This is just a short introduction into copyrights, you should not attempt tocopyright your music without first getting your hands on a copy of Ty Cohen’scomplete copyright course called “Copyright Your Music In Minutes”

Music copyrights can be a confusing topic. First of all there are manypeople involved: the composer, the publisher, and the music licensing agency,each of whom has different rights which depend on how the businessrelationships are structured.. Then there are many types of rights, includingthe public performance right, the mechanical right, the reproduction right, thesynchronization right, and others. Does this all sound confusing? Don’t feelbad – it is confusing. This article will provide a basic outline of the varioustypes of rights, as well as identify some more authoritative references. Itsalso important to understand the difference between a song or musical work (wewill use these terms interchangeably) on one hand, and a sound recording on theother. A musical work is the composition of the song itself (such as the lyricsand sheet music). A sound recording is when someone performs the song and it isrecorded onto a medium that allows the song to be played again. Many differenttypes of rights can be granted for musical works.

These are: The right to reproduce The right to distribute (the mechanicalright) The right to create derivative works The right to perform publicly Theright to display publicly In addition, a few different rights can be grantedrelated to a sound recording. These are: The right to reproduce The right todistribute (the mechanical right) The right to create derivative works PublicPerformance Right US Copyright Law, Title 17, Section 101 defines a performanceright as follows: to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or displayof the work to the public, by any means of any device or process, whether themembers of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receiveit in the same place or in separate places and at the same time or at differenttimes. This right means that the copyright holder must authorize every instanceof a song being played on a radio station, TV station, concerts, jukeboxes, orby other means.

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Reproduction Rights : Reproduction is the right of the copyright holder tomake copies of a musical work or sound recording on a CD, record, computerfiles, in print, as part of a movie soundtrack, or other recording medium. Thisincludes the right of duplication of such recordings in quantity.

Mechanical Rights : Mechanical rights are needed if you intend to reproduceand distribute a musical work. This right is typically needed by a recordcompany. The record company pays a fee per unit for this right. The fee is paidto the publisher or the publisher’s agent.

Synchronization Rights : A Synchronization right is the right to synchronizethe performance of a sound recording in a specific way with visual images.Synchronization rights are important in the use of songs and sound recordingson TV shows, in the movies, or other types of motion picture and videomedia.

Derivative Works Rights : The derivative works right is the right to take aoriginal song or sound recording and make alterations to it. For example, youcan alter a song by writing new lyrics for it. Or you can alter a soundrecording by mixing in additional instruments or incorporating it into amedley

Display Rights : This right is refers to the right to display a songpublicly. This is a right encountered less frequently than the others, butwould become an issue if someone wanted to display a song in some fashion (e.g.put the lyrics for a song in their store window). This is just a shortintroduction into copyrights, and again, I must stress that you should notattempt to copyright your music or move further on this subject without firstgetting your hands on a copy of Ty Cohen’s complete copyright course called“Copyright Your Music In Minutes”

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