[Harp-L] RE: Music Publication and Copyrights



What are the procedures that I need to got through to get my original tunes
copyrighted and published.
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Hi Dennis,

Probably your best bet would be to get hold of the book "This Business of Music", which addresses these issues more fully. But in a nutshell, copyrighting and publishing are two very different birds.

If you only want to copyright them, you need to send forms, a fee and a recording to the U.S. Copyright Office at the Library of Congress. See: http://www.copyright.gov/ for details. This step protects your original work.

Publishing is a different ball of wax. Unless your songs are about to appear on a commercially released CD (by you or anyone else,) it's probably not necessary to actually publish them yet. If a CD release is pending, or if you want to publish anyway, then you need to either (1) start your own publishing company; or (2) find a trusted friend who has a publishing company already.

To start your own publishing company, first you need to choose either BMI or ASCAP with whom to affiliate -- then follow their procedures. See: http://www.ascap.com/index.html and http://www.bmi.com/

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Also what is considered the industry standard if a friend wants to cover and
original and of course if a fellow professional wants to cover the tune on
an album.
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By "industry standard" I assume you are referring to royalty rates? At the moment, the standard rate (aka "mechanical" royalty) is 8.5 cents per song per CD sold. Usually this money is split 50/50 between the songwriter and the publisher -- which is why it can be a good idea for a songwriter to start their own publishing company. For details, see: http://www.songfile.com/limited_license_search.html

cheers and good luck,

Tom Ball
Santa Babs
http://www.tomballkennysultan.com

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