Music copyright is insanely complicated and may differ from country to country, making it extremely intimidating, overwhelming and burdensome for a individual musician to small to mid-range corporations with inadequate resources. Therefore it is necessary to have a professional service provider to effectively handle the business and legal side of your music. We have tried best to answer the basic questions in regards to music copyrights for your reference and information. Enjoy!
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- What is Music Copyrights? What are the different types of Copyright?
- Composition Vs. Master Copyright
- How do I copyright my song or collection of my songs?
- Is it necessary to copyright my songs?
- Do I need to re-copyright new versions of my old songs?
- Is registering my music with NEPCINE an alternative to copyright registration?
- What is a public performance of music and what is the “Performing Right”?
- One of the copyright owner is deceased. Do I still need permission to use his/her work? How do I obtain such permission?
- What is the difference between performing right royalties, mechanical royalties and sync royalties?
- What is Copyright Infringement?
- I am recording a cover song, Do I need a license?
1. What is Music Copyrights? What are the different types of Copyright?
Copyright protects various forms of creative expression that are fixed in a tangible form
- Music copyrights designates legal ownership of musical composition or sound recording. This ownership includes exclusive rights to redistribute and reproduce the work, as well as licensing rights that enable the copyright holder to earn royalties.
- When it comes to music, there are mostly two types of copyrights: Musical Composition and Sound Recording copyrights.
2. Composition Vs. Master Copyright
- The compositional copyright covers the underlying musical composition: the arrangement of notes, melodies, and chords in a specific order. It is held by songwriters, lyricists, and composers and managed by their music publishers who also partially own the copyright.
- The master copyright or sound recording right covers the specific sound recording, or “Master Recording”, that contains a particular expression of the underlying musical composition created by performing or recording artists. This copyright is held by the performing artists and, typically, their label.
3. How do I copyright my song or collection of my songs?
- Your composition is copyright automatically when work is “created”, which the law defines as being “fixed” in a copy or a recording for the first time. The registration of your copyright is highly recommended. Once you submit your songs to our platform it automatically creates a unique fingerprint and register you as a owner or the copyright owner in the song. NepCine further provides you with an ability to register your songs in a copyright organizations in various territories. Registrations are subject to additional registration fees per territory and the organization.
4. Is it necessary to copyright my songs?
- Registering your copyrights is not required but it is highly recommended since doing so will give you certain protection under copyright law incase you need to sue someone for using your song without your permission.
- Registering your songs in the government libraries puts your claim of authorship on the public record and may help if ever there is a dispute over credit or timing.
5. Do I need to re-copyright new versions of my old songs?
- Yes, a new version of an old song, also called a derivative work, should be copyrighted, noting the ways it’s been altered from the previous version.
6. Is registering my music with NEPCINE an alternative to copyright registration?
- NepCine does provide a registration data of each individual song that are available in the NepCine database. Such data and registration details can be presented as an evidence in the court of law when needed. However any take downs of the song will delete all information related to the song and won’t be available in future.
7. What is a public performance of music and what is the “Performing Right”?
- A “Public Performance” of music is defined in the copyright law as any music played outside a normal circle of friends and family. Songwriters, composers, and their respective music publishers have the exclusive right to play their music publicly and to authorize others to do so under the copyright laws. This is known as “Performing Right”. This right was designed to enable and encourage music creators to continue to create music. Every business, organization, and a person must receive permission from the copyright owners of the music they are playing before playing it publicly. NepCine provides a partnership to all creators and administers the licensing of your songs in worldwide territory.
8. One of the copyright owner is deceased. Do I still need permission to use his/her work? How do I obtain such permission?
- Depending on the country you reside and releasing your work, the Copyright laws in various jurisdiction protects the right of author from 50 to 100 years even after the demise of such author. Which means even if the copyright of a work might be expired in your country, it may still be protected in another. Contact NepCine to obtain the necessary licensing to use the copyrighted work of copyright owners represented by NEPCINE.
9. What is the difference between performing right royalties, mechanical royalties and sync royalties?
- The Public Performing Royalties are earned when a musical work if performed publicly. Such public performance occurs when a song is sung to played, recorded or live, on radio and television, as well as through other media such as the internet, live concerts, and programmed music services. NEPCINE grants licenses to perform, use or broadcast music from its extensive repertoire.
- The ‘Mechanical” right is the right to reproduce a piece of music into CDs, DVDs, records or tapes.
- When reproduction of music is made onto a soundtrack of a film or TV show, the reproduction is called “synchronization”, and the license that the TV or Film producer needs to obtain is called a “sync” license.
10. What is Copyright Infringement?
- When someone exploits (uses) one of your exclusive rights in your music without permission, it is known as copyright infringement. A legal help is available to all the creators registered with NEPCINE. If you believe that your rights has been infringed upon, please Contact us immediately !
11. I am recording a cover song, Do I need a license?
- As recording, distributing, and performing a copyrighted work is the exclusive right of the copyright owner, you will be infringing upon copyright owner’s right by covering and distributing a cover song without a proper license. To record and distribute a cover song, you need a mechanical license, which grants you the right to record and distribute the musical composition of someone else. Contact NEPCINE to obtain mechanical license to cover the compositions of the copyright owner represented by NEPCINE.
- You will require a separate Public performance License each time to perform such cover song in public. Make sure your performance is properly licensed through NEPCINE before performing compositions of copyright owners in public.
