Written By: Leah C. Stevenson, Esq.
When we think of music, we think of the Top 100s, the Billboard hits, the hot singles, and all the songs that have either topped the charts or have remained our “way less known” personal favorites.
When these songs cross our mind, we think about the hook, the beat, and all the lyrics we can recite word-for-word at karaoke like our lives depend on it.
Although we know the music artist who recorded the song, very rarely do we stop and think… who owns the “rights” to this song?
What is a copyright and who owns it?
A copyright protects original works of authorship and can be registered for literary, dramatic, musical, choreographic, pictorial, sculptural, audiovisual, and architectural works. Copyright protection is the legal exclusive right for the owner of intellectual property to copy, reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, digitally transmit, publicly display, make derivatives, and protect the work from unauthorized use of third parties.
For someone to get copyright protection, their work must be an original creative work of authorship that is fixed in a tangible medium. This means the work cannot just be an original and creative idea, but the work has to be definite and tangible like a painting, a written poem, or recorded music. Copyright registration with the U.S. Copyright Office affords owners protection of their intellectual property for the author’s life + 70 years thereafter. That’s a pretty long time to have ownership even after your death!
What are the copyrights in music industry?
In the music industry, every song you hear is comprised of two copyrights. The first copyright is for the musical composition (the “song”) which consists of the music and lyrics. The second copyright is for the studio recorded track (the “master”) that we hear on the radio, Apple music, and our favorite Spotify playlists.
The copyright for a musical composition is usually owned by the songwriters and composers who contributed substantively to the overall creation of the musical composition. However, if a copyright owner assigns their portion of the copyright to a music publisher, the publisher will usually have the exclusive rights to license, promote, and advertise the song to collect and distribute royalties to their client.
The copyright for a sound recording is usually owned by the party who paid for the production of the masters. The owner could be the music artist who recorded the song, but if the artist is signed to a record label, then the label may in fact own the masters per the contractual language of the recording agreement. Whether it’s the artist or the label, the owner of the sound recording also has the right to exploit, promote, and advertise the master to collect and distribute royalties for the monetization of the master recording.
Although the copyright owners for the musical compositions and sound recordings are usually different parties, if an artist is also a songwriter, then the songwriter/artist can get ownership rights in both the song and the master.
For instance, let’s just say there were no composers, producers, music publishers, or record labels involved in the creation or exploitation of the song or master. If the songwriter/artist wrote and recorded an entire song by themselves, then the songwriter/ artist would own the copyrights to both the song and the master. This also means the songwriter/ artist would get all the revenue and royalties from the exploitation of both the song and the master as well. This holds true for most independent artists who not only write their own music, but also owns their masters as well.
There is also the case where a music artist writes for other artists in the industry. Let’s take Lil Baby for example. In June of this year, Lil Baby won the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Award for the second year in a row. This prestigious award not only demonstrates his true dominance as an artist in the industry, but it also shows his true skills as a songwriter as well. Lil Baby has amassed songwriting credit for Drake’s “Girls Want Girls”, “Wants and Needs”, and Rod Wave’s “Rags2Riches 2”. For example, this means if someone wanted to publicly perform, reproduce, distribute, or sample “Girls want Girls”, they would have to seek permission from the co-writers of the song, who include Lil Baby, Drake, and a few others as well.
How do third parties use copyrighted songs or masters?
If a song and the corresponding master are protected from unauthorized use of third parties, then how do people have the right to use the copyrighted songs and masters for covers, samples, etc.? The answer is licenses. Licensing is an essential aspect of the music industry and the only legal way in which copyrighted material is able to be publicly performed, synched, sampled, reproduced, distributed, and displayed to the general public. But we will take a deep dive into music licensing in a future blog post.
This is why they say it pays to own your songs and masters in the music industry! Our favorite songs may be like gold to our ears, but true gold in the music industry is the ownership of your musical compositions and masters! To have ownership means power over the exploitation of the songs and masters and no limits to how much money you could make by doing so.
What if I have additional questions about the entertainment industry?
If you are interested in learning more about the music industry stay tuned for my next blog post!
If you are ready to move forward with copyright registration of your musical compositions or sound recordings, you should consult an entertainment attorney. An experienced legal professional can advise you of your rights, walk you through the process, and help you protect your creative works.
DISCLAIMER: The information provided on this website does not and is not intended to constitute legal advice. Instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. This blog post is solely for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is created via these blog posts.
