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U.S. Copyright Form SR

As I said in my last post, I am going to be stepping you through the completion of U.S. Copyright From SR. Today we are going to go through Section 1 and answer several questions people new to copyrights often have. First get a copy of Form SR. You can obtain it by going here:

www.copyright.gov

Under “How To Register a Work” click on “Sound Recording”. The next page will give you the option to download Form SR. The “SR” stands for Sound Recording. There are other forms that cover other arts such as dance, theater etc. but the one that we as musicians need to worry about is the “SR” form. This will cover both lyrics and music.

Now, the U.S. Copyright Form SR does include directions but I am going to take you through the form one step at a time.

Section 1

Section 1 is very important. This is where you list the title of your work AND all the songs to be included in your copyright. The current rate for filing one copyright is $45. If you filed every song on your ten-song album separately you’d be looking at paying $450! Well, the government has made it so that you don’t have to do that. One form is sufficient to cover a whole album. So if you’re filing a copyright for your album you write the title of the album in the space “TITLE OF THIS WORK”. Then in the space that says, “PREVIOUS, ALTERNATIVE, OR CONTENT TITLES” you write the name of the tracks.

Now, if you don’t have a completed album but you have a bunch of music or lyrics you want to protect, under “TITLE OF THIS WORK” you can just give it a generic name like, “Ron’s Beat Collection 1”. Then you list the name of your tracks or lyrics on the next line.

If you’re copyrighting lyrics only, be sure to include a copy of your typed lyrics with your form. If you’re copyrighting music only, be sure to include a CD with your music on it. If it’s for an album of lyrics and music by you, just a copy of the recorded music with you singing or rapping the lyrics will be enough to copyright both your lyrics and music.

Alright, tune in tomorrow for Section 2!

Hans Erik
Content Marketing Director
Hans@Next2Friends.com
www.Next2Friends.com