Copyrighting Music
I am analyzing music documents, primarily the importance of copyrighting music. For me, my definition of copyright music is putting rights to your music that you made so that nobody can steal them. This genre is important to me because I make music and I have had to get my work copywritten to make sure nobody can steal them or use them without my permission, that goes for beats/instrumentals, lyrics, artist or producer names, etc. And so having other people know the importance or copyright can allow people not have to face a lawsuit. The first sample I will analysis is a website called diymusician. This website helps example what copyright is and how to simply and safely get your music copywritten so you have legal rights to them. The second sample I am analyzing is another website called copyright.gov. This website explains each step it takes to get your things copywritten like if your music was paper form or in digital form. With this, I want the readers to know how important it is to have the rights to your work so nobody can take credit for what you have done.
Copyright documents are used all over the music world. It’s used during and after the process of making music is done. Not only music does copyright, other things like websites, books or art use copyright to make sure their work is safe. For this genre, it addresses how to go about copyrighting your work is important if you want to put it out there for the public to see or hear your work. Even the copyright.gov shows you and can walk you through how to properly get your work copyrighted whether it’s paper form like a drawing or a digital for like music. The other website explains how music copyright works along with royalties and if there is an instance where a lawsuit needs to happen and what that involves, and if you are unsure what royalties are we’ll get into that a little later in this paper. Copywritten documents are used by those who want their work out for the public to see or hear. Whether it’s something small to something big, as long as you don’t want your work to be taken and someone else gets the credit getting work copywritten is a good idea.
For writing this genre, there is a great chance that there could be multiple people who wrote it. The people who write this usually are in law or business because for example the music industry is an example of a business and having a lawyer or attorney to be able to know what your work is and be able to protect your work from being stolen. The people who read them are people who want to protect their work. And that’s what the purpose is, to know what rights you have when you copyright work and what happens if a lawsuit were to occur.
Diymusician says that the kind of things that are in a document like this is your legal name and address, the completion date if it’s complete, and your files or paper that you want registered to be copywritten. In the music world, everything usually get copywritten such as the lyrics, the beat, and the finished product. In that there are two types of forms you can fill out. One is a PA form, and the other is an SR form. The PA form is registering your compositions, so the music you wrote or the beats you made, things along those lines would go under this form. The SR form is for is you have finished your recordings and you want to make sure you have the rights to the entire thing. With my own experience, I make beats because I enjoy making music that way and before I put them out like on instagram or something like that, I make sure it is copywritten even if it’s a 30 second snippet. Even though 30 seconds might not sound like a lot, if someone were to take that, they could loop the 30 seconds to have that same beat replay over and over and have their song on it and I wouldn’t get any credit for the work I did.
The structure or format of how this document is laid out by first presenting you with the information of what each form is presented to do. After you finish reading that, it tells you how you can register your work and things you will have to fill out when you are completing the document. It will usually ask you for certain information such as is it original work, is it going to be in the public domain for others to use things like that so when you are filling it out make sure to read everything careful because you don’t want to not get the recognition you deserve. For example, in the copyright.gov website it gives sentences like “If you are registering a musical composition, you can describe authorship of the lyrics, the music, and/or the musical arrangement”. This is just saying that you can register all 3 components if they are what you did or helped on, or if you contributed one of the components then you can register that to be copyrighted. Most words that are used, for example royalties that was stated earlier, can be used in the music industry. Royalties is a cut of money you would receive once your song hits different platforms and how many times it gets played, like when the radio station plays it, you would get a percentage of money earned.
With these language patterns, it’s best if you familiarize yourself with them if you are in the industry because lots of things in this document can confuse someone who isn’t familiar with it. I just want people to know that if you are going into a field where you are putting content out there that other people can see or hear to have the copyrights to it so then nobody can take credit for your work and get paid for it. Primarily those who are in the entertainment business use or are invited to use this genre because stealing something that isn’t yours or original can cost you thousands of dollars in a lawsuit.
In conclusion, having your work copywritten and making sure if you use work that isn’t yours, make sure you ask for permission or give that person credit for the things you didn’t do originally. While writing this, I learned that in music there are two different kinds of copywritten documents. I can see how useful both can be in the music industry and hope to be able to incorporate that as I move forward in my career. In writing this discourse community, I learned that since some people are musically inclined, they know some of the things I’m talking about or even if you are in a similar field. Explaining things in detail to those who don’t understand or aren't familiar with these terms or concepts can help them get an understanding of the importance of how this thing works and if not done correctly could cost thousands of dollars. I hope that this is informative to those who may have not of something like this before and how important it is to protect your work.
Works Cited
Majewski, Greg. “Music Copyright Guide For Indie Musicians.” DIY Musician, 1 Feb. 2022, https://diymusician.cdbaby.com/music-rights/copyright-for-musicians/.
Circular 50 Copyright Registration for Musical Compositions. https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ50.pdf.