Music Recording and Publishing for Songwriters and Composers

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Music Recording and Publishing for
Songwriters and Composers

Are you a songwriter or composer? Do you have a dream of recording or publishing your music? Would you like to get it in front of millions of people and perhaps earn a living at it? Or perhaps it's more of a hobby and you would just like to share your music with some friends. Whatever your goals are - we have the resources to help you achieve them. This section will lead you through everything you'll need to know about copyrighting, licensing, recording, notating, publishing, and selling your music.

Copyrighting and Licensing

Copyrighting is what protects your rights as the author of your work. Technically, the first time you put it down on paper or record it, it's copyrighted. However, it's always a good idea to also register it with the Office of Copyrights. www.copyright.gov
Which form you'll need depends on your situation. If you only have the music down on paper, you can use form PA. This will copyright the music itself. If you've made a recording you're happy with, you can use form SR and copyright both the music and the recording at the same time.

Licensing your music consists of two areas - licensing the mechanical rights and licensing the performance rights. Licensing the mechanical rights allows a person to legally make copies of your printed music. They then pay you royalties for the right. Christian Copyright Licensing International will handle these transactions for you. The way it works is that you register your works with them (CCLI). Various ministries then purchase a blanket license from them. These ministries report back how many copies of your works they made. CCLI then pays you the appropriate royalty. It's a way of making your works available to anyone in the CCLI network.

Performance rights cover when your music is performed in public. Whether it's on a radio station, or live in a club, you are entitled to royalties. The process by which this happens is similar to the mechanical rights. There are two main organizations that handle these transactions - BMI and ASCAP. Links to their websites are below.
www.bmi.com
www.ascap.com

Music Recording The Marvels of Midi Music Publishing

BMI

ASCAP