Dance Music Business Resource

Copyright

See also :
USCopyrightRegisteration
Global Copyright Registration
Sampling

This information refers specifically to US copyright, but the basic concepts of
copyright are the same from country to country though, so check it out. I'm sure
that someone has already worked out copyright laws for interstellar space travel.
Brian Eno's contract is rumoured to cover territories other than earth, which is isn't
as outlandish as you may think....

Copyright refers to a number of different rights that are initially owned by the composer
and/or recording artist until he or she gives those rights to someone else.

You have a Right to your Copy (and a right to stop others from copying) as soon as
you have commited your compositon to a tangible form. In this case, this means
when it hits the DAT machine. In order to most fully protect this right, you can
register it.

_Composition Copyright_
There are rights concerning the "underlying composition". You can write (©
your name and the year) to designate copyright of compostion. As the composer,
you are entitled to((Mechanical Royalties%.


_Sound Recording Copyright_
There are separate rights concerning the physical recording of that
composition. ("p with a circle around it" name year) designates the copyright
of the sound recording.


These markings(© p with a circle) are no longer neccessary, you are protected by law whether you
put them on there or not. This is not the case in countries other than the US, so
check the laws (and then tell me), and put it on your demos just to let potential
biters know.

The composer can earn money every time the composition is played (
Performance Royalties) and every time a recording of that composition is physically
copied (Mechanical Royalties).

The recording artist can earn money every time the recording is played
Performance Royalties and if they are also the composer, every time that recording is copied Mechanical Royalties.

Obviously, from our standpoint, a lot of time the composition and the recording are
indistinguishable, and the composer and the recording artist are just about always
the same person(s). But if it is a song, or is obviously a remixable($), recognizable,
restructurable entity (you know,"catchy"), then we have different components to
look at.

If your track gets remixed, you should still get performance and mechanical
royalties as the original composer of the tune. In the eyes of copyright law, the
remixer is not really composing anything, and they just do it for a set fee. But the
record company and the original artist do collect money, and that is one reason
why remix fees are often so high.

Sometimes an artist transfers certain copyrights to the label in aPublishing Contract#Publishing Contracts.... This is because there is money involved, and the label wants that. Often
the label is also capable of making that copyright produce more money than the
artist can. SeePublishing Companies.