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Who can record my songs and what control do I have?

This is all well and good, but you don't want to copyright your work so you can bury it in the yard and plant a tree on top of it, you want to SELL RECORDS and stuff. Here's where a lot of people get brain fog, and we've had great fun trying to explain this very slowly to even the most famous musicians.. so read on and take a few minutes to let this sink in.. it's important.

As the copyright holder of a musical work, you have the right to make and distribute the first sound recording. That means once you create a work (register it, if you want to, it doesn't matter) then NOBODY can make a recording of it without your permission until you do. You can give that permission to anyone you want, and of course you'll be wanting to give it to your record label! The point is you have the rights to the FIRST recording. Once you, or your label, has published a sound recording then you LOSE that right.

Huh? What did we just say? Lose?

Once a song recording has been published (as a CD, etc - and importantly online audio such as MP3 counts as publication) then anyone else can make another recording of it without having to ask your permission. All they have to do is pay you a small fee for what is called a Compulsory Licence (title 17, United States Code, Section 115). You CANNOT stop them doing it, and it's the reason why compilation CDs are so popular - the makers don't need permission once the tracks have appeared on the original CD. Getting this? You write a song, Enemimey the Rapper CANNOT sing it unless you agree (and he probably pays you a fortune for it). You publish an MP3 of your brother singing it, and Enemimey can do whatever he wants with your tune, in return you get just enough cash to buy a beer.

Important note people - 'publishing' means making a physical recording or digital audio file and passing copies to people. It doesn't matter if they pay or not, just that they get copies. Public performances do not count, so by singing your song in bars across Iowa you're not losing your first-recording rights. By handing out CD-ROMS after the gigs you are. Making a recording for yourself and listening to it later in the tour bus does not lose you your rights, but giving it to the driver does. It's the physical 'passing copies' that is all-critical. The driver can listen and nobody cares, but if he walks home with the DAT tape, you're screwed.

At this point you will realise, in a big flash of purple inspirational light, why nobody allows people to take recording equipment into gigs. That girl holding her cellphone in the air just lost you your million-dollar deal. It's happened - many, many times.