With all of the recent strikes among the Writers and Actors guilds making headlines, it’s shined a lot of light on other areas of the entertainment industry – including music. If writers for television and film have union protections, do songwriters too? Songwriters unfortunately do not currently have union representation, as they are not classified…
Knowing how to copyright a song is essential for anyone penning or creating any original work. It’s what gives you the foundations to create and protect your own identity. Learning how to copyright a song is easy, as you can do electronically or on paper through the US Copyright Office with your work being fully…
In the music world, knowing if you own your masters is never as easy as it sounds. Yet it is something more and more artists are investigating as they enter the business. Owning your masters means that you own all licensing rights to the original recording of a song, and receive the royalties for its…
For anyone using artist split sheets during the recording process, you need to understand everything on this piece of paper. But why is a split sheet important? Using artist split sheets is important for anyone working with other parties to create a composition to protect your original claim to the song. What may seem like…
Copyright is a nightmare to deal with at the best of times. Thankfully, public domain is usually one of the simpler aspects. So, how do you know if a song is in the public domain? Below is a quick guide: Songs made prior to January 1st, 1926 are in the public domain. Songs made between…
Copyright can be a contentious issue whenever an artist is alive. Hover, that issue becomes pretty crazy after an artist’s passing. So, what happens with copyright after someone dies? When someone dies, the copyright will stay with the artist’s estate for 70 years before entering the public domain in the US. However, the rights can…
