How do you find out if a song is copyrighted?

Answer 1

Because protection is automatic, it's safe to assume that anything since 1978 is protected unless specified otherwise. In the US, works prior to 1923 are in the public domain. Works 1923-1978 can be frustrating, because often it depends on whether it was renewed, and verifying renewal may require ordering a search of the paper records, which can be expensive.

Answer 2

All songs are considered the property of the creator at the moment of creation. To see if an official copyright exists, check the Library of Congress' website. This will tell you only if a song has been copyrighted separately. If it has been copywrited as part of a songbook it may not show up.

Answer 3

In the US, songs written since 1923 are protected unless they were written in 1923-1963 and not renewed. Unfortunately, determining whether a song was renewed or not can be prohibitively expensive, so it's usually cheaper just to assume it's still protected.

Answer 4

That is an eternally frustrating question, but the safest answer is if it's obviously from 1924 or later, assume it's protected until proven otherwise.

Places to look in/on the photograph are watermarks and embedded metadata.

Answer 5

Almost all sound recordings are protected. Anything after 1978 is protected for the life of the creator plus 70 years, and everything before 1978 is protected by state law, and is a complete mess.

Songs published prior to 1923 are in the public domain. Songs published 1923-1963 and renewed, and songs published 1964-1977 are protected for 95 years. Songs published since 1978 are protected for the life of the author plus 70 years.

Answer 6

Answer

If its recorded music by a famour artist 100% of the time it would be copyrighted, as the artist would be a fool not to copyright his work especially well known artists.