Copyright and rights administration
Preparing a copyright filing for a song, and advice on ISRC, IPRS and setting a label up.
We file our own copyright applications, hold our own ISRC registrant code and are an IPRS publisher member. The paperwork behind a release is something we do for every song we put out, not a line of business bolted on the side.
What we offer is the preparation and the advice. We draft the documents a filing needs and tell you plainly what the process expects. You submit the application yourself and remain the applicant throughout, which keeps you in control of your own filing.
What this covers
The documents a filing actually needs
Deeds, author and producer consents, the statement of particulars and further particulars, and the deposit copy. Prepared so that the names, roles and shares agree with one another, because a filing usually comes back over a contradiction between two documents rather than over the music.
Musical work and sound recording, treated separately
They are two different applications with two different authors, and the sound recording usually depends on the musical work having been settled first. We will tell you which order yours should go in.
ISRC and your own registrant code
What an ISRC is, when you need one, and how to apply for your own registrant code, which is free. If you own the master, the code should be yours rather than borrowed from whoever distributes it.
IPRS and setting a label up
What joining IPRS actually does to your rights, what notifying a work requires, and what a label needs to exist as a business before any of this matters.
What it does not cover
- Filing on your behalf. You submit your own application and stay the applicant on the record. We prepare what goes into it and tell you what to expect.
- Acting for you before the Copyright Office. Scrutiny, discrepancies and hearings stay with you, and we will tell you what the portal is asking for.
- Trademark. We have registered our own, but it is not work we do repeatedly enough to offer.
Questions
- Do you file the application for me?
- No. We prepare the documents and advise on the process; you submit and remain the applicant. It keeps the filing in your name and your control, and it means nothing sits waiting on us.
- Is a copyright filing even necessary?
- Copyright exists without registration. A registration is evidence, and it is what most people want when there is money, a dispute or a platform claim involved. We will say plainly when we think a filing is worth the effort and when it is not.
- Can you give me an ISRC?
- Only for a recording we own, because that is what IMI’s terms allow for our registrant code. If the master is yours, the code should come from your own registrant code or your distributor, and applying for your own is free. We are happy to walk you through it.
- What is the difference between the musical work and the sound recording?
- The musical work is the composition and the lyrics; the sound recording is the particular recording of it. They have different authors and are filed separately, and who counts as the author of each is the question people most often get wrong.
- What does it cost?
- It depends on how many authors are involved and what already exists. A single writer who also produced the record is a different job from a song with four contributors in three cities. Describe the song and we will come back with a number.
Further reading
What we have written about this, so you can see how we think before you ask us to do it.
- Filing copyright for a song in India: start here
- The deed is what decides whether your copyright registers
- Filing online is only half of it: the physical packet
- Reading the Copyright Office portal without scaring yourself
- Who is the author of a song copyright? It changes depending on what you file
- The musical work application, and what goes in the deposit copy
- Why the musical work usually clears before the sound recording
- Column 7 on a sound recording: why the author is probably your company
- The consent set a sound recording filing lives or dies on
More in Copyright, Musical Work, Sound Recording.
Tell us about the song
What exists already, what you want it to become, and roughly when you need it.
Enquire about copyright and rights administration