Registering a collection of songs with the copyright office

[Dan201487]

Hi to all members,
I have gathered few songs (word+music) I made that I wish to register in the copyright office. Some facts:

• Songs were made between 2007-2010. I edited them in 2012. Some with minor changes, some with major changes and some with no changes at all (except amplyfing the volume)

• Songs were never published

• I am a foreign songwriter (not from US)

• I am the author of all the songs includeing the music composition

• Songs are unrelated, i.e, they probably won't be in the same album

From what I have read in the web it is advised to use SR for the sound recording and underlying music. Also, in order to save money, it is advised to register it as a collection. I found in this forum the following post http://forums.taxi.com/copyright-regist ... 19855.html explaining how to register a collection of songs, but the example use the same year for all the collection, which is not my case. While trying to fill out the form I found I could not decide what to write:

• In the titles tab Should I write the collection name, year and songs titles "MyCollection 2007-2010: 1-song1, 2-song2, etc..." in order to cover all my songs ?

• In the completeion tab, what should be written as the year of completion/creation ? can I write 2007-2010 ?

Any help would be appreciated.

[hummingbird]

I don't know if this will help but I wrote a blog on copyrighting a collection a while back, explaining how to title & list the individual songs.
http://wisebird.blogspot.ca/2005/12/poo ... ended.html

Songs were made between 2007-2010. I edited them in 2012. Some with minor changes, some with major changes and some with no changes at all (except amplyfing the volume) - if you changed them in 2012, you could copyright them for that year unless it's important to you to have the real creation date on the file (i.e. they had a lot of exposure). Whether it's okay to use 2007-2010 I can't say for sure, but I often will copyright collections with titles like, "Compositions January to March 2009", for example.

HTH
Hummin'bird

[Dan201487]

Thanks

[funsongs]

fwiw:
in Oct 2013 (right after the government shut-down lifted), with the help from a producer friend,
we managed to register 16 of my songs, written over many years' span, all for one fee of $35;
all done online. I didn't bother to note what year they were created or recorded; so the entire collection, each song, appears as being copyrighted 2013.
hth; cheers.
Peter
http://www.soundcloud.com/funsongs-1

[coachdebra]

Just as an FYI (I'm NOT a lawyer) - should you ever need to sue for copyright infringement, the amount you can sue for will be a percentage of the collection (10% for a 10 song collection, etc.).

Of course, you can always update the registration of the song that was infringed as a solo copyright before you file suit.

I learned this when I interviewed a copyright and trademark attorney from my Artists Marketing & Business Academy. So that is all I know about it.

Your Coach,
Debra