The United States government added music to "works protected against unauthorized printing and vending" in 1831, 41 years after it enacted the first copyright law. In 1897, it added music to works protected against unauthorized public performance, according to the United States Copyright Office. In the 1990s, the United States government added new laws to protect music copyright in the digital age, including the Digital Audio Home Recording Act.
Songwriters can copyright music by submitting original works to the United States Copyright Office via the Internet or standard mail. The registration fee is $35 online and $65 via standard mail. Songwriters submit information on songs, including titles, lyrics and the date the songs were written. If the songwriter has written more than lyrics, he submits his songs as MP3 files online or on a CD through the mail.
While the United States government originally enacted copyright laws merely to preserve the artistic merits of a copyright holder, a music copyright holder has the added bonus of profiting monetarily off of his music. A copyright holder can assign his copyrighted music to publishers who, in turn, license music for use in television, film, and radio. Licensing music is a lucrative business, yielding large royalties for a successfully licensed song.
There are several different types of copyright in terms of licensing. A public performing right is the right of the copyright holder "to authorize the performance or transmission of the work in public," according to performing rights organization BMI. A reproduction right authorizes copyrighted music to be used for physical media such as CDs and LPs. A synchronization license grants music producers of television and film to "synchronize the musical composition in timed relation with audio-visual images."
Owning a CD or an MP3 of a song does not mean one owns the copyright to that song. Owning a song merely means that, by purchasing his music, the copyright holder has granted you access to play a song. It is not acceptable to distribute copies of copyrighted music and/or make a profit off of it. This is the sole right of the copyright holder.