another question

im suppossed to be putting some of my verses on my friends album

it will be commercially released

i should copyright my verses right?
Sure you can do that! Note that your verse will be part of the sound recording and potentially of the composition... what you SHOULD do is fill out a separate form on just that one song (or songs) that you contribute and you would be one of the authors, your friend the other. That should go separate but you could also lump it in to this copyright, sure. And you are in a sense authorizing him or her to use your verse. That's cool too. In either case, you should get some writing credit if your verse is big.

can i just lump em into this batch of copyrights?
and on that note... anystuff i had written that appeared on somebodies shit, should i copyright that too?
Yes, and again you can choose to copyright on your own or with them. But you are probably not going to be entitled to half of the earnings on the song unless your contribution is half... you should work out payment with your friends. If they made money that is. Always better to do this before you record so you may have lost out on some ends if they don't feel like paying you or consider your payment the exposure... :)


what about publishing?
For performance rights, you can join ASCAP or BMI - and they watch out for your song use and make sure you get paid :) But to get a publisher to administer and place your songs, you will also need to hook up with a publishing company. But joining ASCAP or BMI (I like ASCAP) is a good start to protect you, but they don't place music for you. Just to clear that up