Copyright Law

What Rights Are In A Copyright? Compulsory Licenses

Posted on February 01, 2007
Copyright: the right to control the copying and use of a protected work.Songs are copyrighted works. A song is considered as one whole work, so if it consists of both music and lyrics, and if one person wrote the music and one person wrote the lyrics, there is only one copyright and both authors are holders of that copyright...

The Bottom Line to Selling Songs

Posted on January 29, 2007
You may by now be wondering why a lawyer is talking to you about setting performance goals and joining associations. Shouldn't I be talking about how to copyright your songs?The truth is, unless you are good at what you do, organized about how you do it (even if you depend on someone else to keep you organized) and up to date on trends in music, you will never need a lawyer and it'll be a waste of your money to register anything with the copyright office...

Music Business Plan, Part 8

Posted on January 29, 2007
The last two questions on your survey are related, but different issues:I have material registered with the copyright office - both songs and recordings. I have a complete list, somewhere, of what I have written, who wrote the songs, who played on the recordings, and written agreements with those players...

I'm sure this is useful somehow

Posted on January 26, 2007
MySpace is still a bit of a mystery to me. I continue to slowly stumble around and figure out what can be done with it. This morning I discovered something that I haven't seen talked about, although I'm sure there are people out there who know this...

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Associate Yourself

Posted on January 25, 2007
Music Business Plan, part 7 The next questions on the survey are: I belong to the following music related associations:Of these, I find the following to be useful:Of the others, I have/have not taken advantage of their services. y/nFor a working songwriter that hopes to sell, you must be at least somewhat involved in the industry...

Music Business Plan, part 6

Posted on January 22, 2007
Do you have an answer for this question? The right market for my music is _________ Songs are used in LOTS of places. We tend to think about songwriting in conjunction with what we hear on the radio, and country, rock and pop acts do in fact buy songs...

Music Business Plan, part 5

Posted on January 22, 2007
How did you answer these questions:I have sold a song or two (or more).I know what genre the music industry would classify my music as. y/nIf you are a songwriter, you should be trying to sell songs.The exception is if you write only songs that you, your band, or a specific band with which you are associated perform, AND that band is successful enough that you are making your whole living from it, AND you are only interested in writing the type of song that band uses AND you only write enough songs for that band...

Music Business Plan, part 4

Posted on January 15, 2007
Next question: I perform as much as I would like, yes or no?If the answer is no, here are some things to consider. Not all will apply to everyone, of course, so find the items that might make sense for you, and put them on your "think about it" list...

Music Business Plan part 3

Posted on January 15, 2007
How did you answer this?I record demos and am happy with how they sound y/nIf you are a working musician you need a demo, and in most cases you need many demos.You need demos for booking gigs. Your demos should match the type of performance you are trying to book, so if you work with both a band and solo, you need demos showing each style...

Music Business Plan part 2

Posted on January 11, 2007
Today let's look at those of you who identified yourself as one of the following:a songwriteran arrangera produceran engineerAgain, the goal here is to make more money, so we look for ways to either expand your opportunities, or better exploit those that already exist...

Music Business Plan, part one

Posted on January 09, 2007
Now that you've had time to think about the survey in the previous post, it's time to use that as the basis for building a plan for the new year. The plan I want you to build is one that is designed to earn money from your music, so I'll be focusing on two things as I go through the survey in the next few posts: areas where you can expand your opportunities to make money, and areas where you can better utilize your current opportunities to make money...

Goals to Move Your Music Forward

Posted on January 03, 2007
Yes, it's cliche, but this is a good time to review your life and career. If you are a musician, you are almost certainly self-employed, which means motivation and focus is all on you. This is a good time to review your self-business plan, and to make some plans and goals...

Why Are You Making a Demo?

Posted on December 19, 2006
Writing songs is a business. A creative business, but nonetheless a business. And to be successful at converting your songs to money, you have to think strategically about everything you do after the song is written. Starting with the demo.Suppose you write a song...

Consider Music Publishers

Posted on December 14, 2006
I attended a mixer hosted by the Austin Music Foundation the other night. (This is a really great group, by the way, which offers a wide variety services to musicians who are serious about building a career. It's worth checking out if you are in the central Texas area) During a conversation I was having with a songwriter, she made the comment, in passing, that of course she was planning to keep her own publishing rights because she understood she would make more money that way...

Craft is Step One

Posted on December 12, 2006
Just wanted to be clear that the information in this blog is aimed at people who have good, completed work already. I'm a lawyer, not a songwriter, and I can't help you write a song. I can tell you how to be in a pretty good position to sell your song, and I can tell you how to make good decisions about your business...