There's a lot of confusion about how to copyright songs and music. Laws in the U.S. (and most other countries) are fairly simple.

They say that, technically, a song or music is copyrighted the moment the author puts it into physical form.

So the confusion is really over what purpose or effect registering or filing your songs with the Copyright Office has.

File with the Library of Congress?   File with a private registration company such as SongRegistration.com)?

Is one better than the other?   Or should I do both?

The simple answer is that either way can protect your material by making a public record of when you submitted it.  Repeat: EITHER WAY.

Either way registers your copyright - which you can use as proof later on - but neither is required (or actually "creates" your copyright)!

You can do a federal registration (with the Library of Congress, which is also the Copyright Office). It's about $45 per mail submission, plus filling out the proper forms, then you'll get the paperwork back usually in 4-6 months).

Or... you can register your material with an independent service such as SongRegistration.com (it'll take about 10 minutes since there's just one easy online form and you get your paperwork by email instantly).

So here's what many of our clients do:

They first register ALL their music with SongRegistration.com since it's cheaper and quicker.   Then... if they either "pick and choose" which of their musical pieces to also register federal, or they see if they'll ever need to file a federal infringement lawsuit in the U.S. (and if so, file the particular song involved with the Copyright Office, using the earlier dated declarations and documentation from SongRegistration.com as evidence in court!

That way, they save time, hassle and money by not having to initially register everything with the government!

For more information (or to get our Free Registration Info Kit), please return to our home page.

Happy songwriting!


And for more tips on songwriting, go to our Blog or Facebook pages (linked at the bottom of any of our main pages).