Does beats need to be completely mixed/mastered before actually copyrighting in bulk?

Lakwaun

New member
Just wondering does my instrumental beats need to be completley mixed/mastered before I copyright them?
What I usually do is make the beat/melody and give it a quick mix since I usually always go back later to master, then with all the instruments playing export in wav/mp3 about 1 minutes or so with a short intro on some maybe to file for copyrighting.
This is just the quickest way I do things to copyright a lot of beats at once.

Does anybody know is that good enough or would or could that be acceptable in case of a copyrights issue?

Or do my beats need to be fully mixed and mastered before copy writing them?
 
You could copyright the composition rather than a recorded track if you'd like to get it protected before the finished product..
 
There's a lot of confusion over this stuff.

You can file for copyright protection for either the song/piece itself, or the recording, or both. If you want to cover simply the composition, a work-tape version will do (as long as the finished version doesn't have major changes/revisions). For this type of filing, you use Form PA.

If you want to cover the master recording (a different copyright from that of the composition), then you must have a completed version, and you file Form SR.

If you want to cover both the recording and composition, you can use Form SR.

Arrangements, like song titles, aren't really "copyrightable," however, it's a bit of a gray area, so that's something that would get worked out in court, heaven forbid...

A few years ago, the Library of Congress Copyright Office went to a single form. I think things got a bit confusing, because they went back to separate forms (PA & SR). I think that's the way things still are, although I haven't filed anything recently (I too save some money whenever I can! see below).

As to filing "in bulk," each form can only hold so many songs, and technically, you're supposed to file a form for each individual piece in your catalogue. That does get expensive and time-consuming, though. What many people do is file a bunch of songs in a "collection," basically a medley of songs for copyright purposes; you put them all on one form (I forget how many, but I think you can do up to 5 on one form??), and then later, if you license or publish one of those songs separately, you "pull it out" of the collection by filing for just that song individually. The form used to pull a song out of a collection is called a Change Form.

As to the benefits of filing versus not filing, versus "poor man's copyright" self-mailings, etc., etc., I will just say that there is a reason that the LOC has this service and that people use it. YES, it is absolutely true that your work becomes "copyrighted" as soon as it comes out of your head and takes on a tangible, fixed form. But there are certain legal benefits to filing (I'm not going into it here, but there's plenty of resources out there-- look it up). So it's best if you do so, if you can afford to at least file your songs in collections.

That's how things work in the US. Many countries have similar systems and also international agreements; as do the various performance rights organizations, so filing a form with the LOC will never hurt you, but is definitely a benefit over not filing.

GJ
 
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You mean register your copyright? No.

Once you create the tangible work, you own that copyright. When you upload it to copyright.gov you are registering the copyright. Not the same thing. As long as they get a clear idea of what the sound recording is, then you're good mixed or not mixed.
 
Unless you're filing for a Sound Recording rather than a Composition, in which case you need a finished sound recording!

GJ
 
As to filing "in bulk," each form can only hold so many songs, and technically, you're supposed to file a form for each individual piece in your catalogue.

Actually this information right here is false. If you do things the smart way and create a name for your catalog for instance, "Lakwaun Music Beats" and fill up a CD with as many beats as can fit. All beats on that CD are protected by copyright law. I do this all the time so just make them unique by adding vol. 1 so on and so forth to the title.
 
Actually, the information you gave about my information right there being false-- IS FALSE.

I covered collections in my post. Please re-read above.

GJ

---------- Post added at 05:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:54 PM ----------

Ah, I see. My bad; I mentioned a collection, but tied it to the 5 songs on Form PA or SR. Yes, I should have been more clear-- You can put a number of tunes (as many as you like, that will fit on a CD) in your collection (for example-- "Dirtyscope Hip-Hop Collection, Opus 613, Vol. 253"); but, the fact remains that if that song is published and you want BMI or ASCAP to track it, you need to pull it from the collection by filing another form.

GJ
 
beats should NEVER be mixed or mastered under any circumstance before an artist records vocals over it. Doing so is contributing to this mess of poor quality hip hop music that is being released SO STOP IT and tell others to STOP IT:berzerk:. Mixing & Mastering of a beat is just flat out a-s backwards wrong and I dont care what anybody thinks or says...STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT :berzerk: & stop talking about beats, mixing & mastering in the same sentence:berzerk:STOP IT STOP IT:berzerk::berzerk::berzerk::berzerk:
 
I think you may be passionate about this subject, sswmastering, but you seem to be holding back. Go ahead and express yourself fully, it's hard to understand what you're trying to say when you won't come out and say exactly what you mean...


GJ
 
Actually this information right here is false. If you do things the smart way and create a name for your catalog for instance, "Lakwaun Music Beats" and fill up a CD with as many beats as can fit. All beats on that CD are protected by copyright law. I do this all the time so just make them unique by adding vol. 1 so on and so forth to the title.

Yea that's what I was thinking as well DirtyScope. I already did it once and as the directions stated what you said is correct even for the online process. They just have to be zipped in folders of 100mb each upload I think it was. I'm not sure about the vol. part though as I just want to copyright all of my 200 or so beats then pick certain ones to group together to sell/give away free and what not. Another question I wonder is how can say ASCAP or BMI monitor tracks if they don't have a UPC? Must mean I have to catalog all beats with a UPC even if i'm giving them away for free.

---------- Post added at 01:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:08 AM ----------

Thanks for all the feedback you guys. Even though there are a lot of mixed feelings about the subject I am sure it goes without saying that you can copyright an unlimited number of not fully mixed or mastered instrumentals/beats or compositions within the online process. It just askes for multiple zip files of all the different files.

The question I am going to call and try to speak with somebody in BMI support is about


---------- Post added at 05:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:54 PM ----------
the fact remains that if that song is published and you want BMI or ASCAP to track it, you need to pull it from the collection by filing another form.....
SO THAT WOULD MEAN EACH BEAT WOULD NEED TO BE FILLED SPEREATLY PAYING MULTIPLE FEES?
Cause thats one of the main things I want to get right. So that my music can be tracked.

---------- Post added 09-26-2013 at 02:42 PM ---------- Previous post was 09-09-2013 at 01:17 AM ----------

Thanks for all the info and feedback I got it. Already copy wrote about 280 beats threw the government site just had to zip them together in no more then 100mb zip files so thats done. Just one more question. I'm about to post my beats online to all the stores and what not, I only want royalties from tv, radio and things like streams, but no royalties at all from any artist on file who decide to use my beats for there projects. How should I label them as? Like Non Exclusive, Exclusive or what?
Selling the beats for $2.00 each if itunes lets me choose that price other wise the average $1.19 i'm seeing on itunes per download. Letting multiple artist use the beats for whatever they want with as many sales as they want. I understand publishing with the isrc codes via my bmi catalog and what not, I gave them a call. But is there something I need to setup in there as well within the contracts or whatever? Or do I need to write up a contract? Im thinking I should of chose ASCAP for just selling instrumental beats but they charge and BMI was free.
 
I think you may be passionate about this subject, sswmastering, but you seem to be holding back. Go ahead and express yourself fully, it's hard to understand what you're trying to say when you won't come out and say exactly what you mean...


GJ
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In a nutshell most of the people making beats online are ruining the production by performing steps of the production before it's actually time. If you know that an artist is going to record over a beat why would you give the beat a full on mixing job when it's a fact that the vocals should be mixed together with the individual instruments of the beat???? To make matters worse these same beatmakers are adding mastering style effects to these beats just to make them loud and even further closing the door on what could of been a salvageable mix if they just went ahead and mixed the beat, left whatever headroom was there and let the artist record over that. The problem all in all is that this bad information of beat production today in reference to this "mixed & mastered" crap has been spread over the internet like the plague and has completely robbed the genre of good audio quality. I am kind of lost as to how this happened. No other genre of music produces out of the correct order of production except for what I call "internet based hip hop". I just wish these beatmakers, at least those with some sense would start a movement and bring back great audio quality back for the genre by educating these new to the game beatmakers. The other problem is nobody really wants to work on great quality music, quick easy and done with it seems to be the recipe today. I swear I have never rejected so many mixes in these last few years because of overcompression and the use of a limiter at the wrong time. Then you'll get some money hungry fraud of a mastering engineer who will take anything and just slap another limiter on top of an already stretched out song and call it a mastering job. Yikes!!! Welcome to the future of hip hop music. Hopefully my feelings have been expressed clearly here.

Follow these steps for great quality. 1. Write the music, 2. Record/compose the music 3. Mix the music(including vocals) 4. Get it mastered. Any other way and in any other order is wrong.
 
Hey great post but i wanted to know, if i make a beat through FL studio, am I protected if I convert this composition into mp3 and copyright this mp3 prior to mixing it??? The final mix will be the same arrangements just sound polished.
 
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