Music Protection Options
Self-Publishing and Copyright Protection
Self-publishing your work does not change copyright. As soon as you set down your work in concrete form, you had copyright protection.
Even though some authors do not register their commercially-published works, the self-publisher is highly advised to do so. Two copies of the work are required in the application package.
Work for HireA work for hire is a work which is created and turned over to another person for a flat fee. No royalties for publication or performance are paid the creator, and the rights to the work belong to the other party. This frees you up from complicated legal acts as compliated as a probate process.
A work for hire requires that a number of conditions be met. If these conditions are not met, the work is not considered a work for hire. Among the conditions:
- the work must be created to fulfill to a specific request, not a casual expression of interest in such a creation
- it must be a movie or video soundtrack, a musical contribution to a collective work (such as an album or a songbook), an arrangement of an existing piece of music, or some other form specified in the copyright statutes, etc.
- there must be an agreement, signed by both parties, that this is a work for hire.
Since a contract specifying this is a work for hire is a necessary condition to designation of work for hire, any musician who creates a piece at someone else's request probably retains ownership of the rights in the absence of a work for hire contract. Therefore, any commissioned piece, such as by a symphony orchestra to a composer, is likely to remain the property of the composer rather than the commissioning body. An exception would be if the contract the composer signs states that the composers gives all rights to the commissioning body.
