LeviSamJuno Song Services
Are you stealing songs?
If you have ever recorded or are planning to record a song written by someone other than yourself without permission, you may be guilty.
Copyright Laws
In the United States, an intellectual work is automatically owned by and credited to its creator(s). Intellectual works include (but are not limited to) books, drawings, lyrics, and music. They are property of their creators immediately, and all copyright laws apply to those works. All it takes is the word "Copyright" and/or the symbol for copyright "(c)", the date (typically the year), and the name of the copyright holder. For example, at the bottom of each page of this website is my copyright.
Furthermore, as a legal safeguard, the US Copyright Office enables these people to register their works (for a fee) so that they have record of ownership. This is an extra step that further cements the ownership of the created works to the appropriate owner.
This is a very helpful mechanism that both encourages people to continue to come up with new intellectual works and insures them that their creations are protected from being stolen.
Imagine taking months to write a book or spending hours on a painting only to have someone else sell it as their own and giving you no credit.
Copyright Protection is made to protect your work and creativity.
For more information about Copyright Laws, go to the source:
Publishing
Songwriters have the right and means to protect their songs in addition to the copyright laws and registration: publishing.
A publishing company controls the rights to the songs in its catalog, which is comprised of all the songs the company has contracted from songwriters or shares ownership with other publishers or songwriters. Because the publishing company holds the rights to the songs, they have the first opportunity to get the song recorded. After that initial recording, the song can then be recorded by other artists according
There are many avenues of getting a song published. Many Publishing Companies are already established, most of them having large catalogs of songs. Most of these companies exist to maintain ownership of songs written by a writer or set of writers that work for those companies. Other publishers house only those songs performed by a particular artist or group of artists after they had the first chance to record each of those songs. Still other publishers are the legal publishing names of particular writers who own their own songs.
Songs that are published have a couple of extra benefits on top of the Copyright protection. They can be:
listed in a catalog of songs that can be offered to artists to perform and record for royalties.
tracked by a Performance Rights Organization to remit payments of royalties based on radio play and other such performances.
Publishers typically buy the rights to songs they publish from the writer. Ideally they would have a contract signed by both parties (songwriter and publisher) that shows the writer's permission for the song's copyright to be transmitted to the publisher. This is not entirely without benefit to the songwriter, however. In exchange for rights to the song, the publisher usually offers:
An upfront payment for all rights to the song,
A contract agreement to share a percentage (typically 50%) of all royalties received with the writer.
Of course, there are a variety of ways that songs can be published, but this is the most common. The main benefit of getting a song published is that the experienced publishing company takes control of all the legwork and other processes required to get a song to recording artists and, ultimately, to the point of bringing in royalties.
IN PROGRESS
Songwriters have the right and means to protect their songs in addition to the copyright laws and registration: publishing.
LeviSamJuno Services
80 Township Road 1404
South Point, OH 45680
(304) 437-1694