copyright music
Are the title and author of a song protected by copyright?
<p>I am developing a platform where users can search songs by BPM and Key.</p>
<p>The only thing that came to my mind is: can I show songs' titles and authors after the user does a search, without violating the copyright of the song and its author?</p>
<p>The platform is a commercial project, so I'm earning money through users' monthly subscriptions to the website. I am not earning money from the songs themselves, since I'm showing just the title, author, BPM, and key of the song, without letting the user reproduce it or listen to it in any way.</p>
<p>I know songs' titles do not have copyright, but does the combination of song title + author have it?</p>

<p>Facts cannot be copyrighted. Such a project does not violate copyright law, and if you're in the United States, it is protected by the First Amendment.</p>

<p>The title and author(s) of a copyrighted work are not themselves protected by copyright. Many libraries and booksellers and online reference cervices provide such information. Two examples are the IMDB and the <a href="http://www.isfdb.org/" rel="noreferrer">ISFDB</a>.</p>
<p>That the proposed service is commercial and profit-making is not relevant. Newspapers and other publications include movie and book reviews which list  titles and authors. Since the facts mentioned are not protected by copyright, the commercial status of the project does not matter. (In general a copyright infringement is still an infringement even if no money is charged, although the damages may be less. And a non-infringement does not become an infringement by charging for it)</p>
<p>This is true not just in the US, but in every country that adheres to the Bern Copyright Convention, which is all but a very few of the countries in the world.</p>
