II. Joint Ownership

It is not uncommon for more than one person to contribute to the creation of a work, and it is also quite common for more than one person or company to share ownership of copyrights. In fact, as far as published songs are concerned, it is rare for a single individual or entity to own the whole copyright to a song. One reason for this split ownership is that songwriters often collaborate in the creation of songs.

Example 4.3.

If a song is written by a band consisting of five individuals with all five members contributing to its authorship, the copyright will be split among five co-authors. Ownership may be further divided due to transfers of ownership by the authors. If three of the band members have publishing contracts with three different music publishers, there could be as many as eight co-owners (i.e., the five band members and three publishing companies).