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Part 1 of a 3 part series on the legal side of the music industry.

It is imperative that any musician looking to be successful in the music industry have a basic understanding of the legal process. For every musician that sees their hit single break through to MTV there are five more who are in a lawsuit over their music and will never get the big break they desire. Read this article in order to make sure you won’t be getting a call from an artist you sampled looking to take all of your money and ruin your career.

Lesson 1: Copyrights

A copyright is one form of legal protection that can be given to any type of work that one creates, from movies to cassettes to even commercials. However, not just anything can be copyrighted. There are actually three basic criteria which must be adhered to for a copyright to be approved.

1: The content must be original. It has to be your content, which you thought of and did not copy.
2: It has to be “fixed in a tangible medium of expression”. In simpler words, this means that the content must exist in some sort of permanent format so that another individual is able to reproduce it and claim it came from them.
3: It must have some degree of creativity.

Musicians can either copyright a recording, or simply the song’s melody, lyrics, etc. There is a “fixed” requirement that means that the song can not be copyrighted if it is simply in your head. A copyrighted song must be recorded, even if it is simply on your old tape deck. A live song does not count, although it does count if you decide to record the live track. Once the work is “fixed” it is automatically copyrighted, even if you do not go through a copyright office to make it official.

As the owner of a copyright you have a number of rights to do the following:

1: The right to reproduce your work in any format you wish.

2: The right to distribute your work, and sell it for a profit.

3: The right to perform the song. Whoever copyrights the song is legally allowed to play the song at any medium they wish.

4: Make a derivative of the original work. A derivative is a work that is based directly off of the original, such as a remix, or change of lyrics. Think Weird Al Yankovik.

5: Perform copyrighted sound recordings of a digital audio transmission. This means that the owner of the song can legally distribute the song to digital transmission platforms such as the internet or the radio.

6: Display the work. While this does not always apply to musicians the copyright owner can display the words wherever they choose. An example would be karaoke song lyrics.

Similarly, no one can do any of the above without the authorization or permission of the copyright owner.

Term of Copyright: A copyright lasts for the lifetime of the owner plus an additional 70 years after the owner dies.

Types of Copyrights: The first type of copyright is a sound recording. This consists of any type of recorded sound regardless of the medium. The other is known as a musical works, which is both the music itself and lyrics used to build a song. These can be separate tracks that do not go together, or combine to make a complete copyrightable musical work.

A common question is: How do I distinguish between copyrights in sound recordings vs. musical works?

A musical work, often referred to as a song, is a melody that can also be combined, but doesn’t have to be, with lyrics. On the other hand a sound recording is the recorded performance of the song. The difference of the two allows for multiple revenue streams to be created: one from the royalties of the recorded song, and the other for the publishing. For an example, lets say Drake records a version of a song written by a songwriter for his album. Here the songwriter would have the copyright and royalty for the written music work, while Drake would get the royalties from the Sound recording, and any time he performs the song.

Registering Your Copyright: While one gets copyright protection just by writing a work, there are valuable benefits to getting it registered by the United States Copyright office. With copyright registration, the author can take legal action if the work is copied without the owner’s permission. There is a filling fee to register and the forms can be obtained at the Copyright Office’s Website (www.copyright.gov).

Copyright notices: While a copyright owner is not required to display their copyright, doing so is highly recommended. By placing a notice on your compact disk or equivalent, this allows fans to contact you with inquiries about licensing your material, potentially earning you money. In addition, it prevents anyone from avoiding royalty payments by claiming in a court that they did not realize that the song was already copyrighted.

The copyright notices for musical works is the symbol, ©, or a ‘C’ enclosed in a circle. This is also commonly followed by the year of publication and name of the copyright owner. For recording copyrights, the symbol is ℗, and is also followed by the date and owner. (Ex: ℗ 2010 Audimated Record Company).

Copyright Ownership: The owner of a copyright has the right to transfer the work to anyone they choose, as long as the transfer is in writing. In addition, the owner can license the work out, without ever giving the ownership right to the copyright.

*** The exception to this rule is “work made for hire.” If an author creates a work when he is currently the employee of an employer, then it is considered a “work made for hire.”  The copyright of a “work made for hire” lasts for 120 years from the date of creation or 95 years from publication, whichever comes first.  There is another type of “work made for hire” which refers to a work that was specifically created or commissioned for one of the nine types of works specified in the Copyright Act. Finally, a song that is recorded specifically for a compilation of a motion picture or other audio-visual work may also be considered “work made for hire.”

Overall, if you are a musician creating your own material, be sure to get it copyrighted. Otherwise, some years down the road, when someone else has used your beats or melody for him or herself, you can legally claim that the individual took it from you and hen receive royalties from your work. Similarly, do not take other copyrighted material, as you will eventually be in a load of legal trouble and never see any money if you do not give credit to whomever created the work.

This concludes my first post on the legal side of the business industry.  In my next installment, I will be discussing Sampling and Music Publishing.

For more legal tips visit www.thelawinsider.com.

Post written by Greg Gerla. Greg writes for Audimated.com. If you have a story to suggest please contact Greg@audimated.com.