For musicians, copyright law is the most protected and restricted law. That’s doesn’t allow anybody to reproduce, distribute or sell it publically, despite an owner of the music. Only a musician who creates work has the power to utilize his work for commercial purposes. In the event, if someone uses his work without taking permission from him, an owner has full right to take legal action against the infringer.

What Copyright helps you to protect?

The area of law that most impacts music is copyright. The copyright protects the work of the musicians, only if it’s original and present in fixed and tangible expression. Here fixed and tangible expression means the work must be recorded in some physical expression. Such as whether on paper, audio tape or video recording. The physical existence of work is necessary in order to protect it from copyright law.

These days copyright in music is in the news. Earlier many original music creators came across with infringement issues. Like someone stole their music work and reproduces it and take credit. So, don’t let anyone take your credibility. Take the benefits of copyright laws and protect your work from infringers hassle-free.

India is a home of Music, there are so many varieties of songs released each year. Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Marathi and so on. Some people take the lyrics of Punjabi song and dub into Hindi, whereas some people take the tune of Marathi song and dub into Punjabi. To protect the work of the artist, copyright laws apply to music as well.

Ownership in Music/Song;

One song has many ownerships like someone has written this, someone has composed it and someone has produced it. So, deciding ownership in music is a hard task. The ownership of song comes in several categories and it may or may not be in the hand of one person.

•    The lyrics come under literacy copyright law so in this case, the owner would be a lyricist.

•    The music of the song is protected by the musicians so in this case, the owner would be a composer.

•    The song together with music and lyricist which is recorded, so in this case, the owner would be the producer of the sound recording.

•    Last, the singer of the song can claim for performer’s right.

The term of the copyright in case of lyricist and musical work is the lifetime of the author an additional sixty years. In the case of sound recording copyright laws protect the work for 60 years from the first of recording. Whereas the performers right in his performance run up to 50 years from the beginning of the calendar year next.

More specifically, if you create a musical work with co-authors, such as a lyricist, composer, and a producer, the copyright last 60 years after the death of the last surviving author. Once the music copyrights end the work comes in the public domain and anyone can use it for the commercial and non-commercial purposes.

 Music Publishing and Copyright:

The business of music publishing is related to developing, protecting and valuing music The business of music publishing depends on the strong copyright framework. The music publishers handle all the business requirements related to the music and enable songwriters and composers to focus on their creative work. The copyright laws enable the publisher to recover their investment in songwriters and composers and to ensure that writers are probably getting their rewards for their creative work.

Rights of Song Owner:

A song owner has many rights to follow or to take advantages. Below we have mentioned some important rights. Have a look;

•    Publish the work.

•    Produce the work.

•    Translate the work.

•    Make derivatives of the work.

•    Prevent from the third parties from reproducing, copying or selling for commercial purposes.

•    Broadcast work.

•    Make any adaption of the work.

•    Release the work on public.

How to copyright music in India?

Begin with hiring a copyright music legal advisor who can fill the application to obtain copyright music India. It is vital to hire a copyright lawyer he can do all the legal formalities on your behalf. A copyright lawyer fills the application form and then submit to the copyright office. Just be sure, the copyright music application must be filled along with 4 copies of the work and copyright registration fee.

Once the application has submitted to the copyright office. An examiner examines your application. In the event, if they found any duplicate work, he has a right to reject your music copyright application. So, keep in mind, to copyright music the work must be original and creative. There will be no place for duplicity. If an application is accepted you will be notified by the email or phone and copyright is granted for the song.

If you are looking for the best legal advisor, who can do all the copyright music formalities. Feel free to contact us. We can help you regarding copyright and navigate from the obstacles that comes while filling a copyright music application.

Licensing and Copyright

In the event, if an author wishes to transfer his copyright music work to the third party he can do by drafting a license agreement. If you composed or written music work and want to transfer to the music agencies you will want to license your work to allow third parties to use it for free. Written license agreements eliminate the ambiguity between the third party and the owner. So, it is advisable to make license agreement on paper which eliminates the confusion over the use and ownership of the music copyright.

Performer and Copyright;

In order to protect oneself from copyright infringement, it is vital to ask permission from the people who wrote the music and the people who perform and record. Getting a license to use someone else’s intellectual property is always safer and hassle-free process instead of copying or reproducing. You will almost certainly need a license to perform or use the play music in the organization.