Question about copyrighting music

[hendrix95]

My band wants to record a demo soon and have our music copyrighted. I wrote the words and music to about 8 songs, while two of the other members co-wrote 2 other songs. If we list all 3 members who participated in writing songs on the registration form, does this meen that the other two writers will share ownership of the songs that i wrote by myself? Also, is there any way to specify who wrote which songs on the registration form? My main concern is that the band may break up and that the other members will bring some of my songs with them and play them with other bands in the future.

 

[Krystof01]

Get copyright for each individual song. By doing so you can assign who has done what/contributed to each song. Check out on the rules of copyrighting-ie, you can't copyright chord progressions. Get all the contributing members to sign any form plus maybe also a third party as witness to also sign it if not formal.

 

[Rev E]

Hendrix95,

The rule to operate by is "one writer/writing team" per Form. If 3 people cowrote all 10 songs, then you can use the same form. If anything different, then you have to use the rule stated above. In your case, you'll need to fill out two types of copyright, Forms PA and SR.

1. First separate who wrote what. So for songs demos that you wrote alone, you can put them on the same Form PA for one $30 fee.

2. For the songs demos that were cowritten by two or more bandmembers, put them on a separate Form PA (one "writing team" per song).

3. When your band is finished recording the complete record, then the whole band needs to fill out Form SR so that the entire band owns the copyright to the "sound recording" (different from the copyright of the music and lyrics as in Form PA) for one $30 fee.

Rev E