It's the same question every year by every musician client that I have had: I self recorded my CD with 10 songs, and I don’t have much money, can I just file a copyright on the CD?

The short answer is yes. The cheap answer is yes. The right answer is no.

A musician that has created 10 songs and then performed them on a CD can file a single copyright for the “work” of the CD. But, we have to step back and ask “why” are we filing a copyright in the first place. The reason, generally, is that the creator of the work wants to protect it from third-party unauthorized use (infringement). So, if the musician copyrights the whole work of 10 songs, and another artist copies ONE song, then the copycat has “used” 10% of the whole “work” that the musician filed a copyright for. The infringer might claim that they are a fair user, not an infringer based on the theory that their use is diminimus, or a small amount of use that does not rise to the level of infringement. Worse for the musician still, what if the would-be infringer uses only 30% of one song. I’m sure that the musician would be equally offended, but the unauthorized user would claim that they are only using 3% of the whole, a very small percentage of the “copyrighted work” as a whole.

The key question to ask if you are filing a single copyright for several sub-works is whether the future infringement is likely to be of the individual pieces or of the whole. If the infringement is likely to be of the whole, then a single registration might be sufficient. If the likely infringement is of the “parts” then the parts ought to be separately copyrighted.

Here’s another wrinkle with the “single” registration. You can only register a copyright for five years after first publication. So, lets say you cheap out and file one, and then you decide that you want to refile for just the individual work (this usually happens after a you find an infringer and realize that your “one” registration isn’t sufficient). If five years have passed since the single work was first published, you can’t go get an individual registration, and you are forced to rely on the underlying registration of the whole CD. There can be additional complications: was the individual work originally performed in a different way prior to the performance of the version in the CD? This could lead to a claim that the earlier work was not copyrighted, and that it can be infringed with impunity (a stretch, but in litigation, an argument that could be used).

The solution my cheap entrepreneurial musicians: spend the $45 per filing and do 10. For the not so cheap or otherwise more financially free, drop the $300 each and a lawyer like me will do it right.

Here’s a few additional important notes:

you can, and should, copyright the score separately
you can, and should, copyright the lyrics separately

Why? See the reasons above: what will likely be infringed? Someone who takes the lyrics without the score infringes only a portion of your registration, and what about someone that does’t perform the work, but puts the score on the Internet, or publishes your lyrics, but doesn’t perform them on stage or on a CD?

Alternatively, you can register your “composition” with music and lyrics as a single registration, but this is still a separate registration from the Sound Recording registration that you file for the performance of your work.

Good advice: separate registrations make it easier to sell various slices of your rights, or to license separate pieces, without giving away the whole pie.