copyright music
How do I find out who to contact for copyright permission for sheet music?
<p>I want to make a website hosting a large collection of sheet music from many different artists to be viewed online, but I have no idea how to go about getting permissions to do this. If I had to take the time to manually track down the information for every single artist, somehow contact them, and arrange something for each song... well, I'm sure you can guess that wouldn't be possible.</p>

<p>I've seen other sites (e.g. <a href="https://www.musicnotes.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.musicnotes.com</a>) that offer a large amount of sheet music for sale; presumably, they have not contacted every artist individually. So there must be some organization responsible for managing music copyrights, that is able to make bulk arrangements. Who are they, and how do I find them?</p>

<p>The bad news is that it may not be possible. Copyright protection is automatic when a work is created. In the US, a protected work "generally" has to be registered before one can file an infringement suit, but it's not hard to do. You can't be sued until it is. Even if you have the name of the copyright claimant, that doesn't mean that you'll be able to locate them. The copyright office has an <a href="http://www.copyright.gov/records/" rel="nofollow">online interface</a> which, if working, could tell you who claims the copyright for works after 1978, and you might get an address (they don't always provide claimant addresses, and people move). </p>
