Do you copyright your songs before showing it to producers?

[QuestionAsker]

I’ve been working on an EP the past year and have 5 songs I feel are solid and ready to be recorded, and then released under my own artist name (will be my first release).

I’ve only composed it with voice and guitar, production is my weak point, so my plan is to record them as solid demos with just guitar and vocals and show them to a few producers near me.

I’d probably show it to about 4-5 producers, I don’t really know them, just people near me, or ones that have been recommended through acquaintances, etc.

Just wondering how many on here register their songs before showing them to producers or shopping them around to artists / etc.

(I've read it's also much better to copyright songs individually, vs as a group, as it's much more beneficial in case it does every become a legal issue.

I also think I have to copyright them again, once I'll do the official release? Or is that not the case, if the lyrics/melody haven't really changed?)

[QuestionAsker]

anybody?

Or anyone recommend a good music lawyer to talk to?

[Trollheart]

You're mistakenly under the odd impression that loads of people here are working musicians, signed to labels. They're not. Some have released the odd album themselves through Bandcamp and such, but if you're expecting to find anyone who has dealt with music lawyers and copyrights, I really doubt you're going to be successful here. Maybe try the website of a record label or see if you can get onto a Twitter feed for some artist who might entertain your question? All I can offer. Not that everyone's ignoring your question, just that nobody can answer it because they have not been in that situation.

[Danzaburou]

I don't know about your country, but for example in the US copyrighting a song costs around $45 - 130. If you can afford that unlike most musicians you might want to copyright something, but not right at the start.

If i understand this correctly these are the FIRST five songs you wrote?
Or to be more exact: the first five songs you finished writing?

In that case I would advise you against a copyright, since you don't even know if they're any good, and our own opinion never counts. Show them to a bunch of people. I gotta say my good songs mostly came after having already written 100+ songs. There's a few early songs I like, but not many (tbh i can think of one)

Also producers usually have no need to steal, there's more musicians than sand on the beach out there

[Karice]

Originally Posted by Danzaburou

I don't know about your country, but for example in the US copyrighting a song costs around $45 - 130. If you can afford that unlike most musicians you might want to copyright something, but not right at the start.

If i understand this correctly these are the FIRST five songs you wrote?
Or to be more exact: the first five songs you finished writing?

In that case I would advise you against a copyright, since you don't even know if they're any good, and our own opinion never counts. Show them to a bunch of people. I gotta say my good songs mostly came after having already written 100+ songs. There's a few early songs I like, but not many (tbh i can think of one)

Also producers usually have no need to steal, there's more musicians than sand on the beach out there

Wouldn't a Copyright be a good thing? You don't want some Joe Blow Scam Producer stealing your Song and claiming it as your own and becoming a huge success off the Songs he stole from you. A Copyright is the way to go in my Theory.

[Danzaburou]

Originally Posted by Karice

Wouldn't a Copyright be a good thing? You don't want some Joe Blow Scam Producer stealing your Song and claiming it as your own and becoming a huge success off the Songs he stole from you. A Copyright is the way to go in my Theory.

I see. If I were to pay copyrights for all my songs, I'd have to pay around $14,000. Since that's not an amount I have lying around the house somewhere, I prefer not to.

That's not how copyright works though, at least not here. It's to protect artists from other artists making the same song and getting money from that. If someone were to steal your work you could still sue them, no matter if they stole songs or intellectual property and no matter if you have a copyright. Because the copyright protects you from others copying your work, but the song is still your intellectual property, and cannot just be stolen as if it was nothing, OK? As long as you can prove the song is yours, it doesn't matter that much.

Only really protects you if you got a single out, and some other singer let's call him Jimmy D just blatantly copies your work and does the same song, then you are protected by copyright and you will be paid for the song he sings

If you want to release an album, a single, do it - if you're not releasing anything, you do not need it.

Also, and every producer knows this: there are musicians out there like sand on the beach. By this point there's enough music theory out there that even AI can write beautiful music. producers rly don't need to steal from others to make their money.

[Midnightinoctober]

Interesting dilemma. I read about this many years ago. For some strange reason I remember it. Probably the Gods want me to be prepared if I suddenly wake up one day wanting to make my own music :P Anyway. What it said was that you just have to keep close your notes and the recordings you make when writing/composing the song. Cause then you can use them to prove that you’re the artist who made the song. Makes sense I guess