A lot of people wonder if it's really that big a deal to worry about their songs getting stolen.

Do I really need to register my songs? Or is that a waste of money?

Well, all we can say is, if you're living in the 21st century you should know better.

Songs get stolen more than people think. For how that happens, just look around you...

While you're merrily strumming your precious tune at the beach, that girl with the cell phone over there has a ready-made audio recorder that can capture your song and call it her own before you even get back to your car!

And if you're planning to use the Internet as your showcase (and who doesn't), you already know how easily people steal things online!

And then there's the more famous cases...

That's what happened with George Harrison. His song "My Sweet Lord" was stolen from "She's So Fine" (he admitted as much, though "by accident," see below). Or Led Zeppelin's lyrics on "Whole Lotta Love" coming from Willie Dixon's "You Need Love." Or "Dazed and Confused" taken from Jake Holmes.

The list goes on and on. There are books written on the subject and two major law schools, USC and Columbia, have even commissioned the "Copyright Infringement Project" to analyze some of the better known music copyright cases -- all the way back from the 1840's through to the present. Here are 2 links to some of them:

✓ database of cases ...

✓ case summaries

And if it can happen to the biggies, it can happen to anyone...

And it's not just evil people out there looking for songs to steal that's the worry. It's important to make sure your music is copyright protected for other reasons too. You may or may not have heard about songs getting stolen by accident.

Yes you heard right. Registering your song copyrights is super-important to protect against the chance that someone steals it whether they mean to or not.

If you think it's impossible for someone to accidentally steal your song, just think how easy it is finding yourself humming a few bars of "something" without even remembering where you heard it (or whether you EVEN heard it or just made it up in your own mind).

And even if that happens innocently, YOU STILL DON'T WANT SOMEONE USING YOUR NOTES OR RIFFS IF YOU CREATED THEM FIRST.

So next time you write a song and say "why bother" when it comes to taking precautions to register your song copyright, just remember George Harrison, or Jimmie Paige, or the person "listening" to their iPhone while you play...

It takes such little effort registering your songs, so ALWAYS make sure you have proof of your song copyright by registering your music as soon as you create it. Either with us or the Copyright Office. But just do it!

Better safe than sorry.

Happy songwriting!


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