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A Brief Overview of Copyright

Lesson 7 from: DIY Music Business 101

Tomas George

A Brief Overview of Copyright

Lesson 7 from: DIY Music Business 101

Tomas George

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Lesson Info

7. A Brief Overview of Copyright

<b>In this video, you're going to learn a brief overview of copyright.</b>

Lesson Info

A Brief Overview of Copyright

Hi, in this video, I'm just gonna give you a brief overview of copyrights. Ok. So copyright's really, really important. Copyright is what determines that you own, what you make. And it's also um a massive part of just how the business of music functions. So let's say you've written a song. Ok. And the second, and you've written that song, you might have written the lyrics down and you might have recorded it the second you do that the moment that song is in a tangible form that copyright exists. Ok? You legally own the copyright um to that song. Now, if you're an independent artist and you record your song straight into uh your computer, let's say that you write a song and then you record it in what you have inside your computer. Now, those files, um you own not only the copyright to the files themselves in terms of the sound recording as the artist, but you also own the song, the, the underlying composition. It's again, it's really, really important that we know the difference between ...

the two in your territory. There might be an official copyright registration process like there is in the United States, we don't have one in the United Kingdom, ok? But there are generally ways that you can secure yourself, but I'm not a lawyer. I am not a music attorney. And if you have any concerns about your creative property, you should definitely consult one, especially the moment you start talking to labels, management companies and publishers, any concerns should be addressed with a lawyer. Because when you, for example, if you sign up for uh a record deal with a record company, um what the, the, the price that you're paying is if you've got a recording and they wanna sign it and exploit it themselves, you will be signing over the ownership of that recording to them, for them to exploit and then pay you a percentage, ok? So a lot of artists don't realize that at first they, you know, they get very excited and they get very enthusiastic when a record company comes along and, and promises them the world. But what they don't realize some, you know, often they realize when it's too late, but what they don't realize is that they're actually signing away their property, they're signing away their creative property, their, their music, ok? And that's a massive, massive price, especially if the record company doesn't really um turn out to provide you much value in the future. So you got to be very careful and any contracts um that you sign or that you um that you consider signing and definitely run it by some professionals um like a lawyer. So yeah, when, when a record company approaches you, um you will be signing away your music, ok? Or you might be signing away yourself actually for, for a period of time. And the terms of that contract means you do this and you produce so many songs or, or albums. So, you know, have a good think about that on the other side, on the songwriting side, uh Generally speaking, you'd be signing up with a publisher who uh would p songs um and would uh do all the admin for um your royalties and the business on your, on your songwriting side so that it's important to bear that in mind as well. But again, always hire a lawyer when you are in any doubt about you, your music and your creative property because you're a musician, you're, you're creator of music. And if you just go signing everything away or if you don't understand, um the, the sort of ramifications of just giving your stuff away, giving your assets away, then that can, you know, make life very, very difficult in the future. So, always be careful when someone approaches you and they, they promise you the world and they give you a contract, don't ever just sign that stuff. Ok? Because like I said, your music is your asset. It's the only thing that you have. Ok. So it's the ultimate price to pay. Um If you think about it. So anyway, that is um a basic overview of copyright and a couple of things to uh think about hope that's useful and I'll see you in the next video.

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