One thing I’ve learned over the years about dropping independent music is to protect myself over all of my original materials.¬¨‚Ć Think about it…¬¨‚Ć You put in work for months to years and bypass all legal channels just to get the music out to the people?!¬¨‚Ć Why?¬¨‚Ć If anything, being independent will set you back if it comes to the courts and some big-time producer was feeling your track only to copy it.¬¨‚Ć So, take some simple steps to protect it.
After having your music sounding all good, hesitate with pumping it out the public till it’s copywritten.¬¨‚Ć I know…you’re anxious and want the world to hear your song, and even I’m guilty of this, but wait a while before pumping that music to the masses till you’re at least set up. and on the books.¬¨‚Ć It doesn’t take long to get what you want…especially if you have a complete album done.
1.  Copywrite Your Product
This could be anything from music to poetry, to writing, etc.¬¨‚Ć For this instance, we’ll speak about a complete musical album.¬¨‚Ć Visit: http://www.copyright.gov/ and on the right, you’ll see an “eCO” logo.¬¨‚Ć Click that icon and read the info.¬¨‚Ć After understanding, click the eCO logo again on that page and register as a New User.¬¨‚Ć Once you’re in, you’ll run into a bunch of stuff to register your work and the songs within.¬¨‚Ć This is all for only $35!! They lowered the price for online registrations. It’s around $65 if you do it the old fashion, pen-and-ink method…that takes too long anyway.¬¨‚Ć Fill that in and submit it to the government with a payment.
2. Become a Publisher
Now, I’m a publisher and a writer but it’s all under one roof: ASCAP.¬¨‚Ć If you don’t know what ASCAP is, well…just know all of the majors and minors are utilizing either it or a system like it.¬¨‚Ć Other options are BMI and SESAC.¬¨‚Ć You may have seen them on the back of your favorite CD covers (back when people actually read CD covers..lol).¬¨‚Ć Anyway, these companies protect your works of art and you can also divvy up the percentages of payouts when your music is played at reputable venues (tv, movies, radio, etc.).¬¨‚Ć So, if you have a producer who worked on your music and you want to give them half your publishing, you’d assign them 50% and yourself 50% through ASCAP or the others.¬¨‚Ć It’s another way to protect yourself in case you ever heard the radio bumping your music and you want to get some payment for it.¬¨‚Ć Visit http://www.ascap.com and sign up.¬¨‚Ć It’s FREE!
3. Bar Code
Now, this step is completely up to you but to me, it’s a good idea to look completely professional when it comes to your music.¬¨‚Ć And being easily identified through a Universal Product Code could be that extra step.¬¨‚Ć Sure, you can sell your music at your shows or on your site but if you want to reach the masses, grab a UPC barcode and place it on your music.¬¨‚Ć That way, if it’s scanned anywhere, no one can claim it to be anything else but your own work.¬¨‚Ć I’ve done this for my past 3 CDs and for the upcoming ZODIOLOGIST.¬¨‚Ć You need one anyway if you want to distribute it through iTunes and other major outlets.¬¨‚Ć I utilize CDBaby for my needs.¬¨‚Ć Sign up for a free account but each CD you sell is $39 and submissions to the majors is $20 with a $20 barcode.¬¨‚Ć That’s not bad to become universal, world-wide and immortal in one clean sweep.¬¨‚Ć You also get free ISRC numbers for each of your songs.¬¨‚Ć You can use those codes in your ASCAP song listing as well to keep it uniform.¬¨‚Ć Go here for an account: http://www.cdbaby.com.
That’s about it.¬¨‚Ć Spend a little money to protect yourself and you may make a whole lot more back in the long run.