Why You Should Actually Register Your Music's Copyright

The Gist

WHERE: copyright.gov/registration (Yeah, it's a government website. Don't expect it to be awesome) 

WHO REGISTERS: Music releases each have 2 copyrights; 1 for the Songwriter & 1 for the Master Owner. Both need to be registered separately, even if the Songwriter & Master Owner are the same person. 

WHAT DOES IT COST: $65 per album for the written musical works + $65 per album for the sound recordings.
Until November 11, 2026. After that, $85 and $130. 

WHEN TO DO IT: Ideally before release, or within three months after it. You can still do it later, but if you find yourself in a legal dispute over copyright infringement, you'll only be eligible to receive compensation for damages incurred since the date you actually registered. 

You Already Own the Music You Write, So Why Bother?

Yes, the second you write or record a song, you own the copyright. No form, no fee. That is an automatic right. 

The Catch; owning a copyright and being able to enforce it are two very different things. In the US, you can't sue anyone for infringement until the work is officially registered with the Copyright office. And if you register late, or only after you actually need to fight infringement; you’ll lose most of the leverage you'd want in that fight.
With a later registration, you will only be able to claim actual damages incurred before the time of the registration; not statutory damages or attorneys fees. In a legal battle, that could be the difference between earning a couple thousand in damages for the past couple months of infringement or winning tens of thousands or far more from all the years the infringement took place. 

What registration actually gets you:

• The right to sue. No registration, no lawsuit. Full stop.
• Statutory damages and attorney's fees. This is the big one. If you registered before the infringement happened (or within three months of release), you can go after up to $150,000 per work for willful infringement (the current maximum set by Congress), plus your legal fees. Without it, you're stuck proving, and only being reimbursed for, actual losses.
• A public record. Your registration is hard evidence of your ownership. That will matter when someone else tries to claim ownership of your royalties in any PRO or any other collection agency, or when someone tries to re-distribute your works to other streaming channels (Like someone arguing against your copyright claim on a YouTube video). Many platforms will automatically correct any such issues when you can definitively prove you are the owner. 

But who would actually ever rip-off my "symphonic, post-apocalyptic, reindeer-grinding, Christ-abusing, extreme war pagan, Fennoscandian metal" album?  

Is anyone likely to rip off your album? Probably not, but you never know. Especially now with music creation/distribution (& AI slop) being so easily accessible, it's not unrealistic that someone may copy your work.
Registering your copyright is easy & it only costs about what a couple of merch shirts do. It's worth just doing it so you don't end up kicking yourself later when you actually need it. 

Every Song Has Two Copyrights

Every track on your record is actually two separate copyrights: The “Musical Work” & The “Sound Recording”.

THE MUSICAL WORK
WHAT IT IS: The song itself: melody, riffs, lyrics
WHO OWNS IT: Usually owned by The songwriters (or their publisher)
CONNECTED ROYALTIES: Publishing: PROs, the MLC

THE SOUND RECORDING
WHAT IT IS: The actual recording, aka, the master
WHO OWNS IT: The Master Owner
CONNECTED ROYALTIES: streaming payouts, SoundExchange

If you're a self-released band that writes and records everything yourselves, you own both and should register both. 
If you're on a label, check your contract. Most of the time the label owns the masters and registers the sound recordings, and you (or your publisher) register the musical works. 

How To Register an Album, Step by Step

The good news: you don't have to register every song one at a time. 

For unreleased works; you can use the GRUW (Group Registration for Unpublished Works) that works for albums up to 10 tracks.
*This option will actually register both the Musical Work & the Sound Recording at the same time, but it's only available when the Author & the Claimant are the same person. 
If the Author & the Claimant are different, or if there are different mixes of co-writers between the albums tracks, registering before release would require a separate filing per song (or just wait until immediately after release to use the GRAM option). 

For already released works;
The Copyright Office has a group option called GRAM (Group Registration for Works on an Album of Music) that covers up to 20 tracks from one album in a single application. You will need to file one GRAM for the Musical Works and another GRAM for the Sound Recordings.

For filing an entire album at once; every track on an album's application needs the exact same claimant. All tracks should also have at least 1 common author.
Any racks that don't meet these requirements (different claimants or different authors), would need to be registered separately.

The bad news: the website looks like it was built in 2008, because it was.
Here's how to get through the GRAM application. 

1. Make an account. Go to copyright.gov/registration and sign up for eCO. It's free.
   
   
2. Pick the right application. On the home screen, ignore "Standard Application" and click Register Certain Groups of Published Works. Then choose either Musical Works from an Album (the songs) or Sound Recordings from an Album (the masters). If you need both, you'll do this twice per album.
   
   
3. Enter the album info. Album title, release date and how many works you're registering.
   *That number is how many tracks you're claiming, not always how many are on the album if you have cover songs or other works on the album you don't specifically own. 
   
   
4. List the titles. One track at a time: track number, then the title exactly as it appears on the release. Save, click New, repeat.
   
   
5. Authors and Claimants. The Authors are who wrote or made it. The Claimant is who owns it now. 
   If that's your label and not the band members, you'll be asked how the label got the rights. The answer is almost always "By written agreement."
   
   
6. Limitation of Claim. If everything is brand new, leave this blank. If a track includes something you don't own (a sample, a borrowed melody, public-domain lyrics), describe it here.
   
   
7. The last couple screens will ask for your contact info and a self-certification that you do own the works being registered.
   
   
8. Add to Cart. You can stack multiple albums in the cart and pay for them all at once.
   
   
9. After you pay, you'll be prompted to upload copies of your songs. Please ensure the song file names match the registered song titles exactly. 

Some Weird Quirks in the Process 

Cover songs: Leave these off of the Musical Works application. You don't own that song, so don't claim it. Just skip that track number.
You do however own your recording of that covers song, so do include it on your Sound Recording registration. 
*remember that you will still need a mechanical license to actually sell that cover song though, copyright aside. 

Re-recordings & New Versions: Same idea. If a Musical Work was previously released, the copyright should be registered only on the original release. The Sound Recording of a new version (a re-record, instrumental, acoustic, remix) however is a new Master, and should be included in a new Sound Recording registration. 

Album artwork: The recordings application has a step allowing you to add the album artwork and liner notes. This is a touch misleading. Only upload artwork here if it were made by the same people who made the recordings. If you paid an outside artist for your cover (and let's be honest, almost everyone does), skip that screen. 
It's a strange rule, and it doesn't change anything about protecting your music.