PROTECTING YOUR ORIGINAL WORK
Copyright is a form of intellectual property that gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain.
Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete and fixed in a medium.
Most people in the music business will tell you to make sure that your songs are registered before you start sending them out or playing them for others .
You can register your works using a PA or SR Form available online at www.copyright.gov. -Wikopedia
ROYALITIES
Music licensing is the licensed use of copyrighted music. Licensing is intended to ensure that the creators of musical works get paid for their work. -Wikopedia
If you plan to record a song that someone else has written, you or someone on your behalf will need to contact the songwriter(s) or publisher(s) of the song to request a mechanical license. This will ensure that the writers/publishers of the song receive their royalty.
The current statutory rate is 9.1 cents per song. As an example, if you record one song on a CD and have 1000 CDs printed, the cost for the license would be the number of CDs printed multiplied by the current statutory rate per song.
It is important you take the time to license a song you would like to record just as you would want someone recording your song to license a song that you wrote.