1.) Copyright is a right to copy. The creator of a work has the right to copy and exploit it commercially. To make an object copyrightable it should satisfy the following:
a.) Original
b.) Not an idea but can be tangible and can be seen.

2.) The copyright date according to the law starts the moment an idea is transform into physical evidence. For example, say you are humming music or songs in your head. The music is not still created according to the copyright law because it does not satisfy the conditions above which is tangible and can be seen. The music is still an “idea” which is not copyrightable.

The moment you take a pen and start writing down the music in a paper, there you have it- you have created a copyright out of the music you have written. The copyright date (date of creation) is effective the moment the music has been written, tangible and can be seen.

3.) Therefore the music and lyric sheets you have written are copyrightable objects because they are physical evidence of creation. Assuming you do not base your work in anyone else, your work is purely original. You are automatically called the “author” or “creator” of that work.

4.) The trickiest thing therefore is the creation date or date of copyright. Once you start writing your music sheets or lyric sheets, there is one important evidence that will be commonly missing – the copyright date. A good practice is always to include the date where you have created the work. This is not only useful in legal sense but it helps you track your work and answer important questions pertaining to creation date of your songs.

What this implies is that music copyright is obtained by you automatically the moment you created an original music work that is tangible and can be seen. This copyright evidence is free and does not need registration. But why does anyone advise copyright registration and pay for a fee? The answer is formality and legality. The government intellectual property divisions’ needs to organize all the copyrights created in the country. To organize, they encourage registration so that any litigation and copyright legal cases (which are VERY common) will resolve quickly and systematically. It is why they ask for physical evidence of your work to be either shipped to the copyright office or uploaded online during any registration process.

How to Implement Free Music Copyright

This is highly discouraged as a method of using as an official copyright registration but I have tried this sometime 6 years ago. My purpose is just to have copyright evidence for myself where I can get for free.
Step1.) Create your music and lyrics. This is the actual songwriting process.
Step2.) Buy a blank CD.
Step3.) Record your songs in a cassette recorder then convert it as mp3.
Step4.) Encode your lyrics in MS Word file.
Step5.) Burn your music (in mp3 format) and lyrics in a blank CD as data disc. You can use any CD burning software such as Nero.
Step6.) Place your CD in a CD case with titles of the music.
Step7.)Put your CD in an envelope with protected bubbles (protection against impact from any handling).
Step8.) Write your name outside the envelope (this is the author name) and your home address.
Step9.) Go to your city postal office and mail it to yourself.
Step10.) After some days, it will be delivered to your home. DO NOT OPEN IT!
The reason is that it will serve as an evidence of copyright. The date from the postal stamp can served as the creation date of your work. This registration date is also traceable by the government postal office. This is how it looks like below:

“Why is it Beethoven’s compositions still existing? Is it really because they are protected with the copyright law?”

The short answer is YES. The details are as follows. There are two forms of copyright that is important to classical music. The first is the copyright of the composition. This protects the following elements:

a.) Music – its notes, timbre, harmony etc. Music is written out by the composer into musical sheets which are tangible and can be seen thus copyrightable.

b.) Accompanying lyrics – in some compositions which are not instrumental by nature, it includes lyrics which are also protected by the copyright of a musical composition.
Copyright of musical composition has a duration or life. In some countries or most countries the duration is around 50 years since first registered or created. After this period, if the author is already dead or no heir that will renew or continue the copyright ownership, the music will be placed in public domain. Once in public domain, anyone can copy the compositions and decide whatever they wish to do with the compositions without the need to asked permission to the author or to anyone.

The second copyright is the copyright of the sound recording. This is entirely different from the copyright of the musical compositions because it protects only one element:

a.) The sound recording itself- there are a lot of ways sound recording of a classical music compositions can be recorded. The most common storage medium is CD audio, DVD, USB and hard drive. Sound recording is a documented evidence of a performance of the classical compositions. For example, an orchestra performance of Beethoven Symphony #1 is recorded and financed by a recording label. The label will then apply for copyright of sound recording. As a result, the recording company now owns the master copy to this recording.

The life of the sound recording copyright is similar to copyright of musical compositions which is around 50 years. After this date, the recording will also become a public domain material. Now going back to the question: Is it really because Beethoven music is still protected by copyright law?

Beethoven died very long ago, in fact his works were already more than 50 years since it first created. It makes sense the musical compositions of Beethoven are already in public domain and NOT anymore protected by copyright law. So yes anyone can use his compositions as long as they want without even asking for permission. But wait, why is it still protected by copyright law? The primary reason is because the copyright of sound recording is still NOT in the public domain. In fact, there is NO public domain for sound recordings available.

Why?

1.) Since the musical compositions are in public domain. Anyone can create a sound recording on it. In the early 70’s to 90’s or even now, computers and music recording studios can be used easily to create the sound recordings. Hence, the sound recordings of Beethoven music are still protected by copyright. It is the reason why Beethoven compositions still exist. And since Beethoven compositions are widely accepted standard and very nice, it is well loved by a lot of people and fans of classical music.

2.) Major recording labels are commonly selling classical recordings at store or even as downloads. They own and finance the recording and of course since they are a corporation, they have a copyright department that re-apply any expiring sound recording copyright. It is why even though Beethoven musical compositions are free to use, if you need to listen to Beethoven music you still need to buy that in a store because the copyright of sound recording is still enforced by law.

So how will you license classical music?

1.) You do not need to pay licensing fee for the use of musical compositions because the musical compositions are in public domain EXCEPT if the works are re-arranged by another composer (otherwise known as the improved or adapted versions). You need to ensure that you are basing your work from Beethoven original compositions and NOT from another composer.

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Question #1:

Many thanks for your time and information – very helpful and interesting. My next question then is – how do I get a license for these 2 songs? Who do I contact? If the expense turned out to be as your situation ($500) – we also would not put covers on-line. However, I would like to find out how much the licenses would be in this case. If you can advise further, I’d be very grateful.

-Sheila

My reply:

Hi Sheila,

To get a license for those two songs so that you can include it your CD project, you need permission from the music publisher or in Harry Fox agency. Sometimes the music publisher of the song you are looking can be hard to locate. In this case, you need to contact Harry Fox Agency and get information from them regarding its publisher. Since you are covering a song from a well-known band (Led Zeppelin), the music publisher might not be very hard to find. The license covers what you are allowed to do; the licensing cost will vary depending on your usage and number of copies that you wish to sell.

Harry Fox can also issue mechanical license on behalf of the music publisher, so you might need to contact them and check if they can issue mechanical license for those tracks.
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Question #2:

Fifty year class reunion wants a CD made of about 25 songs popular during high school which will be a souvenir to attendees (90). CD will NOT be sold and is for personal use only.

Thank you in advance for your reply.
Tom

My Answer:

Hi Tom,

To be perfectly legal is to asked permission from the music publisher regardless if it’s for sale or not. This is just my personal opinion (also read my disclaimer on the first paragraph of this post). If you are using the songs for personal use only, this means you are the only one that should be using the songs. If you start distributing them, I think it’s another story. Supposing you buy the CD and the songs in record store, the license granted to you is strictly for personal use and this does not include distributing the music to other people. In this case, it would be safe to ask the music publisher permission. To make things easy for you, you might need to double check this issue with the Harry Fox agency, contact them whether they can issue mechanical licenses regarding this.

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Question #3:

Hello,

Please let me know what I need to do to get the proper permissions so I am not doing anything illegal. Is there a place to purchase a song license for this purpose? This is all new to me.

My Answer:

a.) While the music piece itself (or with lyrics) might be in the public domain, it does not mean that the “recordings” of that song are also in the public domain. Remember that copyright of music/lyrics is different from the copyright of its recordings.

Since two copyrights are different, it is possible to have different owners. The songwriter or music publisher owns the copyright o the music/lyrics; while the recording label or producer owns the copyright of the sound recording. If the songwriter is also the music publisher and the recording producer (such as many independent artist today producing recordings at home) of the music, then that artist owns both the copyright of the music/lyrics and the sound recording.

b.) Sound recordings are not protected by US Copyright law before February 15, 1972. They are protected by state laws. You can read the details here.

According to that article, public domain sound recordings may start to appear in February 2067. So you really cannot use any sound recordings in your project without obtaining permission from a sound copyright owner whether the work falls below the following classification:

a.) Classical music (done by Mozart, Bach, Handel, Beethoven) ,etc.
b.) Any traditional folk songs and jazz music.
c.) Any foreign music from other countries.

Is there any way you can obtain the sound recording of your favourite classical music piece without paying a very expensive license fees from the sound recording copyright owner?. First, you need to do research very carefully. I recommend the following steps:

Step1.) Ensure that the classical music piece (the music itself not the sound recording), is now in the public domain. You can go to this website and then click “Browse by composer”. Navigate until you will see the music sheet of the classical piece.

Step2.) If you see that the copyright is now in the “public domain”. Download that piece of music sheet and consult a copyright attorney or expert regarding the authenticity of the sheet music in the public domain.

Step3.) If the music piece is indeed a public domain work. You have the right to create a sound recording out of that public domain work. There are a lot of ways you can create a sound recording out of classical piece of work:

a.) Hire an orchestra in your town to publicly perform the music and record it. Pay them under work for hire agreement and then you now own the sound recording copyright of that classical piece. Bear in mind that hiring an orchestra might get costly in some countries or not common.

b.)Another inexpensive way is to hire a musician to transcribe the musical piece into a sound recording using a music software such as Notion 3. Then the exported wav file can be copyrightable as sound recording. I am not yet sure in this area, better consult an entertainment or copyright attorney.

STEP1.) Go to this ISRC website

STEP2.) Clicks “APPLY FOR CODE”.

STEP3.) The procedure will ask for some questions. So make sure you answer it as accurate as possible. The first question to be asked requires you to be copyright owner of your sound recordings that you wish to assign an ISRC codes. If you are not the copyright owner, click no. Click “Next” to proceed.

STEP4.) The second question asks you if your company is based on the United States or one of its territories. You will answer yes, if you are a US Citizen. Unfortunately this online web application for ISRC will not apply for foreign registrants or Non-US Citizen. Instead, go to the local issuing agency assigned by ISRC in your country. You can find the complete list here.

STEP5.) The next question asks you if you are assigning more than 100000 ISRC in a calendar year. Most answer will be NO because most applicants for ISRC code are independent artist and producers which of course cannot produce tracks more than 100,000 per year that are to be assigned with ISRC. If you are a big major label or a conglomerate with thousands of artists and thousands of tracks released per month then you might answer YES. This is because you might be releasing more than 100,000 sound recordings per year that needs to be assigned with unique ISRC code.

STEP6.) Then the procedure asks you if your company or even you already have an existing ISRC registrant code. Most answer will be NO since that is why you are applying in the first place- to get your registrant codes. Then click next to proceed.

STEP7.) ISRC automatically determines if you are qualified to be assigned with ISRC registrant codes based on your answer to the above questions. Once you succeed, you will be presented with ISRC application form.

Important:
a.) The Recording rights owner should exactly match with the author/registrant name you used in US Copyright registration for sound recordings and the one you are using for Sound Exchange.
b.) The contact name may not be the same as the Registrant name.
c.) As you have noticed, there is no country field. It is because online application of ISRC assumes you are a US Citizen. You cannot use this form if you are Non-US citizen. Once you have completed this form, click next.

STEP8.) Follow the rest of the steps, it should now be easy. This is where you will make a payment of $75 for the registration.

But if you are PURCHASING song rights, you are paying the owner of the song with money and then you now own ENTIRELY the rights to the song for the entire life of its copyright. But if you are just LICENSING the song, you are paying the owner some cash then you acquire rights to use for that song in any project you like but you still do NOT own the song.

Purchasing song rights are broad and can really be complex. In fact if you find it very easy to buy and sell, most likely you miss a lot of things in the process and can possibly be candidate of a future lawsuit. It is because someone might ask what rights? Bear in mind that a song can be exploited in different ways and in different rights.

a.) Rights for public performance – the right to play the song in public.
b.) Mechanical rights – the right to put the song in mechanical recording media, such as CD, DVD, etc.
c.) Synchronization rights – the right to play the song along with images, pictures such as in film and TV.
d.) Print rights – the right to reproduce or print the song melodies and lyrics in paper, magazines, etc.

So if you are purchasing the song rights, make sure you are aware what rights does it include. Of course if you are purchasing something, you assume full ownership of the song. So this means you now owned the entire rights of the song. You now claimed all the royalties due.

Guide to Buyers:

1.) Clarify everything by examining the paper work.

a.) Ask for the owner his/her copyright certificate of that song and make sure the title of work/song matches exactly the one you are planning to buy.

b.) Contact the Copyright office for confirmation of that certificate accuracy. You can double check the government copyright office website for information and make sure it matches with the document you are examining.

c.) Ask for the owner, a government issued identification cards and make sure it matches exactly with the owner stated in the certificate. Double check the government office for the accuracy of that identification card.

d.) If the owner is a self publishing company or sole proprietorship, ask for the business certificate and confirm it with the respective government offices.

2.) Once the above is cleared; execute a new document with an entertainment attorney that you now own the song. You can send me a mail if you need a US based entertainment attorney; I know some good and affordable ones. This document must be signed by both of you and the original owner. The entertainment attorney knows the rest of the details.

3.) Do a little research about the song, does it already make some money or does it have a publisher? Bear in mind that you find a lot of lawsuits in music business; because of the failure to research and get accurate information. So it is best to research in advance all about the song:

a.) Check if they have records in ASCAP, SESAC, and BMI. You need to contact both the publisher and the songwriters listed to make sure all rights are cleared.

b.) Ask the user if the song already has a third party publisher. Have the song writer or song seller signed an agreement that he/she is certifying the song does not have any publisher before or no active contract with a music publisher. This is for your own protection.

4.) The price you need to pay for the purchase depends on the commercial history of the song. If the song is already earning dollars in terms of royalties, then expect to pay a lot.

5.) Make sure the agreement you sign with the seller is not a licensing agreement. Licensing and purchasing song rights are different.

Guide to Sellers:

1.) Before you can sell a song, you need to possess a document proving your entire ownership of the song. This is the copyright certificate of that song issued by the government. Make sure the owner in it matches your name supported with documentation (government issued cards, etc).

With that single application (Form PA) even consisting of 34 songs, I only paid $119 dollars for a verified package. The online copyright application directly to the copyright office (using eco) still did not exist in those years and it seems that the only best solution is to use third party copyright processors (like Click and Copyright) since the copyright office in the US will not accept credit card payments, cash in the mail and Western union payments. They only accept payments by money order but unfortunately international money order is not available in the Philippines during that time.

Anyway it was a great application and for the first time I have copyrighted everything in my catalog in the US Copyright office.So if you asked when did I received my US Copyright certificate after they received my work two years ago?I just received it this month (June 2010).

So it took two years for copyright office to process and send the certificate from US to Philippines. Nevertheless, now that I received it it made me happy. My first copyright application is using Form PA (Song copyright) because I need to establish that I own both lyrics and music in my entire catalog as a music publisher. If you are interested in knowing my catalog registration number in the copyright office here it is:

Copyright Registration number: Pau003452626
Type: Song Copyright (Music and Lyrics)
Effective date of registration: April 25, 2008
Year of completion: 2008
Author: Emerson Roble Maningo

You can also search that information online in the US Copyright database and search by registration number.

Now that I am also producing studio recorded versions of my catalog, I filed another copyright application last year and it was reflected immediately on their online copyright databases (max 6 months from online application, you will received the copyright certificate which way faster than using third party services). The information is here:

Copyright Registration number: SR0000623064
Type: Sound Recording
Effective date of registration: February 18, 2009
Number of songs included in the catalog: The recorded version of those songs you can hear in my music publishing website: www.musicforlicense.net

It is surprising to know that there are only a very few commercial establishments who fully understand the process and reason of why there is a need to license music in order to play it in public or in their own establishments.

As a background, the law of copyright granted “public performance” as one of the rights of the copyright holder (Source: http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/scope.html ). This means that because he/she is the copyright holder, he/she has the right to perform the songs in the public.

Definition of public is “a place open to the public or at a place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances are gathered”. Therefore below is the list of public places:

a. Public Malls
b. Scope of the radio broadcast/transmission
c. Offices
d. Parks
e. Beach resorts
f. Hotels
g. Movie Theatres

And the list goes on and on. Now what if someone wants to play a copyrighted song in public? The answer is that, the person needs to contact the copyright owner or the publisher and asked for a “public performance license”. For example, if you are a restaurant owner and you play music in your restaurant. If that music does not belong to yours but to some songwriters/publishers then you need to secure a public performance license with them.

Of course, with respect to the songwriters/publishers, it would be impossible tasks to monitor all public performances in a worldwide scope. For example, how do the songwriter/publisher know that his./her song was being performed in a New York City based television channels and the songwriter is living in Los Angeles or even in Japan? It would also be very different and odd that the music publisher/songwriter will be collecting royalties to each of these public establishments playing their music, knowing that if the music will be promoted globally. It now seems a very different and seemingly impossible tasks to have all the royalties systematically monitored and collected.

This is where ASCAP, BMI and SESAC; also known as the public performance right societies come into play. Their main job is to represent the music publisher/songwriter in monitoring and tracking public performances as well as collecting and distributing royalties to its members. With these societies, the method of collection and tracking will now be easy for a songwriter and instead of concentrating on these things; he/she will just focus on writing songs.So in the summary, if you need a license to play music in public, you need to contact each of these public performance right societies. They will assist you in your public performance licensing needs.

1.) All music that is to be licensed is copyrighted materials. Whether they advertise themselves as “royalty-free”, the music does not fall into the public domain. You need to agree to the license or the terms of conditions before you can commercially exploit the music.

2.) The length or term of copyright is not fixed by a number of years. Instead it depends on a variety of factors such as the number of authors, on what country the author lives or where the work was first published and the type of work. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_term and http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/checklist-29483.html. These different varieties can further confuse any persons interested in knowing if the work is a “public-domain” material.

3.) You can reuse public domain music or incorporate it with your composition without requiring a license. Some even popular hit songs are based on the arrangement and structure of public domain music.

4.) A good example of public domain music are classical works made by Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and all those classical composers for which the copyright already expires.

5.) As a short and easy definition, music will fall into public domain if the term of copyright expires.

This can start to sound complicated because of the variety of factors involved above that determines the duration of copyright. The term of copyright which is an important indicator whether the music now belongs to public domain varies. However below are minimum and maximum terms based on this document:

1.) Life of the author + 50 years;
2.) Life of the author + 70 years

So if the author lives for around 90 years, the entire life of copyright has a minimum of 90+50 or 140 years and a maximum of around 90+70 = 160 years. This is one of the main reasons why most classical music works (done by Beethoven, Mozart, etc) are now belonging to public domain. The authors are long dead + 50 or 70 years after their deaths. Be careful when using“alleged” public domain music because it can get you in a legal trouble with the original authors. For example a song “All by myself” has been written by Eric Carmen with some lines and melodies borrowed from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor. At first, Eric thought the music was already in the public domain but it was not. The author/successors later claimed it when the song became highly popular. As a result, Eric Carmen made an agreement with the original authors. So let’s asked again, when does music fall into the public domain? Below are the suggestions which help you find a more accurate answer than relying on assumptions:

1.) You need a strong documented/legal proof that the music already exceeds the life of the copyright. In this case, consider using the worst scenario (life of the author + 70 years). Contact the copyright office and asked for documents. Of course prepare to spend for some research work.

It is indeed hard to find quality music for free on the internet. The public domain music is fine but it was highly outdated or sound obsolete, those classical music will not appreciate the entire modern listeners.

Music consumers on the hand, particularly those with ipods, or other mp3 players are always looking for free music available in the internet. Music downloads is for sale particularly known artists, but there can be some ways to download free music legally without registration.

Most websites like Amazon, iTunes needs users to be registered and a lot of information is needed before someone can download music not for free and at a price.

There are also free music download websites that might allow you to download music online but the problem is you are going to undergo lengthy user registration.

However if the website itself is also the music publisher of the underlying songs such as this website, you can download songs depending on the publisher requirements.

I believe in total musical freedom as a means of expression, I treat music like a smile which you can give freely without any hassle. If you read the musicforlicense.net website terms and conditions, it allows you to download music legally without registration. So if you:

1.) Download music for personal use. You can just click the download button and start downloading. Of course, if it is free does not mean it is not protected by law. The song is still copyrighted, and you are not allowed to make several copies of the song for sale or distribution. In this case, you need to include our credits.

2.) Download music for commercial use. You can still proceed to song downloading process without registration. Since you are going to exploit our song commercially, you need to include our credits in your projects. If you are TV music director, you need to list our names (publisher and performer) in your project as well as submit cue sheets to our performing right societies (like ASCAP) to report public performance.