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How to Copyright Your Music: Section 3, 4, & 5

Section 3

Now it gets easier. For section 3 you just write the year the work was completed under section ‘a’. Section ‘b’ you will almost always leave blank. Your work has probably never been published before. Even if you intend on publishing it yourself you usually do that after you copyright it.

Section 4

Another easy section. Under letter ‘a’ just fill in your full birth name and a permanent address. I often suggest that if you move around a lot, use an address that will remain permanent, like your parents’ or your grandparents’ address. This will insure that you are able to get your certificate once it’s mailed. You’d hate to go to all this trouble to protect yourself and then not end up with the proof! Letter ‘b’ can be left blank. This is only useful for transferring ownership of a copyright from one person to another. Really, there is no reason you should ever do this (unless there are six zeros at the end of it!).

Section 5

In most cases Section 5 is easy. You simply mark ‘No’ and move on. There are some cases where you may need to mark ‘Yes’. Let me explain. Now let’s take the case where a music writer maker writes several pieces and then sells them to various artists. If that music writer were smart, they would copyright their work so no one could claim it as their own. They would do this by burning their creations on a CD and naming it as a collection, like I discussed in Section 1, and filling out a copyright form. Well, Section 5 is where an artist who BUYS the music might need to clarify something to the government. If the music is already copyrighted you must use Section 5 to make this known. Here’s how you do it.

I’m going to pretend that I am a lyricist/artist that bought music that was already copyrighted. Under PREVIOUS REGISTRATION I would mark ‘Yes’. Then I would look down to letter ‘c’ where it says, “This is a changed version of the work, as shown by space 6 of this application.” I would mark letter ‘c’ and then I would need to get the registration number off of my music writer’s copyright certificate and the year they registered it. The registration number will appear on the first sheet of their certificate in the upper right hand corner. Remember, I am ADDING my lyrics to a piece of music that was already registered, so I have, in effect, changed the work. This moves us into Section 6 very clearly.

But quickly, there are cases where the writer doesn’t have their certificate yet. Then under “Previous Registration Number “ you would simply write: Pending.

Alright, that’s enough for today, tune in tomorrow for the final sections of Copyright Form SR!

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