Copyrighting Your Songs: Music Copyright Laws

The U.S. Copyright Office website provides all the necessary information, instructions and forms to properly copyright your songs. Form PA is the basic form to copyright your songs, whether it be in an “unpublished” or “published” form. (“Unpublished” generally means that the song has not been released and distributed for sale to the public). The filing fee was increased as of July 1, 2006, to $45.00. You can download any forms from the Copyright Office site. Also, the site features a “Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, which does an excellent job of answering many of the questions writers may have.

Here are three of the main Copyright Office links:

• U.S. Copyright Office
• Frequently Asked Questions About Copyright
• Form PA (on PDF)

Also, there is an article about copyrighting songs in SongwriterUniverse Magazine. It discusses issues such as when a songwriter should file the copyright forms, and how to possibly save money on filing costs.

Here is the article link:

• “When To Copyright Your Songs”