Copyright Registration- Collections vs. Individual Songs

[jiffpop]

Given the hefty fee for Copyright registration of individual compositions, registering songs as a "collection" is certainly more economical. But will registering songs as part of a "collection" still provide adequate legal protection if one of the songs is eventually published separate from the collection? Anyone have any experience with this?

[hummingbird]

I make sure that I include all the titles when registering.

-in Section 1, under 'Title of this work' put in a name for your collection, and then list the songs - "Collected Works of Miss Vikki, Jan to Mar 05: #1-Hi, #2-Bye, #3-Aloha", etc. [by the way, unless you are a music publisher your work is "unpublished" (it will be "published by the recording company or music publisher that purchases performance rights from you)]

- if one of the songs in the collection is picked up, you need to specify, in the contract, that you are only licensing the use of that particular song and not the entire collection.

- you'll need to remember which collection each song was registered in. I personally make a file folder for each song. On the inside front cover, I write down the date it was created, the date the copyright form was sent, and the name of the collection the song was a member of for the copyright. I keep all the lyric notes & copies of the forms I've sent, etc, in that file.

[justabee]

Thanks for asking this. I was just going to leaf through and see if anyone had asked this already, and there it was, right at the top. Life is good, even if I'm marginal.

[justabee]

One more comment or reminder. When you copyright a collection, it all has to be written by the same person or group of people, so (as far as I know) if I wrote 5 songs alone and had a 6th written with another songwriter, I would have a minimum of two copyright submissions for those materials.

[jiffpop]

good advice! thanks to one and all happy holidays

[Pinkstar]

I was about to ask a similar question. I have written so many songs in 2009 and not even copy written them yet. Vikki you are so organized. Thanks for the insight and reminder!


JVB