# Cheap copyrights - Musicians in here please!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-copyrights-musicians-in-here-please/157444>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 25, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-copyrights-musicians-in-here-please/157444 "2003-02-25T18:22:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![broccoli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@broccoli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/broccoli)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-copyrights-musicians-in-here-please/157444/1 "2003-02-25T18:22:37Z")

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I’ve seen multiple sites online to copyright music, but I was wondering in anyone had personal experience with anyone online doing so.

I need to get about 8 songs CR’ed so i was looking for someplace to do them cheap. Any suggestions?

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**Author:** ![dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorkusmalorkusmafia/32/7266_2.png) [@dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorkusmalorkusmafia)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-copyrights-musicians-in-here-please/157444/2 "2003-02-25T18:30:37Z")

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I have played around with this. The answer varies depending on what you are looking for. My suggestion would be to copyright the collection rather than the individual songs. When I did this last, it is about 20 bucks for a compilation just as any copyright rather than 20 bucks per song. It makes defending it a little trickier but nothing a good lawyer wouldn’t be able to do if it came down to that. You can get all the needed paperwork from the Patent and Trademark office ([http://www.uspto.gov/](http://www.uspto.gov/)) and fill it out yourself relatively easily.

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**Author:** ![InTransit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47774/32.png) [@InTransit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InTransit)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-copyrights-musicians-in-here-please/157444/3 "2003-02-25T18:30:54Z")

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Ya know, the cheapest way is to register the songs yourself. Very simple (fill out a form & send sample(s) of the work) and very inexpensive ($30/work).

See [http://www.copyright.gov/register/sound.html](http://www.copyright.gov/register/sound.html)

And [http://www.copyright.gov/](http://www.copyright.gov/) for FAQs.