Sound Recording Copyright

Sound Recording made at Pedal Point Sound

 
You may be wondering -  what exactly  is  a sound recording copyright ?  A good description can be found in the US Copyright Office Circular 56: Copyright Registration for Sound Recordings .

• A sound recording copyright is separate from the copyright on the underlying musical composition which may be owned by someone other than the recording artist.

 

• A sound recording copyright grants the owner of a sound recording (or a master recording) these 4 exclusive rights:

1. The right to reproduce the copyrighted work and/or duplicate the sound recording in the form of phonorecords and/or digital downloads (note that this right is limited to duplicating the actual fixed sounds used in the master recording, only)
2. The right to prepare derivative works based on the copyrighted material (i.e.,  to make and distribute phonorecords / digital downloads that are new arrangements or versions of the copyrighted work)
3. The right to distribute phonorecords or copies of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending .
4. The right to publicly perform a sound recording by means of a digital audio transmission.

 A "phonorecord" is the statutory term for a physical object that contains a sound recording, such as a digital audio file ( MP3, WAV, etc.) or a compact disc (CD).
 

• The owners of a sound recording copyright are the performer(s) featured in the recording and the producer(s) who captured and processed the sounds that appear in the final recording.

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• Copyright protections of the sound recording are automatically established as soon as the musical performance is recorded, mixed, and exported to a digital file format.    

 
So, once I’ve finished recording, mixing, and mastering my version of Canon de Noel (see the previous post) to a digital audio file, I am the copyright owner for this sound recording.  I don’t need  to register the sound recording with the US Copyright Office in order for me to have the protections that this copyright affords.  These rights already exist.  ( But I do need to place a Copyright Notice on the work.)   Formally registering the copyright, however, does give some legal advantages if ever there was litigation for infringement on the copyright.  So it is a matter of course that professional musicians and recording studios do formally register their works.
 
Just for my education, I wanted to explore the process of registering my sound recording with the US Copyright Office.  The process begins with opening an online account with the US Copyright Office at   https://eco.copyright.gov    :
 

Submitting an application for registering a sound recording copyright is pretty straightforward, and not too expensive.  The three steps are:

1. Complete an online application form
2. Pay a filing fee, and
3. Upload the digital audio file containing the sound recording.

 The uploaded audio file becomes part of the public record maintained by the Copyright Office.
 
 Once the application is submitted (and the fee paid), the US Copyright Office processes your copyright registration.  Provided your submission meets the requirements needed to obtain a sound recording copyright, the Copyright Office will issue a Certificate of Registration:

I received this certificate in the postal mail about three months after the application was submitted.  I understand that 3-4 months is an average amount of time for the US Copyright Office to process a case.
 
The Copyright Notice to affix to the work consists of:
·       the ℗ symbol (phonorecord copyright);
·       the year of first publication of the sound recording;
·    an identification of the owner of the copyright, either by name, abbreviation or other designation by which it is generally known.
 
 This copyright notice is printed on the webpage from which the Canon de Noel audio file can be downloaded:

The copyright notice is also embedded in the metadata of the .m4a audio file:

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For the Canon de Noel  and the two other pieces on the Christmas album, I distribute these recordings via download from the Pedal Point Sound website.  For most of my other recordings, however, I distribute them from a music hosting platform, using Creative Commons licensing to make them freely available to listeners.  I’ll discuss music hosting platforms in my next post.