Recorded Music and Copyright Law

By the Devil's Advocate

The idea of copyright is written in the U.S. Constitution: "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."



Even back then, copyright was all about improving society by protecting the economic incentive for people to come up with brilliant ideas and inventions.Ê But there's another idea behind copyright.Ê It's not about money, but morality.Ê It's the principle that an artist or author has a right to decide what happens to their work. It's about how you feel when somebody takes a work you created without asking or giving you any credit for it.

Copyrights began with the idea that it was important to protect the rights of book authors and their families.Ê But for many years now, copyright laws have also protected songwriters, composers and performers.Ê When it comes to recorded music, copyright is pretty complicated.

Because copyrights attached to written sheet music were around well before the invention of records, tapes and CDs, a system which developed to protect songwriters and composers now coexists with another system meant to protect electronic recordings of their songs and compositions.Ê

So for any given recording, there are at least TWO copyrights.Ê First, there's the copyright in the musical work.Ê That is, the lyrics and musical notes as they're written on paper. This copyright is typically owned by the songwriter or music publisher.Ê Then there's the copyright in the sound recording, which is a recording of a performer singing or playing the particular song.Ê This copyright is usually owned by the record company. Ê

So the only LEGAL way to reproduce a piece of recorded music -- uploading, downloading, copying from a CD, whatever - is to get permission from the owners of both of these different copyrights.Ê It's called, obtaining a "license."

For the copyright in the musical composition (the performance right), there are several organizations which may be able to help you, depending on type of license you're looking for.Ê If you wish to publicly perform musical compositions, you need to contact one of three music licensing organizations created to represent composers and songwriter: ASCAP [www.ascap.com] BMI [www.bmi.com] SESAC [www.sesac.com]

On the other hand, if you wish to reproduce and distribute musical compositions, you can contact the Harry Fox Agency [www.nmpa.org] for more information on how to obtain a license.

For the copyright in the sound recording, you MUST have permission from the sound recording copyright owner.Ê This is typically the record company that issued (or currently owns to rights to) the CD or LP.Ê In order to reproduce, distribute and, in some cases, digitally perform a sound recording on your site, you must get a license from the record company directly.Ê There are special rules that apply to webcasts, subscription services and retransmission of radio stations.