# Trying to go "professional" (music composer) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 12, 2015, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-go-professional-music-composer/712517 "2015-02-12T22:09:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2015, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-go-professional-music-composer/712517/1 "2015-02-12T22:09:24Z")
I am an utter novice and layman when it comes to matters of copyright law, production, etc., and naturally, the place to go to for such advice is the SDMB: I’m an amateur music composer and have done a recording of my compositions. (They’re all relatively short compositions, a few minutes in length, piano pieces.) It took a few years to get this music album fully composed. I’m planning on publishing the music on Amazon, in a CD, etc. But copyrighting and all that is where I get absolutely lost. I don’t know how to copyright the music, how to have my music available for download on sellers like Amazon, and how to get music CDs made “professionally” (however one defines that.) Has anyone here at SDMB gone down this route before and can offer advice? Do I need to send my music to the Copyright Office with a form, a copy of my music, and some fee? How do professional musicians usually get music CDs made? (The formal-looking ones with CD jacket/cover, disk case, disk labels, etc.) Through a company? How do musicians sell their music MP3 recordings as downloads on websites like Amazon? Do they have to “apply” for Amazon seller privilege and get approved? Is there any substantial difference between copyrighting music and literature such as a novel? Is my music technically “steal-able” or plagiarize-able before I get it copyrighted? (In other words, one should get one’s music copyrighted ASAP?) Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’m perplexed. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-go-professional-music-composer/712517/2 "2015-02-13T00:29:04Z")
My understanding is that copyright exists as soon as you have created your music in some kind of tangible form, ie written chords, melody, etc or a recording of you playing it. It is illegal for anyone to plagiarise your work at that point. The difficulty is that you may need to prove you wrote the music first, that is where copyright offices can help. > **[Copyright](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright)** > > A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself. A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such Some jurisdictions... > [@](#): > > In all countries where the Berne Convention standards apply, copyright is automatic, and need not be obtained through official registration with any government office. Once an idea has been reduced to tangible form, for example by securing it in a fixed medium (such as a drawing, sheet music, photograph, a videotape, or a computer file), the copyright holder is entitled to enforce his or her exclusive rights.[12] However, while registration isn’t needed to exercise copyright, in jurisdictions where the laws provide for registration, it serves as prima facie evidence of a valid copyright and enables the copyright holder to seek statutory damages and attorney’s fees. (In the USA, registering after an infringement only enables one to receive actual damages and lost profits.) I can’t help you more than that as I’ve never bothered to go down the route of officially copyrighting something. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-go-professional-music-composer/712517/3 "2015-02-13T01:26:56Z")
Thanks! That’s helpful. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-go-professional-music-composer/712517/4 "2015-02-13T02:24:39Z")
You will probably want to register your copyright. Go to [copyright.gov](http://copyright.gov) and download the forms. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trying-to-go-professional-music-composer/712517/5 "2015-02-13T15:54:19Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > You will probably want to register your copyright. Go to [copyright.gov](http://copyright.gov) and download the forms. Thanks, will check it out.