D. Lee Jackson

Things have become much clearer since my last post. I have been in contact with both ASCAP and CD Baby on the subject of registering the songs from my Calibrations album with ASCAP. I was afraid that I would have to spend over $600 in copyright fees before ASCAP would accept my registrations.

Thankfully, this is not the case.

Apparently, when I purchased the “CD Baby Pro” publication package, that not only paid for a registration for myself in ASCAP. It also registered all of the songs from my album with ASCAP. When the time comes to publish my next album, all I have to do in order to get it registered with ASCAP is to purchase the “CD Baby Pro” package again. Sweet deal.

I am still left with the matter that my album is not registered with the Copyright Office yet. Neither ASCAP nor CD Baby handles copyright registration. So, I have several options. I can register each song individually, as I mentioned in my last post, at a cost of over $600 (more if I register the sound recordings as well). I can register the entire album at once as a compilation, which provides protection to the album, but necessarily not to the individual songs at the lowest level. Or, I can register one song from the album, which doesn’t make much sense since I have to send in the same materials as if I were copyrighting every song or the entire album.

Strangely enough, it seems like the last option may be the best option. You see, I want to enter one of the songs (“Spicewood”) in the Grammy competition this year. It would be a good idea if I had that song registered.

I might still want to register the album as a whole, just for some semblance of safety. I haven’t decided yet. At least the ASCAP matter is solved for now.