Ok..so this may very well be an odd post as I am very much of need of advice.
This past year I have been working on about 9 tracks that are all almost in completion. I have uploaded a few for evaluation purposes however most have yet to be heard.
I want to put all of these songs up however I am not actively pursuing a label. I mean, for sure it would be nice to have the attention of a label, but it is not that important to me.
Would I like to sell them or at least attempt to, of course...again, without the active pursuit of a label.
So, due to part of a track a year or so ago being ripped off I am wondering how to protect myself without having to drop the cash for each song in copyright.
So, I looked into tunecore and not really sure if the complete package will do me any any good.
Any suggestions?

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Phil

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The easiest way to copyright it (oldschool trick here) is to take the master, burn it on to a CD or even a USB stick, and sent it to yourself via certified mail. Then store it when it arrives.

There's a government registered timestamp of your work, and if it ever gets to court, give that piece of evidence and at least the timing can't be disputed. So basically, copyright costs you a postage fee.

However, even uploading a WIP of it will invalidate it, becuase any could rip that off and your finished track could be different enough to their version that it won't hold up.

Norman Cook (Fatboy himself) actually pays a service to recreate sounds he's sampled from elsewhere so he doesn;t have to pay a clearance fee. They document the whole process for him. It costs a couple of thousand upfront but it's way cheaper than having to pay out a % of sales on an album that ended up selling several million copies.

The only thing is, these days there so little money in "tracks" that you really shouldn't stress about copyright. Sure it sucks to get ripped off but, what, they guy is going to make $200 if he tops a chart on beatport?

It does become different when licensing is involved though, so a couple of songwriter guys I know actually copyright the melodies if they think they're on to a winner, even if they're completely unfinished. The overriding thing is though, that if you rip someone off, the network is small and people won't work with you again. Just look at how prolific ghost writing has become and you realize that content ownership has never meant less in dance music.

In the old days of vinyl, if someone bootlegged your track or put out a remix that wasn't cleared, the boys used to go over and give a beatdown in lieu of payment. It literally happened all the time - it got to the point that vinyl press owners got really worried about their techs taking backhanders for a quick bootleg on a friday evening and finding them in hospital a few weeks later (you could often tell which press by the markings on the inner ring by the label).

Now, someone gets ripped off or sells your track without authorization and people just shrug, and go, "oh well, it's the industry these days".

Thanks for the reply Rann,

After doing some homework previously on this. I had thought about the "poor mans" way,but then I found this via the copyright.gov web site.

I’ve heard about a “poor man’s copyright.” What is it?

The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.

https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/...neral.html#what


And while I believed this to be an option at one point, I have since disregarded this option.

I guess in some way I am trying to get my music heard and like I mentioned it would be nice for financial recognition however I am in no way seeking it out.
The service I mentioned in Tunecore (for a fee) will control your music in setting up multiple services like ITunes,Amazon etc. and according to Tunecore they say this..

Do I need to copyright my music in order to use TuneCore?
Technically, your music is copyrighted the instant you create it. You are not required to register your copyrights with a government office prior to using TuneCore, however many artists feel more comfortable registering their copyrights before making their songs available for worldwide distribution. If you are registering your copyright in the US, you can do so very easily here: http://www.copyright.gov/

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Phil

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Maybe you should explore if copyleft meets your needs. However only people that have strong following should worry about being ripped off, yes it may happen that the track you're working on might be a hit but never worried about that.

The rip, I must clarify was from a chopped vocal sample that I created using a random speech I found.
It was severely incoherent before I arranged it however...
When playing around with random simplar arrangements, one produced a very cool anomaly.
It almost sounded like specific words that even a few friends concurred with. And 99% were syllables caused from the chop.Not to mention the many varying reverses.

Needless to say, it was used in a song that I put up on soundcloud,and offered it as a download (mistake).

A year or so past and one of the very same friends (who heard the track before) called me up saying he heard my song on a movie.
Naturally, it was a wtf moment.
Went to his house and after further review I came to these conclusions.
First off, it was not my song but rather the chopped vocal sample. Clear as day however and it was being used in a D&B track,in the movie.
Brainstorming how this could have happened hours later I noticed one area on the track that could have easily been sampled (mistake 2).
Person downloads the song from SC, uses only that sample,puts a new bed under it...presto,new track.

My material isn't copyrighted,why not,right?

I tried to track the artist down after seeing the song in the credits.
Soundcloud produced very little but did provide a very small detail that was useful. It would appear this guy has multiple accounts that all lead to uselessness. Spots of unsigned,no copyrighted artist/material are scoured and sought and this is the bottom feeder who does it.

Not even bothering and again, I am just looking at the best,most economical way of being able to protect.
I must admit that I am partially to blame for the above and little flattered but I am in no way even at a point however that I would consider myself label material.
I simply enjoy the creation.

At the same time, I have a collection of (9 songs)material that I very much do want to put out.
So, I am wondering how to go about it.
Sorry for the wall of text but I thought it pertinent

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Phil

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Last edited by SystematicX1 on May-12-2017 at 21:58

personally id just take it as a compliment!

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