Who Really Owns The Music?
A lot of questions have come up recently about copyrights and music ownership, and there's a lot of misinformation floating around out there about percentages, who controls what, and who you hafta pay when doing somebody else's songs. Radio play, TV play, songs in movies, Internet broadcasting, and live shows all have different rates. Lemme see if I can break it down simply for ya. This might cover several posts.
Copyright
It all starts with the copyright; the copyright tells the world who wrote the song, and who has the final say on where and how that music is heard. Simply stated, a "copyright" give the the owner the "exclusive right to make and control copies". Nobody is permitted to make a copy of the music, or to perform it live, without the permission of the copyright holder.
So, if you're a songwriter, how do you get a copyright for a song? Pretty simple. Once you have a song in some tangible form (not just in your head), you have an automatic copyright, and you have the right (and the responsibility) to use the copyright symbol (