How much does it cost to copyright a song

Question

and where can i do it, and what are the requirements

Answer 1

In 163 countries copyright exists the moment you make something original, like a song.

The problem is when someone rips you off and then you have to prove that the copyright was yours and not someone elses. It's not good enough to have a dated version on your own or a friends computer or send it in a letter because you could easily alter that. It has to be independent.

You can upload them to a special webpage and they fingerprint them and record the time you uploaded. This means that you have an independent record showing when you made it. No one will be able to argue with that! :)

Now about price, you can use the US copyright service which costs about $45 per application you make. This takes about 4 to 6 months to get registered.

You can also use an international online service called http://www.provemycopyright.com. It costs $99 but you get an account with 1Gb of space to upload lots of your songs, even if they are in demo format. When you record a new version, you can just upload that one too and it doesn't cost you anything extra.

Both will register your copyright, so I guess it's just a question of how many songs you want to copyright, how quick you want it to be registered and also whether you want to be able to regitser copyright before you have a totally finished version or not.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

A song is copyrighted the moment it is created in a "tangible form" such as sheet music, a phono-recording or computer file. It is absolutely free.

However, you may want to register the copyright, which costs a few dollars, along with two copies of the song, if you want to sue everyone for statutory damages (up to $150,000 per copy). Get forms and instructions at copyright.gov.

Oh, and mailing yourself a copy may be used a defense to copying someone else LATER, but gives you no particular protection against people who rip you off.

Answer 3

The way my dad used to do it when he was in band was he would just mail the songs to himself via the US postal service.  I think there are a couple of online sites where you can do it for free, too.  Good luck and happy copyrighting.