A Guide To Music Copyrights.

As a creator, creating, protecting, and monetizing copyright is the essence of what musicians do. It’s the most basic and fundamental concept upon which this whole industry is standing. So what is copyright anyway? Copyright is a kind of property, but an intellectual one! Its intangible means it doesn’t exist in physical form but still your property. Your music is your brand child and it has a certain value. To claim ownership of your music it needs to be original and fixed. By original I mean, unique and yours. You can’t take someone else’s work and add a few notes or lyrics here and there to make it sound new it has to be 100% new. Plus it has to be fixed meaning is somewhat physical form may it be just on paper or a full flashed studio recording.

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Two kinds of copyrights

When it comes to copyright there are two types first it compositional copyright other is sound recording copyright. The compositional copyright generally refers to the song’s composition, that is to say, lyrics and melody in simple terms. For instance, if Mr. A writes a song independently he will be the absolute owner of the copyright but if Mr. X helped write that song the copyright will be owned by both according to whatever percentage agreed among them.

When a song is written, recorded, and mixed is called master or master recording. In contrast to compositional copyright only one entity can own the master/sound recording copyright it can either be the artist or the record label that paid for creating and distributing that song.

Liabilities of signing to a label

When you create and distribute your music, you’re referred to as an independent artist, in such case you have 100% control over the master .but when you sign a label, you are entering a contract with them about creating masters jointly, in simple terms they own the masters. You might get an advance to cover your recording cost. But in return, they become owners of the master and get the right to sell it.

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Some smart artists may find a way to put a certain threshold in the contract after which the ownership reverts back to the artist but it’s rare.

Sampling

The easiest approach to understanding copyright is through sampling. Sampling implies taking a song—whose copyright is owned by someone else—and fusing it in creating a new song. It means literally using the master sound or clip from the original song. Sampling is the inventor of hip hop culture, grabbing clips from vinyl records and spinning them to create something entirely new.

Similarly, if you mention the song’s melody or lyrics in a fresh work, it’s sampling too, doesn't matter if you are not using the actual song. For instance, Ariana Grande’s “7 rings” massively used the exemplary melody from “My Favorite Things.” “My Favorite Things” was composed by the famed Broadway pair Roger and Hammerstein, who aren’t alive anymore, but the publishing right is owned by Concord Music Group. Thus, Concord had to acquit the usage of the melody, which they did; in return, they got 90% of the total composition rights of Ariana’s song.

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The big picture

If I can emphasize just one thing, it’s would be: copyright is the property of the creator until they say otherwise. One doesn’t need to register your songs with the U.S. Copyright Office for acquiring copyrights, nor does one is bound to sign an agreement to constitute your ownership of your work. Your music is intellectual property—one you naturally own upon conceiving, keep that in mind. And if you sign away your copyright, whether some part of it or in whole, you’re inking away your control of the music and possible royalties, which can prove hard to undo

If you’re a maker, be sure that you and the co-writers you work with have sound knowledge of music copyright, and have a general strategy formulated for how you’re going to set about it, so that you won’t get into any misjudgments down the road. When presented with the opportunity to sign a publishing or label contract, do be sure that you clearly understand the terms—who owns the copyright, and who controls it. It’s not as plain as stating that owning 100% of everything isn't necessarily always in your favor. Similarly, there is no guarantee that every deal offered to you is going to be beneficial for you. You should be aware of what you are getting into