Laws and protections you have to know about your songs
Reprinted from Copyright.gov | U.S. Copyright Office. Find the original article here.
If you’re a songwriter or musician, there are a few key things to know about copyright law and the protections available to you.
First, you should know that copyright protection exists from the moment an original work is “fixed” in a tangible medium. For example, fixation occurs when a song is recorded in an audio file or when a musical work is notated in sheet music or a digital file. You don’t need to do anything else at all for your work to be protected by copyright. As the owner of your work, copyright gives you the right to make and sell copies, distribute those copies, make new works, and publicly perform the work.
The Two Types of Work
When you record a song, you may be creating two works that are protected by copyright: a musical work and a sound recording. A sound recording and the music, lyrics, words, or other content included in the recording are separate copyright-protected works. These works are subject to different rules and are commonly owned and licensed separately.
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