You spend months at length to just finalize the melody of your music, followed by more months in recording and publishing it. Your song gains a lot of traction with your audience, and just when it started to go viral, bam! Someone steals your beat, modulates it, and releases it as his work. It seems unfair, right?
But this is how the music industry works! That is why it is commonly said that creating music is easy but safeguarding it against plagiarism is hard. To ensure such incidents don’t happen with you, you must copyright your music as soon as possible. With copyright, no one would dare to use your work without your prior permission. Even if someone does, you can always seek damages from them by filing for copyright infringement!
If you are having questions about music copyrighting, you have come to the right place. Make sure to stick till the end as we have a platform for you that has a vast copyright-free music library! Here is a detailed overview of copyrighting your music:
What do you need to copyright music?
To copyright music in India, you would first need to collect several documents. It is recommended to get these documents before you file for the copyright as it would make the overall process easier and convenient. Here is what you need to copyright music in India:
- A demand draft
- Two soft copies of the work
- An NOC from the author (in case the applicant is other than the author)
- An NOC from the publisher (in case the applicant is other than the publisher)
Now, since you know what you need to copyright music, let’s talk about why you need to copyright your music.
Why do you need to copyright your music?
At the beginning of this guide, we briefly talked about how getting a copyright for your music can protect your work from being plagiarized. Now, let us take a deeper look into why you need to copyright your music:
- It helps prevent monetary loss
Without copyright, people can make copies of your work. Once these copies get circulated into the mainstream music industry, it becomes extremely difficult to do damage control. In other words, you can lose an unprecedented amount of money. But, with copyright by your side, you can file for copyright infringement immediately and prevent any monetary loss.
- It gives you legal protection
If you don’t have a copyright, proving that you are the owner of your own work in court can become difficult. For instance, a big label creates a song that is quite similar to your work. Without copyright, it would become challenging to prove that your work was plagiarised.
- It keeps piracy at bay
Piracy has become a significant problem in recent times for the music industry. Anyone can make a copy of your work and sell it to make a profit. However, if you have copyrighted your work, you can make sure that the piracy of your work remains minimal.
Since you are now aware of why you need to copyright your music, let us talk about the benefits you would be entitled to after copyrighting your music.
What kind of benefits are you entitled to after copyrighting your music?
After copyrighting your music, you would be primarily entitled to these two benefits:
- You would have a public record of ownership
By registering for a copyright, you would have a public record of your ownership, and this would prove to be highly beneficial. This is because in case someone tries to publish your work as their own, you can take them to court and easily prove that you are the rightful owner of your work.
- The right to file for copyright infringement
Let us assume someone makes little changes to your work and releases it for commercial purposes. By the power vested to you by your copyright, you can file for a copyright infringement case. Through this case, you can seek remuneration from the violator!
Beatoven Music- A royalty-free music platform!
In the discussion above, we have talked in detail about music copyright. However, for those of you who are just starting out in this sphere, copyright means a lot of challenges. If you are looking for copyright-free music, you must take a look at Beatoven music. It is a leading copyright-free music library that offers a lot of genres. It also has an array of copyright-free music for YouTube and other platforms, making it a comprehensive solution for every fresher out there! Moreover, it also enables you to create your own music, thanks to its AI. Overall, be it background tracks or copyright-free music for Instagram, Beatoven music is a one-stop solution!
