Im trying to release a beat mixtape with about with 12 to 14 beats to promote me as a producer. Hand them out free of charge. Lets say someone is interested in buying one of the beats off the mixtape. What I wanna know, is it best for me to have copyrights for my beats before I promote them if so how do I go about it? And would I have to copyright the mixtape as whole? I'd really appreciate some advice and insight.
Good question, but before I answer your question I have one for you.
1. How big are you? How well known are you really?
If the answer is I don't know you're more than likely not well known, which is okay. Copyrighting a piece of work cost roughly $75+ and upwards, so if you're not selling records or have competition I would not copyright.
If you were to copyright future material first you would need a trademark through your country, and then you could copyright your material much easier. To trademark or copyright you could use legalzoom, which I use. If you were to trademark your name expect to spend roughly $325+ ,and if you were to copyright a mixtape you would copyright the entire project as one piece saving you multiples of $75 or actual price.
I wouldn't suggest trademarking or copyrighting unless you know you're going to start making sales, or your name might be at potential for being stolen. The cost of a trademark is well over $500, and again as mentioned previously copyrights are nearly reaching $100.
*Trademarks usually take 6-12 months, and you need physical or digital proof of your brand*
As a musician this would be easily done with a website. I can't recall off hand how long it takes for a copyright, but I believe it's upwards of 3-4+ months.
If you have anymore questions feel free to ask!
Brian
