Copyright My Songs

[talanna226]

I am trying to find out how to copyright my lyrics I have wrote 300 songs but I want to copyright them before i start singing them every where.

[Tania ATL]

As far as I know, you already owe copyrights to all your songs and everything you create by your own - so you don't have to do something special to obtain these copyrights. If you're concerned with the possibility that someone can say that your text belongs to some other person, you can go some notarial service and try to register printed materials, to get some prior registration day.
I suppose you may find lots of answers here: http://www.copyright.gov - information of US copyright office.

[Luke of Metal]

I don't know if this seems too extreme to you but a lot of unsigned artists have done this in the past:


Basically, when anyone write a demo or an EP (Extended Play record/CD - One with more songs than a single but has less than an LP), they'd all sign it, they'd put the date or writing and recording on there and put it in a safety deposit box in their local bank.
Then if anyone were to play their songs or claim the rights to them, they had evidence.

[djwriter]

You can do a poor man's copyright....make copies of your songs and mail them back to yourself and don't open them. By doing this the post office will stamp it with a date. It's not 100% gauranteed - BUT it's better than nothing at all. They can look at the date for when it was done. Typically, once the pen/pencil is done with the work it's copyrighted. The absolute best way is to copyright your songs with The Library of Congress. You do have to pay a fee to do this - usually about $30 - but it is 100% effective if someone comes behind you and claims that "they" wrote it and not you.
I do both

Hope this helps???

dj writer

[bobthedog]

Hi,
I was recently doing exactly thhe same. I agree with the best of the best solution being the USCO, but if you have lots and lots of songs to copyright, this can be very expensive and it takes 6 months.

I think the best way to copyright songs is to use http://www.provemycopyright.com where you only pay for an account, not per song.

Never use the "Poor mans copyright" as that has never stood up in court, because it's not independent.