If you have written a song, you certainly want it to be copyrighted. There are many myths and legends surrounding copyrights and I’ll try to debunk a few in this article. First of all, if you write a song by yourself and no one paid you in any way to write it, you already own the copyright! US Copyright law states that as soon as you finish the song, the copyright automatically belongs to you unless it is a ‘work for hire’. A ‘work for hire’ means that you work for an employer who pays you to write songs or someone specifically commisioned a song and paid you to write it. In these cases, the employer or person who commisioned the song would own the copyright.So now you’re probably wondering why everyone is talking about filling out forms and getting their songs copyrighted? Well, it’s very simple. You own the copyright as soon as you put the song in what is known as a ‘fixed form’. This could be a recording of the song…or simply writing all the music and lyrics down on a piece of paper. In either case, it does not have to be professional. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars in a big recording studio just to get your song copyrighted.

The reason for registering the copyright with the US Copyright Office is to simply prove it was you who wrote it and when. When you register a song, the Copyright Office records the date you registered it and keeps it on file along with the ‘fixed form’…music, lyrics and/or recording. Now, if someone comes along a year later and hears your song and claims rights to it, you can prove that you wrote it and the US Copyright Office has the records to back your claim.

There are 2 copyright forms that most of the songwriters I know use. Form PA is used when you have the music and lyrics written down. Form SR is used when you have the song recorded. You simply provide the US Copyright Office with the required form and either the music/lyrics or recordings and your filing fee and you’re done. As of March 7th, 2006, the filing fee is $30.

Keep in mind that you can copyright many songs under one fee. You could take 10 songs and call them “John Doe’s Collection #1″ and copyright them all for $30. You’d just have to be able to fit them all onto a recording or write out the music and lyrics.

I normally use Form SR and also include my lyrics for good measure. That way there’s no doubt if someone has trouble understanding your words!

A common misconception is that you have to copyright a band name. The fact is, you can NOT copyright a band name. A copyright is for works of art (music, theater, etc.), books and other intellectual material. In order to protect your bandname, you have to apply for a trademark…which is a horse of a different color.

To get free copies of the forms and for more information, visit www.copyright.gov.