Intellectual Property 101: Music Business Advice from DJ Todd Bladz

Intellectual Property 101: For all you Kats out there who don't understand the important nature of copyrights, here is why they are so important.

Say you just got a deal with a major label and you go in and record a hit song. However, you are the one who paid for the studio time and everything.  You even packaged your music, meaning you made it ready for market purchasing in other words it store ready (artwork for album cover, mixed and mastered, CD professional printed etc.) You give this product to the label you are signing with and remember you never got copyrights on your music. So the label runs an audit on your product, meaning they are checking to see if you have this copyrighted. They find out you don't and copyrighted themselves.  

They tell you that they are going to push the music and its a 

hit but somethings wrong you 

haven't received a check. You call the label and ask what 

happen to the money I supposed 

to get for my song. The label say, "Well its our song and we 

don't have to give you 

anything." You say, "Huh?" The label says, " Well we ran a 

audit on your music to see if it 

was copyrighted and we found that you didn't copyrighted. 

So we copyrighted under our 

name and since you never signed any paperwork with us 

then we don't owe you anything."

Now this kind of thing happens more then you think with big labels, so protect your music and get copyrights before you hand it to someone. You can get help on how to fill them out at http://www.copyright.gov/ make sure you protect your intellectual property or in other words, your creative work. 

by DJ Todd Bladz