Copyright surrounding music composition and songwriting is one of the foundations underpinning today’s music industry.
Understanding copyright law and how it legally protects creators’ original works (such as a composition or recording) is an integral part of a music industry skillset within the business. If you want to launch a career in music publishing or in rights management, then studying SAE’s Music Business course is a brilliant way of understanding how copyright relates to a specific sound recording or different musical innovations. At its core, rightsholders can use any music copyrights in their catalogue to earn money as they control usage, distribution, and reproduction. Subsequently, this enables monetisation through sales, streams, and licenses via sync or public performance.
Despite all of the technological changes of the last 20 years with the creative industries embracing digital downloads, online platforms, new means of production and distribution, intellectual property and how copyright protects it continues to be one of the most important cornerstones of the industry.
Without it, songwriters, composers and recording artists would be unable to commit to music as a potential career – it’s what keeps the economic wheels of the industry turning by ensuring songwriters receive royalties whenever their music is used.
In our blog, we explore the importance of copyright, how to gain copyright protection, why it matters more than ever in the digital age and how rightsholders can gain fair compensation from the use of their music.
Interested in joining SAE? Contact our team to find out how our Music Business course will prepare you for a career in the industry!
What is Copyright Law
If you want to earn money on your musical composition or sound recording, you will need to understand how to protect your copyright. This can help you secure your rights and prevent anyone from using your creativity without your permission. To do this, you will need to understand what copyrights you have in a piece of music. By doing so, you can make the most of any opportunities to leverage your work to generate income while also preventing any unauthorised copyright infringement.
Types of Music Copyright
The publishing copyright is essentially split into two parts; the composition and the sound recording.
- Musical Composition: This relates to the original melody, lyrics, and arrangement of a song or composition.
- Sound Recording: This relates to the specific recorded music performance of a composition.
How to register as copyright owner for a piece of music
In the UK, a song’s copyright is created as soon as the music and lyrics are fixed in a tangible form (be they either written down or recorded). This is stated in the most recent music copyright law, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, a piece of legislation that has been updated a number of times since it was originally conceived.
There is no official copyright registration method in the UK. However, there are a variety of ways that evidence of intellectual property ownership and a song’s creation can be established.
The first approach is to post or save a physical copy of a work in any way that will help to establish when it was created. For example, you could send it to yourself by recorded delivery, or store it with your bank. The work must be time stamped and remain sealed for it to be valid as a form of legal proof for creative works.
Alternatively, a songwriter, composer or music publisher could either email a piece of music or save the work to a hard drive. This should provide a time-stamped copy and is another way to evidence creation and ownership.
Sending a copy of your work to yourself by a recorded delivery offers a stronger public record of ownership as it will have your personal details attached to it.
What you can do as the owner of copyright music
Owning a music catalogue of copyrights can be a lucrative business for music publishers. One of the biggest deals in recent years came when Bob Dylan sold his entire catalogue of 600 songs to Universal Music in 2020 for more than $300m (£225m).
As the owner of a piece of music, you have the opportunity to try and make the most of your music to maximise potential opportunities to generate revenue.
Some activities include
Music reproduction: Make copies (CDs, downloads or with sheet music). Every time your music is reproduced, then the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (or MCPS) will collect a royalty on your behalf.
Distribute: Sell, rent, or lend copies to the public. This can now be achieved without a music publisher via direct-to-fan platforms such as Bandcamp.
Public Performance: For every use of a piece of music in public venues, radio or online, a performance royalty will be generated.
Adaptation/Derivative Works: Create new iterations of a track including remixes, samples, translations and cover versions.
Communication to the Public: Broadcast or stream the music.
It is important to remember that if you do any of the above without permission from the rightsholder, then you could be at risk of copyright infringement claims or being served a copyright notice.
The duration of copyright protection
In the UK, copyright lasts for a period of 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the author dies.
If the music originates from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), the copyright lasts for as long as the music is protected by copyright in its country of origin, as long as this does not exceed 70 years. After this period, a piece of music enters the public domain.
For example, the song Happy Birthday is effectively in the public domain in the UK, US, and EU following a major 2015 US court ruling that invalidated the copyright claim by Warner/Chappell Music. The result of this ruling means that artists do not need to pay royalties to sing or use it.
Music Publishing in the creative industries
Music publishing involves the management and promotion of a song’s copyright. When a song is written, it automatically becomes copyrighted material.
This copyright is a form of intellectual property, and, as we’ve seen, it gives the owner exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and perform the song.
A music publisher’s role is to exploit this copyright by finding opportunities for the song to be used commercially. This could involve getting the song played on the radio, used in a film or TV show, covered by another artist, or included in an advert or video game.
As an artist, working with a music publisher to ensure your music is used in different ways can create various income streams to enhance career development.
How to make the most of as an exclusive rights owner
For music publishers, composers and songwriters, there are various ways a piece of music from their catalogue can be monetised. They include:
Licensing: Grant permission to others (such as streaming services or film producers) to use your music for a fee or in exchange for royalties. When a recorded song is given a synchronisation license, the rightsholder typically receives a fee in exchange for allowing this.
Publishing Deals: Sign with a music publisher to manage and license your songs in exchange for a share of revenue.
Sound Recording Deals: License your recordings to record labels.
Collect Royalties: Earn money from performance rights organisations such as PRS for Music, mechanical royalties (via MCPS), sync licenses (for TV/film), and digital streaming.
Assign Rights: Follow Bob Dylan’s example and sell your copyright entirely to a music publisher.
Prevent Infringement: Stop unauthorised copying, distribution, or public performance, which can include issuing takedown notices on platforms like YouTube.
Register with a Performing Rights Organisation
A Performing Rights Organisation (or PRO) can play a pivotal role in the career of a composer or songwriter looking to generate income from their music.
It is the PRO that collects royalties on behalf of a songwriter, composer or music publisher, then distributes these accordingly. These performance royalties can come from music being played in a pub, bar or listened to via a streaming platform.
In the UK, PRS for Music is the main collecting society and works on behalf of songwriters to ensure they are fairly compensated for the use of their music. The organisation currently protects and manages the rights of over 180,000 music creators.
Define songwriting splits as early as possible
The composer of the music and the writer of the lyrics are the first owners of a song’s musical copyright.
If you co-write, then you will need to agree with your co-writers the terms of this joint authorship, how the copyright and income generated by the songs will be divided.
For bands, the Musicians Union advises all creatives to sign and date a short agreement setting out the name of the song, the names of the contributors and their respective shares in the song and what this relates to – for example, words only, music only or both words and music.
Without a song share agreement, a publisher or the courts may infer equal contributions, and there is potential for disputes between band members if a songwriting partnership ends.
For example, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland from the Police sued Sting and his publishing company in September, claiming they were owed between $2m (£1.5m) and $10.75m in royalties for their contribution to hit songs including Roxanne and Every Breath You Take. The pair subsequently received a payment of almost £600,000.
In summary, despite all of the music industry changes created by digital downloads and music streaming on platforms such as Spotify or Apple Music, the legal protections afforded by copyright are just as important as they have always been in ensuring artistic works generate actual royalties.
UK Music quoted the Intellectual Property Office as saying:
“An effective and balanced copyright and performers’ rights framework is central to the success of our creative industries. It allows creators and investors to devote time, effort and money into making and distributing new creations, with confidence that they will be remunerated for their use. This benefits creators, rightsholders, users, and the public alike.”
Study Music Business at SAE
Studying our leading Music Business course will give you a comprehensive education in labels, publishing, management, touring, distribution, and live events.
You will have the opportunity to collaborate with an exciting student body to record your artists, film music videos and begin to plan your own career in one of the world’s most exciting industries.
