Answers/Glossary/US Copyright Office
Glossary · Copyright
US Copyright Office
The United States Copyright Office is the federal agency, part of the Library of Congress, that administers copyright registration and records. Registration is not required for copyright to exist, but it is required before suing for infringement of a US work.
Copyright in the United States exists automatically the moment a work is fixed in a tangible form. Registration with the US Copyright Office does not create the copyright — it creates the public record and unlocks remedies. For a US work, you must have registered before you can file an infringement suit, and registering before the infringement (or within three months of publication) is what makes statutory damages and attorney's fees available under 17 U.S.C. 412.
The fees, from the Copyright Office fee schedule at copyright.gov retrieved August 31, 2026:
| Registration type | Fee |
|---|---|
| Single Application — one work, one author, same claimant, not work-for-hire | $45 |
| Standard Application | $65 |
| Group Registration of Works on an Album of Music (GRAM) | $65 |
| Group Registration of Unpublished Works (GRUW) | $85 |
GRAM is the money fact for an independent artist: $65 covers a whole album of tracks, versus $45 per track under the Single Application. Twelve singles registered individually cost $540; the same twelve registered as an album cost $65.
Remember that a song is two works. The musical composition and the sound recording are separate copyrights and can be registered together when the same claimant owns both.
The misunderstanding: people conflate Copyright Office registration with registering at The MLC or with ASCAP or BMI. They are unrelated systems. Copyright Office registration is about enforcement rights. MLC and PRO registrations are about getting paid. Doing one does not do the other.
I register my own releases; this is not legal advice, and copyright.gov is the authority.
Related terms
- Statutory damagesStatutory damages are a fixed range of monetary awards a copyright owner can elect instead of proving actual losses.
- FixationFixation is the moment a work is recorded or written down in a tangible form stable enough to be perceived or reproduced.
- Two copyrightsEvery released song contains two separate copyrights: the musical composition, owned by the songwriters and publishers, and the…
- Music Modernization ActThe Music Modernization Act is United States legislation signed in October 2018 that created the blanket mechanical licence for…
Answers that use this term
- Should You Register a Song Before or After You Release It?Before. Performance and mechanical royalties accrue from the moment a song is publicly played, so a song released unregistered…
- How Much Does It Actually Cost to Release a Song Independently?Releasing a song independently costs between $9.99 and $24.99. CD Baby charges $9.99 once per single with no annual fee…
- Do You Need to Register Copyright on a Song You Already Own?You own copyright in your song automatically the moment you fix it in a tangible form — recording it is enough.
- How to Register a Song With the US Copyright Office (Step by Step)Create a free eCO account at copyright.gov, pick the right application, upload a deposit copy and pay.
Definitions on this site describe the United States system. I am an artist who has been through this, not a lawyer.
Get the paperwork done in one afternoon
The Zero to Beat Society walks through registration, splits and release paperwork step by step — with the templates and checklists already filled in.
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