Those of you who copyright their music, which sites, organizations do you use?

 

About CC Licenses
https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/
https://creativecommons.org/choose/#

In this way, copyright can be registered
In contrast to the patent, trademark or design patent application, the copyright does not have to be applied for. Already during the production and publication of a work, the intellectual property of the author is automatically guaranteed by law. A separate registration is therefore not absolutely necessary. However, it is advisable to use other means of protecting your intellectual property in order to be able to provide clear evidence of authorship in the event of a legal dispute.

Secure copyright through proof of priority
A proof of priority can be created by a lawyer or a notary, whose special position in the German legal system increases the evidential value of the proof. To do this, you simply make a copy of your work, hand over the original to the notary and in return receive a certificate that names you as the author of the idea or the work. In case of doubt, the originator of an idea can be clearly and quickly proven by the notarized document.

Secure copyright through a Creative Common license agreement
The Creative Commons license agreements describe various standard agreements with which authors can grant the public usage rights to their works. For this purpose, there are various contracts prepared by the non-profit organization Creative Commons (CC), with which the right to use a work is made available in whole, in part or not at all. They also stipulate how much the work may be changed by third parties and that the name of the author must be given. These contracts are often used for images, texts, pieces of music or video clips, which creates so-called "free content" for the public.

Secure copyright through publication
The legal situation stipulates that the author is automatically granted the rights to the idea during the production or public dissemination of his idea. Publication under one's own name also makes the authorship more conclusive.

Source: translated from German www.firma.de/unternehmensfuehrung/kann-man-in-deutschland-copyright-anmelden/

 

Here is the site where ASCAP lists all the affiliated societies. Pick the one for your country:

https://www.ascap.com/help/international/affiliated-foreign-societies

 

This question always seems a bit strange to me, but probably because I'm UK.
Pretty sure it used to be that the act of writing and recording it means it's yours. Period. Like, you are covered by default over here. Doesn't mean someone won't attempt to 'borrow' your track though.
We then used to send a copy as Signed For to a bank vault, and never open it. Old school.
Obviously though, when you record in a commercial studio, and for a deal, then the studio usually deals with some of that regards registering the tracks, and now metadata, etc.
Now, we have more options to help with copyright proof.
But I just thought it was similar in other countries?
You've got the original project. It's yours.
You let it be known that you are the copyright holder of the track, and perhaps you even have set up your own publishing company on paper so you own the publishing rights in a stronger way, and can negotiate a better deal when you allow a deal with a publishing company.

edit: I missed this:

That's it!
So it's the same in Germany too.

edit:
No disrespect to OP, but it just occurred to me that anyone asking this question is no doubt not in a situation to have to worry about it. Yet.
Because if you have a deal it can all be done for you.
Or if you are recording in a commercial studio registering tracks is done for you, so you then have your copyright and the works are registered.
And it's too expensive for you to go to a laywer to strengthen your proof of ownership unless you have a deal or at least some serious financial backing.
I guess after the natural ownership of your intellectual property by default, if you put a track on SC it could also help to strengthen proof.

 

Last edited: Sep 3, 2021

You assume a lot. I know how it works.
The question was addressed to those who used specific organizations either directly like copyright.gov or agencies, services.
Home based copyright via post offices are redundant today and hard to prove in a lawsuit, also its a lousy deterrent when you have to just threaten someone with a legal document, which works in majority of cases.
Writing your own material does make you a copyright owner but it is very naive to assume your word against their word, without any legal organization that can prove it, is enough today.

 

No, you must do it all to be safe. I always do all that anyway, even when all the stuff is taken care of by someone else after I sign. But I use the same services as everybody else too. My point is about automatic ownership of intellectual property. IE. You don't need to worry about it really, for the reasons I gave above. The project is on your computer, you know.
If you had simply asked Google your question, it wouldn't have answered back like me. Sorry for having an opinion.
Have you worked professionally with a contract, and have your tracks charted, please?

 

Last edited: Sep 3, 2021

Important considerations for sure.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think if you want to sue someone in the United States for a copyright violation, you can only do so if you have a registration with the US Copyright Office. I've been trying to wrap my head around this stuff for a while and still find it very confusing.

 

But us copyright probably covers most of the world as well.
I have used us gov copyright before, its a tad expensive compared to some services and you also get a physical copy for the copyright and they store your song in their vault.
This is why i wonder if anyone here is regularly using internet based services, it also costs less money.

 

Regards registering, the studio can deal with that for you.
Yes, registering is standard, and very important.
Otherwise the track doesn't get picked up internationally re. plays and sales.

Friend. What do you think we did before the internet? lol
And how did we deal with legal disputes?
Right, so this is why I say to do it all yourself AND involve a service.
Way safer, don't you think?
In this digital age. Where the Apple iCloud was hacked for celeb pron pictures and videos from their phone.

You can a buy roll of registration numbers yourself and do it all yourself, you know?
Any service just wants you to let them do it for you.
But double protection is good.

Than doing it yourself? Okay.

 

Last edited: Sep 3, 2021

I disagree. Having it on your computer is not enough. Computers fail, HDDs fail, computers get hacked, or stolen.
Its naive to think this is enough.
Yes i have some professional work done.

 

You are confusing ISRC registration and performance rights registration with copyright registration.
Those three things are very different.

 

Of course! Have as many proofs as possible, obvs! I never said it was enough. Do not put words into my mouth, pal!

Yes, it would be stupid if any person thinks this is enough!
And companies get hacked too.

Oh yeah! Shit. haha. I am. Thank you! Because I've only done the former myself. Someone else has done the rest! lol.
But come on, what do you think we did before the internet and the services?
You do get what I am saying.
We coped before...

 

Yeah, it can be confusing, true.

This is why i am doubtful of internet services providing copyright services, obviously they can also get hacked or their server fails.

 

Which is why the studio, the publishers, and the label deal with it all. Any other situation to be in is perhaps not so viable or safe.
Unforunately I was once involved in a deal where the publishing and the recording deal were under the same roof!
Obviously this is a no-no, and I predicted to my colleague what would happen...and it did!
You can guess, I'm sure.

 

Those days are over for most of us, you have to do it all by yourself these days. Very few have it covered by their labels or publishers.

 

That's very interesting to hear.
I won't parphrase you and say you assume a lot!, (oh, wait! sorry!) but I guess I have been lucky with that.
But I do seem to be coming back to the land of "most of us" though.
So I guess I'll be having the same questions as you too, soon.
I don't see that anything has changed regards the requirements to protect one's work though.
Although I'm not a very business minded muso, as you can probably tell!
Actually haven't slept yet as I had to defend myself for my life not last night but the night before. And I'm still in shock at what I had to do to survive, and I keep getting flashbacks and anxiety!
So I decided to just stay here for 12 hours or whatever!
But regardless of lack of sleep I still would have made the mistake between ISRC reg and copyright reg! Coz I didn't realise.
I should probably sleep soon! lol
Just had to correct lots of spelling mistakes in this!
blah blahblah zzzzzzzzzzzz

 

of course i know what you mean, but it could easily be that someone is 12 years old, writes superb compositions, but has no idea about the law.

and if we are honest, in practice it becomes complicated also for professionals to understand where the exact border is between having rights, choosing how to publish music, and what the exact situation is when you need to sue somebody for copyright violations while you already transferred the rights to protect your works exclusively to a collecting society.

here in germany the monopole has been weakend already and we have an alternative collecting society, and if you release small editions you never know which one to choose or if membership and registration maybe wont make much sense for you at all.

 

in fact it is pretty easy. the collecting societies all cooperate and legally represent each other.

so when my "german" title is beeing played by a pirate radio station in texas, who refuses to pay the fees for it, the ASCAP has an own interest to force collect.

since this is only possible because the US laws protect foreigners rights, too, you can be sure all other things which are based on them will work, too.

 

In Germany there is GEMA:

Together we ensure that artists can make a living from their work. Whether at concerts, in clubs, cafés or on the Internet - if the works are used by musicians, then they deserve a fair reward. Your financial contribution enables music makers to make a living from their work.

Worldwide royalty payment
We are well connected internationally and collect royalties for you all over the world.

www.gema.de

 

@BEAT16
Isn't that what PRS, MCPS, Pamra etc do? Collect royalties?
OP is talking about registering copyright specifically.