Copyright is created when music is fixed in a tangible form, such as being recorded or written down in sheet music. To prove copyright ownership, artists commonly make audio recordings of their music, write a dated letter describing the recording, seal it in an unopened envelope and mail it to themselves. Copyright of a song lasts for 70 years after the composer's death, at which point the song enters the public domain.

1. Copyright
Copyright for music is created when the music is in a solid state form, for
example if you are a artist and you have created a song or melody etc and its in
your head it has no copyright but as soon as its in solid state, e.g. recorded or
the music score has been written down etc you have copyright ownership of that
music, the only exception to this rule is if it is your paid job to write music and it
is in your contract to give copyright to your employer instead e.g. Radio Jingle
Composers. Even though you now do own copyright of this music you have to
still make sure you can prove this for when you have to prove your copyright ,
the most commonly used way to prove your ownership of copyright is to make a
CD of your music and write a letter stating the date and CD and then you sign it
yourself and post it to yourself with a registered postal company so it gets date
stamped by the postal service and then when it is delivered to your home you do
not open it so its almost like a legally binding time capsule to prove your
copyright ownership , a lot of artists post a few of them to themselves for all the
times they will have to prove ownership. There are other official ways of proving
your copyright such as leaving a copy of your music at a Bank or Solicitors; you
can also register the song at “Copyright Register at Stationers Hall”. Copyright of
a song lasts 70 years after the death of the composer and then the song comes
into the “Public Domain” which means its free for everybody to use , e.g. most
hymns used in churches are in the Public Domain because they were written
hundreds of years ago. There are two types of copyright one of the song and one
of the recordings, the copyright of the song is the one that ends 70 years after
the composer’s death, copyright of a recording ends 50 years after the release
date.