copyrighting intstrumentals

Here is my situation.

I made an instrumental, and i have an artist who did a recording on that instrumental, and published it as a song.

I haven't released the instrumental, and so only the artist and myself have the master recording of that instrumental.

Do i really need to copyright the instrumental with the copyright office? I'm sure that the artist should copyright the sound recording, and that should be a viable copyright.
 
The short answer is "Yes." (Yes!!). Always protect yourself.

The longer/more nuanced answer involves copyright law, which is tricky, court interpretations (trickier-- see the recent "Blurred Lines" verdict), and inter-personal relations (trickiest).

Assuming you are in the US, for the purposes of copyright, both your instrumental track and the version with lyrics are "songs" (even though technically a song is supposed to be sung). When you copyright the version with lyrics, it's not a matter of you owning the underlying musical composition and your artist friend owning the lyrics; the piece becomes one legal asset that is owned by both of you. You both have equal rights to both music and lyric portions, and you both have rights to financial benefits. If this has not already been delineated in a previous agreement, then those rights are split 50-50. It's like you both own a Pontiac; not you own the steering wheel and drive-train and he owns the headlights, tires, and door handles. So you will want to separately file copyright for the track, ideally _before_ you file a copyright for the version with lyrics (and you probably want to file form SR, which can cover the composition and the sound recording, rather than PA which only covers the composition).

If the other copyright has already been filed, here's a very important question or two-- have you seen it (the copyright paperwork)? Is your name on it (with proper credit attribution)? And a follow-up-- Do you have all files and masters related to the project, with some kind of time/date stamp included?

While you two may be getting along now, you never know what the future might hold in terms of conflict, and you should always protect your rights (and resist the temptation to enter into "handshake" deals)...

GJ
 
The short answer is "Yes." (Yes!!). Always protect yourself.

The longer/more nuanced answer involves copyright law, which is tricky, court interpretations (trickier-- see the recent "Blurred Lines" verdict), and inter-personal relations (trickiest).

Assuming you are in the US, for the purposes of copyright, both your instrumental track and the version with lyrics are "songs" (even though technically a song is supposed to be sung). When you copyright the version with lyrics, it's not a matter of you owning the underlying musical composition and your artist friend owning the lyrics; the piece becomes one legal asset that is owned by both of you. You both have equal rights to both music and lyric portions, and you both have rights to financial benefits. If this has not already been delineated in a previous agreement, then those rights are split 50-50. It's like you both own a Pontiac; not you own the steering wheel and drive-train and he owns the headlights, tires, and door handles. So you will want to separately file copyright for the track, ideally _before_ you file a copyright for the version with lyrics (and you probably want to file form SR, which can cover the composition and the sound recording, rather than PA which only covers the composition).

If the other copyright has already been filed, here's a very important question or two-- have you seen it (the copyright paperwork)? Is your name on it (with proper credit attribution)? And a follow-up-- Do you have all files and masters related to the project, with some kind of time/date stamp included?

While you two may be getting along now, you never know what the future might hold in terms of conflict, and you should always protect your rights (and resist the temptation to enter into "handshake" deals)...

GJ

Dude thanks, That really makes sense. so basically i don't need to.

Of course i'm going to file with the copyright office for the instrumental anyway, but i just needed to know if it was totally necessary to do it before the release of the actual song.

To answer your questions, my situation is bitter sweet. The artist in question is someone who is/was famous, and has been someone I've wanted to work with (like an inspiration to me) and so when we finally got connected, we just did the verbal handshake deal, just because i wanted to get some work out there. He properly credited me and everything, but i never really did any paperwork (and everything was free)

so when the projects were released, he released a video, and the video was getting a lot of attention, but then soon after, he took it down, and since we've ceased communication. Everything was fine as far as i knew, there were no altercations, or anything. So it got me wondering whether he took it down do to copyright issues (since i never filed at the office for the instrumental), but of course i feel like that wasn't the issue, and that our communication has only ceased due to other reasons (him being too busy :hmmm:)

I honestly don't care for money at this point in time, I just wanted my name on some projects, which is what happened. But now i'm no longer getting publicity since the video is down, so i guess ill just sit here and twiddle my thumbs till i find out the real issue.:sigh:
 
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