How to Register Your Songs With the U.S. Copyright Office

To register a song with the U.S. Copyright Office, file an online application at copyright.gov, upload a digital copy of the song, and pay a filing fee that starts at $45. The whole process happens through the Office’s electronic system (eCO), and for a solo songwriter registering one song they wrote and own outright, it usually takes under an hour to complete the application itself. Processing on the Office’s end takes months, but your protection dates back to the day you filed.

Decide What You’re Registering First

Before opening the application, sort out which copyright (or copyrights) you actually own. A song contains two separate copyrightable works, even when they live on the same audio file.¹

The musical composition is the underlying song: melody, harmony, rhythm, and lyrics. The authors are the songwriters, composers, and lyricists. The sound recording is a specific captured performance of that song. The authors are the performers, producers, and sound engineers who made that particular recording. Registering one does not automatically protect the other.

If you wrote and performed your own song, you likely own both and can register them together on a single application, provided the composition and the recording are on the same audio file and you are the sole claimant for both.¹ If you’re a songwriter who didn’t perform on the recording, or a performer who didn’t write the song, file separate registrations. Getting this wrong leaves half your rights unprotected.

What to Gather Before You File

Have the following ready before starting:

Claimant information. Full legal name and address of every copyright owner. Co-writers who are claimants each need to be listed.
Author details. The name of each person who contributed copyrightable authorship, plus a description of what they contributed (music, lyrics, performance, production).
Title. The exact title as you want it on record.
Creation and publication dates. The year the song was completed and, if released, the date of first publication.
Deposit copy. A digital file of the work. Accepted audio formats include.mp3,.wav,.aif, and.m4a;.pdf works for sheet music. Each uploaded file can be up to 500 MB.²
Payment. A credit or debit card. Fees are nonrefundable whether or not the application is approved.³

Online Filing Fees

$45 (Single Application). One work, one author who is also the only claimant, not made for hire. This is what most independent singer-songwriters use for a single song.
$65 (Standard Application). Everything else: multiple authors, different claimants, works for hire, or registering the composition and the recording together when the single application doesn’t apply.
$85 (Group of Unpublished Works). Up to ten unpublished works filed together, provided they share the same author or co-authors.⁴

Mandatory Library of Congress Deposit

If your song has been published in the United States, a separate federal rule requires you to deposit two copies of the “best edition” with the Library of Congress within three months of publication.⁵ For sound recordings, that means two complete phonorecords. Sometimes the registration deposit satisfies this obligation, but the two requirements are legally distinct. The Library of Congress deposit is owed whether or not you register.

Filing the Application Online

Everything happens through the electronic registration system at copyright.gov.

Create an account. Set up a login on the Copyright Office’s online system if you don’t already have one. You’ll reuse this account for future registrations.
Start a new claim. Select the type of work. Choose “Work of the Performing Arts” for a musical composition with or without lyrics. Choose “Sound Recording” for a recorded performance, or when registering both the composition and the recording together with the same claimant.¹
Complete the application. Enter the title, author names, authorship descriptions, claimant information, creation year, and any publication details. If your song uses preexisting material such as a sample or an arrangement of someone else’s composition, fill out the “Limitation of Claim” section identifying the excluded material and the new material you’re claiming.⁶
Upload the deposit. Attach the digital file. Confirm the format is on the accepted list and that the file is under 500 MB.
Review and certify. Read every field. Certifying the application affirms the information is correct to the best of your knowledge.
Pay the fee. Submit payment by card. Your application then enters the queue.

Registering Multiple Songs at Once

Filing songs one at a time gets expensive quickly. Two group options bring the per-song cost down.

Group of Unpublished Works

Up to ten unpublished songs can be registered in a single application for $85. All works must share the same author or co-authors, every author must be listed as a claimant, each song needs its own title, and all songs must fall in the same category (all performing arts or all sound recordings). Each song uploads as a separate file.⁷ To register both the compositions and the recordings, select “Sound Recording” as the category, provided the same authors created both.¹

Album Releases (GRAM)

For songs published together on an album, use the Group Registration for Works on an Album of Music, known as GRAM. Separate GRAM applications exist for musical compositions and for sound recordings; the sound recording application accepts up to twenty recordings from the same album and can also cover related artwork, photographs, and liner notes.⁸ For a full album release, this is usually the cheapest path.

File Promptly: The Three-Month Rule

Copyright exists automatically as soon as you fix an original song in tangible form, but automatic protection doesn’t get you into federal court or unlock the strongest remedies.⁹ Two timing rules make prompt registration matter.

First, you can’t sue for infringement of a U.S. work until the Copyright Office has acted on your application, either approving or refusing it.¹⁰ Submitting alone doesn’t cut it; the Supreme Court held in 2019 that you must wait for the Office to act.¹¹

Second, statutory damages ($750 to $30,000 per work, up to $150,000 for willful infringement) and attorney’s fees are only available if registration was timely.¹² For unpublished songs, you must register before the infringement begins. For published songs, you have three months from first publication. Miss the window and any infringement that started before registration is limited to actual damages and the infringer’s profits, which are notoriously hard to prove in music cases.¹³

The effective date of your registration is the day the Copyright Office received a complete application, deposit, and fee, provided those materials are later found acceptable.¹⁴ Processing takes months, but your legal position locks in on the filing day. Don’t wait for problems to appear before filing.

After You Submit

You’ll get a confirmation with a tracking number. Then the wait.

Based on Copyright Office data covering April through September 2025, online applications with digital deposits that don’t require any correspondence with the Office average about 1.9 months, with individual claims ranging from under one month to 3.8 months. When the Office needs to write back with questions, the average climbs to 3.7 months and some claims stretch past 8 months. Paper applications by mail average 4.2 months and can run close to 14 months.¹⁵ File electronically with a digital deposit whenever possible.

Fixing a Mistake on Your Certificate

If the certificate arrives with an error you made on the application, such as a misspelled name, wrong publication date, or omitted co-author, file a supplementary registration using Form CA. It creates a separate record that corrects or adds to the original.¹⁶ The supplementary registration carries its own filing fee and its own effective date. If the mistake was the Copyright Office’s, contact their Public Information Office; those corrections are made without charge.

1
U.S. Copyright Office. Circular 56A Copyright Registration of Musical Compositions and Sound Recordings
2
U.S. Copyright Office. eCO Acceptable File Types
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U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright Office Fees
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U.S. Copyright Office. Fees
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 407 – Deposit of Copies or Phonorecords for Library of Congress
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U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright in Derivative Works and Compilations
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U.S. Copyright Office. Circular 24 Group Registration of Unpublished Works
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U.S. Copyright Office. Group Registration for Works on an Album of Music GRAM
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 102 – Subject Matter of Copyright In General
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U.S. Copyright Office. Chapter 4 Copyright Notice Deposit and Registration
11
Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp v Wall-Street.com LLC
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement Damages and Profits
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 412 – Registration as Prerequisite to Certain Remedies for Infringement
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 410 – Registration of Claim and Issuance of Certificate
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U.S. Copyright Office. Registration Processing Times
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U.S. Copyright Office. Circular 8 Supplementary Registration