In this instructional video, Wendy Day outlines what copyright protects for music creators, why formal registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is essential, and how registration enables a creator to sue for infringement, recover attorney fees, and claim damages. She critiques the “poor man’s copyright” (mail‑to‑self method) as insufficient for legal fee recovery, and recommends official registration instead. Day walks through the practical steps: visiting copyright.gov, selecting the sound recording first, optionally adding the underlying musical work, and choosing between registering individual songs or a body of work. She details the cost range ($55‑$85) depending on publication status, explains the trade‑offs of registering a body of work (single‑claim limitation), and highlights the financial burden for independent artists. She references an attorney‑written guide on djbooth.net (John Seay) for a step‑by‑step walkthrough, and briefly mentions emerging blockchain solutions as a future proof‑of‑ownership method. The video concludes with a call to research, contact the Copyright Office, and file registrations to protect ownership.
Chapters
Hi guys, copyrights. So a copyright is the ownership that gives you the right to reproduce or publish a song or artwork like a photograph or a book. So a copyright is something that you own regardless as soon as you create the beat or the words to to a song, um, it's the sound recording. It's the underlying master of the, um, body of work. And you own it when you create it, as long as you're the creator. Um, but you register it with the Copyright Office in Washington, DC. And the reason that you do that is so that if somebody were to steal your music— and let's hope that never happens to you— but if somebody were to steal your, um, song or your beat or a piece of your song, it would give you the right to sue them in court. Not only sue them in court, but get your legal fees, um, taken care of and sue them for damages, which means you could get back some of the money that it cost for them to steal your song. And that's kind of important, you know. There is such a thing as the poor man's copyright. I'm not a big fan of the poor man's copyright because with that, and that's where you take your work and you send it to yourself and sign your name across the envelope flap, and they say that the date that the U.S. Post Office stamps it, that it actually gives you proof that you own that song. Well, it gives you proof of the date and time in most cases, but it doesn't necessarily allow you to retrieve your, um, legal fees when you sue. So I'm just not a big fan of doing it that way. I'd rather you be able to sue somebody for them, the amount of money that it costs you to sue them, and to get damages from them. I mean, after all, if they're going to steal your music, you should be able to go balls to the wall against them. So you register your music with the Copyright Office, and you can go to copyright.gov to understand more about this. There's also a really great article at djbooth.net. It was written by an attorney in Atlanta called John Say. He spells his last name S-E-A-Y. And it's, um, it breaks down the copyright, like how to file the copyright yourself. It even has screenshots of the actual website showing you how to do it so that you can be on your phone reading how to do it with your computer screen in front of you actually doing it. So it costs you somewhere between $55 and $85 to register depending on whether a song is already published or not published, meaning out in the world. If it's unreleased, it's going to cost you a little bit more. And you can register a body of work when you, when you go to register your copyright. You're going to want to choose sound recording first, and then you can also— that is, if you own the master— and then you can also copyright the underlying work as well as the sound recording. But you got to check sound recording first. You can't check, um, body of work and then also, um, do the sound recording. You have to do the sound recording first, and then it'll give you the option to add the body of work. And again, that's for people that actually aren't signed to a record label and do own the sound recording. And when you file, you can file for— if you're an artist— for like 10 songs at a time or a bunch of beats altogether. And I recommend that you do this. The downside is if you file as a body of work and two of those beats get, um, taken by two different people, you can only sue one or the other. You can't sue based on— I mean, you can always sue, but you can't claim damages and get your attorney fees back for, um, for both lawsuits. But the thing about a copyright is that registration proves your ownership, and it's part of what you're supposed to do as an artist. And I know a lot of artists don't copyright their work because if they do it individually, it can cost you $55 per song. So 10 songs would cost you $550, and that's a budget for something else for a lot of artists. So the thing about a copyright— and I think they're eventually gonna change this system, you know, I really like some of the stuff that's coming with blockchain regarding copyright, because it's a really easy way to prove you own something by blockchain. But we're not quite there yet. So if you're going to copyright your work, I would absolutely suggest that you do more research on this. I would read John Say's article at djbooth.net. I would call the Copyright Office if you have questions. I would go to copyright.gov. To read all about copyrights, why they exist, how to file, how much they cost, how to upload your music, or do you burn it to a CD or a jump drive and send it in, you know, the old school way. It, you know, you've got to decide all of this stuff before you do it. And again, it can be a little costly, but if you don't do it, it can be even more costly. So check it out, file your copyright, keep your ownership, and, um, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye, guys!
