Why You Should Pay For Music

by Jon Sheldrick Let’s get one thing straight: I love free music. If a musician decides to give away an album, I’m the first to download it. I am against the RIAA lawsuits that sue people for sharing music. Rather than scaring people into buying music, I advocate a culture in which people actually want to spend money on music, because they understand the positive repercussions it has on the medium of recorded...

MySpace, SoundExchange Team to Source Unpaid Artists

SX and MySpace Announce Joint Partnership to Identify and Register Thousands of Artists with Unclaimed Royalties January 23rd from SX Site Cannes, France – In a surprise announcement today at MIDEM, SoundExchange, the non-profit performance rights organization charged with the task of collecting and distributing digital performance royalties, and MySpace unveiled a partnership to identify and register ...

10 Things to Do Before You Release Your Album

Copyright 2007 Jeremy Rwakaara Following are, in no particular order, 10 important things you should do before you release your album: 1. If you are hiring musicians (background singers, instrumentalists, etc.) to play on your album, you will need to make sure they fill out a musicians_release_agreement or talent release form. This agreement is not necessary for musicians that own their own record label, are...

How to Copyright Songs and Sound Recordings

by Joy R. Butler, Esq. This article is an excerpt from the audiobook, The Musician’s Guide Through the Legal Jungle:Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Music Law Registration is not Required For a Valid Copyright First, understand that you don’t need to register your copyright with the United States Copyright Office in order to have a valid copyright. You have a valid copyright as soon as your...