Music Copyright

The exclusive rights for a copyright owner of a sound recording include the rights to reproduce and distribute records containing the sound recording. These are the rights that record companies are exercising when they manufacture and sell CDs and cassettes of an artist's recorded performances. As the copyright owner of a sound recording, you also have the right to prepare derivative works from your recording. As explained above, a derivative work is a new work derived from one or more pre-existing works. Making a derivative work of a sound recording entails placing a portion of an existing recording into a new recording.

Understanding the distinction between a song and a sound recording is crucial to understanding your rights within the music industry. A melody and any accompanying lyrics make up the song or the musical work. Musical work is the term used by the Copyright Act to refer to a song. A sound recording is the recorded performance of a song. The Copyright Act provides for six exclusive rights. Which of those six exclusive rights a copyright owner has depends on the type of work or artistic creation involved

It's easy to copyright music. You have a valid copyright as soon as your original song or sound recording is fixed in a tangible medium of expression. That's a fancy term coined by music copyright law, and means that your song or sound recording must be written down or recorded. You don't need to register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office in order to have a valid copyright. However, registration does give you additional protection in the event someone infringes your work.

As the copyright owner, you also have the exclusive right to prepare a derivative work based on the song. A derivative work is a new work based on or derived from one or more pre-existing works. For example, if you write new lyrics for one of your existing songs, the resulting song is a derivative work.

For the copyright owner of a song, the most important exclusive rights are the rights to make copies or records of the song, the right to distribute copies and records of the song, and the right to perform the song publicly. With respect to the right to perform the song publicly - also called the public performance right - it doesn't matter whether a live band is performing the song or whether a club d.j. is playing a recording of the song. Either can qualify as a public performance.

With very few exceptions, recording contracts provide that the record company is the copyright owner of any sound recordings made under the contract. In those situations where there's no written agreement indicating who owns the sound recording copyright, the copyright is owned by the creators of the sound recording. While the creators are usually the performers, in some situations, the creators might be the producers or recording engineers. What exactly is a music copyright? Think of a copyright as a bundle of exclusive rights. The exclusivity means that only you as the copyright owner may exercise those rights in your music, or authorize others to exercise them.