Copyright infringement: A guide for musicians : Blog

Being an artist in the music industry can have its fair share of ups and downs. While making music and expressing yourself to the world can be amazing, there are a few aspects of the career that are not necessarily ideal – and having to know your way around music copyright law is one of them. To avoid copyright infringement, it's crucial to learn the basics of how it works. Avoiding copyright infringement – as well as protecting your music from being stolen – is essential, but figuring out where to start can be hard. This is why we've compiled a list of what you need to know; to help keep you focused on what truly matters – your music – and not worrying too much about copyright infringement.

First of all, what is copyright?

Copyright is a way to ensure that the people involved in the process of production of a work get credited and financially compensated for how they've helped bring it to life (whether it's by composing the song, writing lyrics, producing, recording, playing instruments, vocals, etc). Each co-author owns part of the work. This is called equal undivided interest – if two authors are cited on the copyright claim, each of them hold a 50% share, unless there is a written agreement stating otherwise. If a person working on the track is not to be credited as an author, it is a "work made for hire" agreement. This is closer to an employer-employee relationship, where the author is the "mastermind" of the work as a whole and employs someone to do a task they have control over. If the relationship is not similar to salaried employment, you can create written agreements expliciting the work made for hire aspect of the relationship between the people involved. Co-owners of the work can grant either exclusive licenses or non-exclusive licenses to third parties – meaning others can also use the work without infringing copyright. Granting a non-exclusive license implies that others can also use and exploit the song other than the third party without repercussions – an exclusive license, on the other hand, means that only the third party will be able to use the work.

Musical works vs. sound recordings

It's important to know that, first of all, there's a difference between the recording of a song and the actual composition of it. A musical work consists of the abstract intellectual work regarding the melody, rhythm, harmony, and lyrics of a song - it might be in sheet music, for example.

A sound recording, on the other hand, is a specific performance of a musical work registered on a physical form (vinyl, CD, tapes, among many others, including the digital formats such as MP3, WAV, etc), and is authenticated by an unique ISRC number . Sound recordings are usually created by performers and/or producers — which means they are the authors and owners of the sound recording. Yet the creator of the music and/or lyrics, composer, or songwriter, is the author of the musical work; musical works and sound recordings can have different authors, even if they relate to the same song. The author of a sound recording can either be a person or group of people (if the song is self-produced) or an entity, such as a recording company – the ones responsible for producing the recording in a physical form, be it analogical (vinyl, K7 tapes) or digital (CD, MP3, WAV, among others). For example, when performers are signed to a record label, the sound recording copyrights belong to those responsible for the recording procedure – in this case, the record label. Also, the performing artists signed to this label hold 100% ownership to the musical work copyrights, if they have composed the music recorded. Independent artists, however, usually invest their own money and choose a studio for producing their sound recordings. In this case, the artists hold the rights to the sound recording and the musical work, if they have composed the song themselves. So, where is this going? Keep reading.

Avoiding copyright claims

Everytime music is created (a composition, if it's abstract, or a recording, if it's physical), copyrights are generated if there is proof of authorship of the musical work or sound recording. Sheet music and amateur recordings of the musical work, and any kind of music format for the sound recording (an MP3, a WAV, or a CD, or a tape) can be used to provide proof of ownership.

These will protect you whenever people exploit your work in any way. If they do their own recording of your composition (a cover song), you’ll be protected by the proof of ownership of the musical idea of that song. If they download and sample your music to use in a track of their own, they’ll still have to deal with your ownership over the sound recording. However, all these rules apply the same way to you if you happen to use another one’s work in a way in which it’s protected. And, unfortunately, many upcoming artists keep getting their work blocked on Digital Service Providers (DSPs) for not knowing the basics of copyright issues.

Consequences of copyright infringement

Artists' work keeps being taken down mostly because of the use of samples. Samples are an excerpt of a sound recording that has its rights of usage protected by copyrights. But how can they be so sure it’s the same sound recording? Basically, there are algorithms that read through every music that’s going to be or has been uploaded to every DSP - Spotify, Deezer, YouTube… you name it. That way, DSPs will alert the rightful owner of a sound recording and take down the song that is infringing copyright. The violations of copyright can be met with a series of measures. The song's distribution can be rejected to DSPs or it may be removed if the infringement is discovered after its publication. In some cases, copyright infringement can lead to judicial cases – the author of a song may sue someone breaching copyright and exploiting the work for economical or personal gain. There are famous cases similar to this scenario with celebrities such as Beyoncé, or Rod Stewart and many others. But most copyright issues happen to small, upcoming, new artists in the market, who don't know copyright law in-depth. To avoid having problems with copyright, make sure that all the work is your own or that, by using it in your track, you're not violating any copyright. To use the work of another – either in a cover song or as a sample in your track –, you must have clear authorization. If you want to use samples, it’s highly recommended that you look for online sample libraries that officially commercialize samples. They’ll provide you with a rightful authorization to use the recordings with no hassle. You may also use samples without royalties; but first, make sure you can use them in every single DSP with no violation of copyright. Unfortunately, most royalty-free samples are not available for use in any of the major DSPs such as Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and YouTube. They are usually free to be used in other platforms, or without commercial purposes, which your song has if it’s monetized in the DSPs. Remember to credit others according to the work relationship held when producing a song with other people. If you co-wrote and co-performed a song, this collaboration often implies co-ownership. If you paid someone to play the drums in the background of a track, this is closer to a work made for hire scenario. And to avoid any misunderstandings or problems in the future, make use of written agreements when you're not sure.