Registering Your Work
You also need to register each song with your PRO. If you check the database at your PRO's Web site, you'll find that for most titles, anywhere from one to several hundred songs exist. Your PRO is too busy collecting money for you to keep track of what you've written lately. To get paid for a song that is getting played, you must let them know that it exists.
You may hear people talk about “a poor man's copyright,” a letter that you mail to yourself with a copy of your song inside that then gets postmarked and left unopened. This has never been tested in court and probably doesn't offer you very much protection. Getting a real copyright registration is your best bet.
Notifying your PRO of a new song is easy — all you need to do is register the song by using a simple form. Some PROs now have online registration; check your PRO's Web site to see if this service is available. Registering songs with a PRO doesn't usually cost anything.
