What do you think

Hey all, help me out... I'm in a band where the other guitarist and myself write all the songs. Well I want to make sure credit is given where it is due. My idea is for us to copyright all of our songs with Matt and I as the respected song writers. Although our drummer and bass player plays the songs along with us at practice, they had no part in the actual song writing progress. So its kind of like a Lennon/McCartney or Simmons/Stanley thing. Can I still copyright the songs like this but make sure everyone gets credit when we put our cd out? How does it really work. The other reason for copyrighting the songs is, we are very protective and don't want to post the demos on any internet site until they are copyrighted or atleast the copyright has been applied for, since it takes about 3 months. When we finally get a vocalist, they can copyright their lyrics. So it would kind of be like this:

Lyrics by: Mr. Doe
Song by: Matt and Rob
Performed by: us (we don't have a name yet!)

let me know if any of you have dealt with this. I don't want to piss my bass player or drummer off but they just go along with what we play.

Thanks

Did you 2 make up the drum bass lines as well, or did they?

No the drummer made the drum tracks and the bass player is kind of novice and just follows our root notes with out really going out and being himself.

well then I would have to say that your not really writing all the songs, your just coming up with a guitar riff and the you take it to the band and you all write it together. I thought that was how most bands write music. If you had written every part and all they were doing is reading it of a sheet then you would be writing all your bands songs. If your just writing guitar parts and not the other instruments then you shouldn't expect your drummer to come in with a guitar riff to try out. He wrote his parts it sounds like.

I would just encourage your drummer to come up with some grooves or something that sound good that you guys can jam on and your bassist to practice and to right cool bass parts. Unless they just really aren't any good, but you should still encourage everyone to contribute their own ideas, you may find a really great band dynamic comes out of it.

In my opinion you shouldn't always write songs from the guitarist perspective only, but thats just me, Im sure a lot of bands do and they sound great. I guess my point is that, in my opinion you didn't really write all your bands songs.

Copyright it as the bands, and when you guys break up and get in legal battles over who wrote the songs then maybe you'd have a case for keeping the copyrights but if that doesn't happen it doesn't seem worth it to alienate the rest of the band, dig?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that when we bring it to the band it is a full song... intro/verse/chorus, etc. Now here's the other example, pick up some sheet music or tabs and you'll usually see who wrote the song at the top, and most of the time it has 1,2 or more members... and there are the occasional by: "the band"

I guess the only reason why I'm making a big deal out of it is because the last band I was in I didn't get any credit, for co-writing because the bass player came up with most of the parts (on bass only), and I would help piece them together or make changes or add new parts.

Its not my ego! But in 3 months we have 10 complete songs, that kick ass, that me and the other guitar player spent alot of time on. It's kind of like we did most of the work. And since we both play bass, we have been thinking of writing his bass parts, although I don't know how the bass player will take, but that's probably for another thread.

Sounds a little selfish to me, writing the bass parts. You need to talk this over with the rest of the band. If you say, "Ok, were putting everything under his and my name," I wouldn't be suprised if the other members throw a big fight or walk out. I understand you just want to protect your interests, but you might want to re-think your plans.

you can just copyright it under the band's name (once you get one), and none of this will be a problem.

Not gunna lie man, in my opinion theres really not a huge deal about copyrights. noones going to steal your music, probably. Copyrights only really become important when your band becomes popular/once you get signed.

I agree for the most part here with the others, Please correct me if Im wrong. But I think if you guys were to record a song as a band, That song is copy-righted from that point on as a band and everyone gets credit.
XXX - Lyrics
XXX - Bass / backing voc ..ect

I agree with Damaged about crediting the lyrics and music separately. I like the way that Dream Theatre do it:

Lyrics: xxx
Music: Dream Theatre

That way, they can give credit where it's due for the lyrical themes of the song, which are often a result of individual or paired efforts, and for the music, which is so often based on the input of the entire band.

In many bands, while the whole band may have some degree of input into writing the music of a song, it is often only the person or people who wrote the largest portion of the music that are acknowledged in print. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this sounds like the kind of thing that you and your co-guitarists had in mind. Your bandmates may be cool with this, or, as Elklander said, they may not be. Either way, it's best to have a candid and thorough discussion with them about the crediting process. Communication is the key to all band issues!