[Harp-L] RE: Music Publication and Copyrights

[tom ball <havaball@xxxxxxx>]

> What are the procedures that I need to got through to get my original tunes
> copyrighted and published.
===============

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/

===============
> 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.
===============

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

.