distinct stages of the Copyright office themselves. The copyright services provider works professionally and provides quick services. They can help you register many songs in one application for copyright. Essential things you need to consider when registering If you decide to register your songs in the U.S. copyright office yourself, you’ll want to file “Form S.R.” or “Form PA.” Before moving on to the registration process, be sure to read the application types. There are different applications used for registering a copyright. If you wrote your songs by yourself or if you have a co-author. There will be a unique application form for each situation. There is a question that artists often wonder is, what if they want to register both the composition and the sound recording? According to copyright.gov, a musician can use one S.R. form to register for sound recording and composition. But this can only happen if the author of all the songs and songs release information is the same. What if I want to file a lawsuit? An artist can only sue if he has registered his work in the U.S. copyright office before the lawsuit. To get the highest award for infringement, register yourself before the breach happens. If an infringement happens, the artist can sue in federal court and small claims court. After using, it’s mandatory for both the filer and infringer to show participation in the court. The creators who win their case in federal court can earn $750-$150,000 per infringement. The Bottom Line! Now that you know how to copyright your music and how crucial it is for you as a musician, it’s time to get registered. The copyright registering process can take several months, so you don’t want to delay it further. If you find the process daunting or don’t have enough time, you can
Decades ago, if you wanted to record something of good quality, you need to visit a recording studio that had had a professional-grade tape machine, a console, and a whole slew of outboard gear and mics. Human resources such as engineers and managers are part of what makes a studio. Most musicians are not familiar with how to operate the equipment, including set levels and mics placement but the engineer was pivotal to the whole thing working out. Making good musical decisions that would translate well to a finished product was not a common thing among the musicians but the studio is drivers of all because it takes a whole lot of investment to make a studio and their output quality would determine their return on investment. Fast forward to our digital world of now, things have changed significantly, computer power, quality of equipment had skyrocketed, memory and storage space has increased drastically with continuous fall in their prices. Both recording software and hardware are now accessible and affordable to the points that anyone can purchase and set up a recording studio at the small available space in their home. The necessity to shell out the big bucks at a commercial studio has drastically reduced and almost eliminated as most musicians are now investing in some form of recording technology Regardless of the development, artists still value the need for a good producer and for once, Producers’ contributions have never been overruled in the music industry. Marketing yourself as a producer is an essential part of becoming a successful music producer in the competitive music world. Being a music producer relies not only on being competent but also relies on relationship hence; marketing yourself would create a way to make a name for yourself out there. Here are some marketing tips that may help your music production business: Web site Every business needs a website to highlight their skills and talents. Music producers are no different. Take advantage of the Internet’s reach by creating a Web site for your business. You don’t need to spend a huge amount on a website. Include things like your basic business information, contact information, and some clips of recordings you’ve produced. Get a paid site and choose a URL that’s catchy and easy to spell. Make your website as simple as it can and ensure it is easy to navigate. Include the Web site’s URL on your business cards so that potential clients can find it easily. Avoid having excessive information. Clutter makes your website unprofessional. You don’t need to include everything on your site, enough information to let visitors see your creativity along with an easy way to get in touch with you is enough. Networking Networking is the most important marketing strategy for music producers. There are several ways to network in the music industry. Keeping in touch with people you’ve worked with, engineers, artists, bloggers, publishers, record studio owners, engineers, label executives and other stakeholders that help you find clients and grow your business. Becoming a member of music associations in your country or neighborhood is also important for instance you can become a member of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers). Check out Billboard and other advertisements that share the latest trends in your marketing demographic. Keep yourself up to date with forums like Mix Magazine, Tape op, Sound on Sound and the likes as you can meet other professionals in your profession through them. They are also a good way to wider your exposure as those professionals may be from other neighborhoods. Mix CDs Without the publication of your success story, no one will be listing to it. Creating a mix CD of different styles of music after recording is part of networking as they communicate to your contacts what you are capable of doing. Define your brand There are plenty of music producers out there. Make yourself distinct from everyone by creating an identity for yourself. With ‘beat logo’ without the name, the majority can relate that it’s Dre Trademaker. To be special and different from everyone else, you need to brand yourself. As a music producer, you’ll need a catchy name, develop a logo and other visual concepts that people begin associating with you. Create appealing business cards that include your logo, contact information and list of your services. Keep business cards with you wherever you go. You don’t know where and when you will meet someone who could connect you with a promising band. Get on Social Media Utilize the digital world to your advantage, social media is globally and cut across all tribes and races. If you’re not on social media, you’re missing out on great opportunities to network and build huge followers. Build a befitting profile for yourself on social platforms and follow people you admire in the industry. Follow stakeholders of your industry such as artists, engineers, label owners, other record producers, and the likes. Share your content regularly to keep your followers engaged and ensure this is done professionally. Create a schedule and let people know when new music is dropping so they have something to anticipate and a reason to visit your page. Do all you can build a relationship with your followers and ensure the relationship is mutual. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and many others are perfect platforms to market yourself. Be Consistent Keep your website and social media pages up to date by adding new content regularly. Creating a catchy profile is not enough, you need to create a marketing plan of how and when to share new content. Stick to the planner and ensure your activeness. Consistency is a vital key to building up a new business. You must ensure the content you share are relevant and maintain a moderate interval. Take advantage of Promotional Campaign Getting in the front of the right audience is not an easy task for music producers, but through the help of a promotional campaign such as a winning email campaign,
The term ghost producer has been around for a while and it has been a perfect replacement of the ghostwriter that was famous in the 90s. A ghost producer is a person who produces music in the dark (anonymously) for another artist or DJ. The music will be released by the artist or DJ and all credit goes to the artist or DJ while the ghost producer takes a cut of the profit from the music or a fixed amount without any receiving any credit for his work. There has been a series of arguments on if hiring the service of ghost producers can make a DJ famous or not and a lot has been said about this argument. Many believe it is unethical to hire the service of a ghost producer and taking credibility for another person jobs. However, some still believe what matters is offering good music to your fans consistently regardless of the source. They believe it is an act for an artist of DJ to satisfy his fans and consider it great since the producer also makes profits in the form of cash. Hiring ghost producer doesn’t mean you are not talented or lack the skills to produce good music, but while you are busy on other things, you still got the chance to satisfy your customers. To be a famous DJ, you have to be consistent, which implies that you have to be able to provide your fans with good music every time and this can be achieved with the help of good ghost producers. However, the road to becoming famous as DJ is beyond releasing songs and getting on stage a few times, there are more to becoming famous. Below are a few things that you should consider important apart from good songs: Personal Branding Good personal branding is a key factor if you want to get the momentum going. It is important that you create a series of outlets for your audience to find you, and a means to be recognized among the crowd of other people who are in the same field. How you present yourself to the world has a strong influence on how famous you can be, your branding can make you famous so it is important that you create a unique identity for yourself, choose a name that sounds amazing, totally different from any existing DJ and be sure that it’s a name that you don’t plan to change in no distant time. Consistency is a strong weapon in building a brand and changing your name may make you lose your identity. Also, you can create a logo that will speak about you even without the mentioning of your name. For instance, when you see LG, you know what that means without any introduction and hardly will you hear people saying Life is Good electronics. Once you have the logo, you can proceed to set up pages on different social media which will be a place to post your song for your audience to see. Biography Photo Upload an attractive picture of yourself on all your pages, as much as possible ensure that you add few details about yourself on every page. The type of music you do should not be excluded in your biography information. Self Promotion This is not an easy task, reaching a reasonable amount of people by utilizing every available tool is very vital. Make use of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube channels, Spotify playlists and other available networks that you can use to reach thousands of people without stress. Connection And Networking This has to do with who you know. Connect yourself with people that can help you to be famous. Feature famous artists, participate in world entertainment events, and partner with famous record labels. Welcome and also source for endorsement. This article is not to dispute the fact that using the service of ghost producer can make you famous as DJ but to let you know that you have to add additional efforts to breakthrough. Good luck. Also we suggest reading our previous blog posts – Famous Artists And DJ’s Who Use Ghost Producers
