THE IMPORTANCE OF COPYRIGHT TO MUSIC CREATORS

From ASCAP:

It all begins with an empty page, either a piece of paper or a blank computer screen. A composer or songwriter faces the challenge of creating a song or a symphony or a film score that people will want to listen to, play or sing. This process of writing music takes talent, craft, training and dedication.

Music may find its way to the radio, to television, the movies, a concert hall, a club, a restaurant, a sporting event, and of course, the Internet. Without the work of composers and songwriters there would be no music web sites, no MTV or VH1, no music to dance to, to help us celebrate birthdays and holidays, to accompany us through our lives.

Our government has laws - copyright laws - that protect the music that songwriters and composers create. They work hard to earn a living, and their work has real value - even though we can't touch it or hold it - it touches and holds us. Their work is the product of their minds, just as objects are the products of someone's hands. Without copyright protection it wouldn't be possible to earn a living writing music professionally, and therefore, we would have much less new music in our lives. Copyright protection sees to it that creators are fairly paid when their music is used to attract or please customers, listeners, to build drama, suspense or comedy in a movie, to add excitement to a game, in airplanes, shopping malls, even "on hold." The purpose of copyright is to encourage the creation of new works by giving the creators the right to ownership of their original creations.