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Rights

Joint rights

When writing with other people, each of you has a claim on the copyright of the song and you will need to agree how to divide the royalties. So it is important to confirm in writing what share each of you has written. It is also a good idea to do this before you start writing (and when you are still friends!).

Two broad rules of thumb have developed to help you work this out. The first and most common is that the lyrics of a song attract 50% of the copyright, and the music attracts the other 50%.

The second school of thought says that the words attract one third, another third goes to the writer of the melody and the remaining third goes to the writer(s) of the rest of the music.

It is up to the writers to decide what they feel is fair.

Many people talk of 'copyrighting' a song but this isn't really accurate.

If you are writing in a band, this sort of thing can cause huge tensions. The copyright in the songs is what generates most of the money in music. You can end up with one or two members who are raking it in, while the non-writing members are still broke.

It's especially contentious with a band, where the bass player, for example, may write the bass line but not get a credit as a writer.

Some well-known bands have credited every member on every song so that each receives an equal royalty. Others have used voting systems to decide how big a contribution each member made. And some, famously, have chosen not to be so generous.

Claiming copyright

The copyright for a song's composition is automatic, and belongs to the writer or writers of the song as soon as it comes out of their head and is put into some kind of recorded form. This could be recording it on tape, CD, minidisk etc, or it could be writing out the lyrics and music on paper.

Many people talk of 'copyrighting' a song but this isn't really accurate. Copyright is a thing you have, not a thing you do - and you have it from the moment you've written the music. In the UK, music copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the writer, so it's something you can pass on to your grandchildren.

You may need to prove you are the copyright owner if there's a dispute over the ownership of a song. For example, if in a few years someone releases a song with lyrics that are extremely similar to yours, and you believe that they've actually nicked them, you will need to prove that you wrote them first.

The easiest way to protect your copyright is to send yourself a copy of your material by recorded delivery. Remembering to do the following:

Put a note inside of when and where the material was recorded. If it is not a recording but a manuscript of the music with a lyric sheet date, then note when and where it was written
Include a list of performers on any recording, and the names of writers of the song. Include their addresses.
Make sure that you write the name of the song on the outside of the package - you may have more than one package so need to know which song is where.
Get the post office to date stamp across the seal.
Don't open the package when it arrives, just put it somewhere safe.


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