Nov. 5. 2009
Poorman's Copyright
The poorman's copyright is putting your cd with your music on it in an envelope and mailing it to yourself. Myth is that this will protect you if you need to go to court to prove that you own the copyright to a song you wrote or composed. The stamp on the envelope is to prove the date that the song was written. Truth is, your music is copyrighted as soon as it is in a fixed and tangible form. So as soon as you record it, it is copyrighted. But, this doesn't protect you all the way. The best way to protect your music is to send a copy to the US Copyright office with a copyright form. You can get a form at www.copyright.gov . You will need to get a correct copyright form. The Sr Form is for sound recording which is to protect the actual sound recording, not particularly the song itself. For example, you may record amazing grace and want to get a copyright on your version. You don't own the copyright of the original songwriting, but you would own your versions sound recording. Now if you were the one who wrote Amazing Grace, you would use the PA Form which is Performing Arts. To understand more about these forms go to www.copyright.gov .
Now back to the poormans copyright, by mailing this back to yourself would not hold up in court. Who is to say you didn't mail yourself an empty envelope and stuff it with the cd right before court. So you see the best way to protect yourself is to register your music with the US Copyright office. I hope I helped you understand this subject a little better!
Nov.4, 2009
State of the Music Industry
How can the music industry rebound from the drastic slope of record sales? If you look at it, the music industry actually has reverted back to somewhere near 1980. Why do I say this? I recently was watching a show on TV One that was based on the life of the late recording artist Phylis Hyman. In one part of the show they were talking about one of her albums in the 70's selling around 450,000 copies. At that time, they were praising these sales. That's not even a gold record, but pretty good. You have to think, most artist weren't selling more than 500,000 copies up until Michael Jackson came out with "Off The Wall" in 1979. Record sales really didn't start exploding until music videos really came on the scene!! When MTV came out, record sales went off the chart. Record companies started making extraordinary money. So, between 1980-2005 was probably the music industries best years. Then came Napster and file sharing. Why buy the music when you can get it for free on the internet?? This is the mind frame of most people. Who would have ever thought Janet and Michael Jackson would have a hard time going platinum. Most big artist with big recording contractsare having a hard time even going gold. This is why you see a lot of your favorite artist starting their own labels and reaping most of the profits because it is so hard to sell big numbers even with a major label. Why give up 80% of your artist royalties to a major label, when you can put out your own music through cd's and download and keep most of the profits? Let me know how you feel!
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