When to Copyright a Song

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Part of the video series: How To Copyright a Song

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Summary: You never know when a song might become a hit! Learn when to copyright a song in this free music business and song publishing video.

Views: 479 | Tags: single, recording, publishing, publish, hit, rights, contracts, copyright, songwriter, credits, licensing

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About the Expert

Antonio Neal Antonio Neal has written more than 40 cuts for artists such as Stacie Orrico, Darlene McCoy, and Tyler Perry. He recently released his debut album, “Days of M... read more

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Video Transcript

When to Copyright a Song

ANTONIO NEAL: Hey, this is Antonio Neal with Artistic Soul Entertainment on behalf of Expert Village. Today, we're going to talk about copyrighting a song and also publishing a song. Now, let's talk about when to register your song. Hey, guess what? Living here in Nashville, there's somebody always coming up to you saying, "Man, I got a song," or "Man, I wrote this," and "Man, I want to let this person right here hear my song." Well, let me tell you one thing. Before you let anybody, whether it's your [PH] Joe Blow next door or whether it's a major record label to hear your song, take your $45 and register your song at copyright.gov. Why? Because if you don't register--say, say to yourself. Say you let somebody hear your song and they go record your song and they make all this money off your song, right? The government goes back and say, "When did this person register the song?" You have three months. You have to have that song registered no less than three months before that thing can be litigated. And if it's not done before three months, I'm kinda sad to tell you but you're not going to get any money! And your song--and all you had to do is pay $45 to get this thing registered. So, what? Can you invest $45 to possibly make what $5000, $10,000, $20,000? No, a $45-investment is good to make extra $150, right? So, before--do yourself a favor now. If you're such a good writer, you know your work is going to go all around the world, take $45; take about five or 10 minutes of your time and register your songs. And I promise you, you'll be so glad that you did.