Answers/Getting started/How to Register a Song With the US Copyright Office (Step by Step)

Getting started

How to Register a Song With the US Copyright Office (Step by Step)

By Boboy Watson·Last verified August 31, 2026·1,962 words·Getting started

I registered singles one at a time for a while, at $45 each, because that was the form I had found first. Then I read the fee schedule properly and discovered that an entire album registers for $65 under a different form. Nobody had mentioned it, and it is the single largest avoidable expense in this whole area.

Copyright registration is not how you get paid — that is ASCAP or BMI, The MLC, SoundExchange and your distributor. Registration is how you enforce ownership if you ever need to. Here is how to do it, on the right form, inside the window that matters.

Do you already own the copyright in your song?

Yes. Copyright attaches automatically the moment your work is fixed in a tangible form. When you bounce the track to a file, you own the copyright in the recording. When you write the lyrics down, you own the copyright in those. Nothing needs filing and no organisation needs to be told.

So registration is not what creates ownership. What registration with the US Copyright Office buys you is a public record of your claim, the ability to file an infringement suit for a work of United States origin, and — if you file in time — access to statutory damages and attorney's fees. That third item is the one that decides whether a case is worth bringing at all.

How do you register a song with the US Copyright Office, step by step?

1. Decide what you are registering: the composition, the sound recording, or both. A released song contains two separate copyrights, and if you wrote and recorded it and are the sole claimant of both, you can cover both in one application rather than filing and paying twice.
2. Count the works and the authors, because that determines your form. One work, one author, one claimant and no work made for hire qualifies for the $45 Single Application; anything with co-writers, a featured performer who contributed authorship, or a work made for hire needs the $65 Standard Application.
3. If you are registering more than one track, check whether Group Registration of Works on an Album of Music applies. GRAM registers an album's worth of works in one $65 filing, which is why twelve singles filed separately at $45 each is the most expensive way to do this.
4. Create a free eCO account at copyright.gov. The account costs nothing; you pay per application. Use your legal name and an email address you will still control in a year, because correspondence about the application goes there.
5. Start the correct application and enter the title exactly as you released it. Title mismatches between your copyright registration, your distributor metadata and your ASCAP, BMI or MLC registrations create confusion that is easy to avoid and irritating to unpick.
6. Enter every author and specify what each one authored. Music, lyrics, and sound recording are separate elements of authorship, and a co-writer who wrote only lyrics is recorded differently from a co-writer who wrote music and lyrics.
7. Identify the claimant, which is whoever owns the copyright now. For a self-releasing artist the author and the claimant are usually the same person; if a co-writer transferred their share to you, that transfer has to be reflected here.
8. State whether the work has been published and, if so, the exact date and nation of first publication. This date is what your three-month statutory damages window under 17 U.S.C. 412 is measured from, so get it right rather than approximating.
9. Upload the deposit copy — the audio file, plus a lyric sheet or lead sheet where the claim covers the composition. Upload the version you actually released rather than a rough mix, because the deposit defines the scope of what you registered.
10. Pay the filing fee: $45 for a Single Application, $65 for a Standard Application, $65 for GRAM, $85 for Group Registration of Unpublished Works. Fees are per application, not per track, which is the entire argument for filing in groups.
11. Save the case number and the submission date the moment the application is accepted. The effective date of registration is the date the Copyright Office receives a complete submission, not the date the certificate arrives, and the case number is how you track it.
12. Diarise the three-month deadline for every future release on the day you set the release date. Registering within three months of first publication is what preserves eligibility for statutory damages and attorney's fees for infringement occurring from release onwards.

What does each application type cost and cover?

These are the fees on the US Copyright Office fee schedule, retrieved 31 August 2026. The fees page does not display an effective date, so check it before you file.

Why is GRAM the most important number on this page?

Because the difference between choosing the right form and the wrong one is hundreds of dollars for identical protection, and nobody tells you.

Twelve tracks under the Single Application: $45 x 12 = $540. The same twelve tracks under Group Registration of Works on an Album of Music: $65.

That is a $475 difference, produced by a dropdown. GRAM exists specifically so that an album does not have to be registered track by track, and it covers both the musical works and the sound recordings on the album when the claimant is the same throughout.

The strategy this implies for an independent artist releasing singles: rather than paying $45 every time a track goes out, plan releases so that tracks can be grouped into an album or EP registration, and file once. The counterweight is the three-month window — if grouping means a track sits unregistered for eight months, you have traded $475 for the loss of statutory damages on that track. Weigh both, and lean towards grouping when releases are close together.

If you have a back catalog you never registered, GRAM is how you catch up without spending several hundred dollars.

Should you register the composition, the sound recording, or both?

Both, because they are two different copyrights and infringement of one is not infringement of the other.

The composition is the melody, harmony and lyrics — the song as a song, the thing that exists when someone covers it on an acoustic guitar. The sound recording is the specific master you released — the thing that exists when someone samples your track or uses your file in their video.

If somebody re-records your song without permission, that is a composition issue. If somebody lifts eight bars of your master into their beat, that is a sound recording issue. Registering only one leaves the other unregistered.

The practical route for a self-releasing artist who wrote and recorded the track and is the sole claimant of both is a single application covering both copyrights, rather than two applications and two fees. Where the claimant differs — a co-produced record where the producer owns part of the master but wrote none of the composition — the two copyrights may need separate handling.

What is the three-month rule and why does it decide everything?

Under 17 U.S.C. 412, statutory damages and attorney's fees are not available for infringement that begins after first publication and before the effective date of registration — unless the work is registered within three months of first publication.

That single provision is the reason timing matters more than any other decision on this page.

Without timely registration, a successful infringement claim gets you actual damages and the infringer's profits. For an independent artist that is frequently a number too small to justify hiring a lawyer, which means the claim is theoretically valid and practically unbringable.

With registration inside the three-month window, statutory damages and attorney's fees become available. That changes the arithmetic of bringing a case, and it changes the other side's willingness to settle before anything is filed. It is the difference between a right you own and a right you can enforce.

Two practical notes. First, the effective date of registration is the date the Copyright Office receives a complete submission — application, fee and deposit — not the date the certificate issues, so a months-long processing queue does not cost you the window. Second, under 17 U.S.C. 411, for a work of United States origin you generally cannot file an infringement suit at all until registration has been made or refused, which is a separate reason not to leave it indefinitely.

What does copyright registration not do?

It does not collect any money. This is the misunderstanding that sends people to copyright.gov, makes them feel finished, and leaves the four collecting organisations unregistered.

Copyright registration also does not stop anyone from using your song, does not generate Content ID claims on YouTube, and does not register your work anywhere in the royalty system. Those are four separate jobs done by four separate organisations, three of which are free or nearly free to join.

When is registration worth the fee and when is it not?

Registration is insurance against a scenario most independent artists never encounter. It becomes clearly worth it when:

• A release is getting real traction, sync interest, or placement discussions
• You have collaborators and want an unambiguous public record of authorship
• Your music is the kind that gets sampled, or you have already had material used without permission
• You are registering a whole album at $65, where the per-track cost is a few dollars

It is harder to justify paying $45 per track for a stream of singles that will not be exploited commercially by anyone else. That is a judgement about the song, not a rule — but the existence of GRAM means the honest answer for most catalogs is "register, in groups, and stop paying by the track."

What should you do this week?

• Open a free eCO account so the friction is gone before the next release.
• Look at your unregistered catalog and group it into album-sized filings at $65 each.
• For your next release, put the registration inside the three-month window on the calendar the day you lock the release date.
• Then go and do the registrations that actually collect money — ASCAP or BMI, The MLC and SoundExchange — because those are the ones connected to income.

I am a working artist describing a process I have been through, not a lawyer — the Copyright Office changes fees and rules, so read the current fee schedule and the relevant circular before you file.