Whose Song is it Anyway?

Song is an artistic expression that emerges from the creativity, emotions, and experiences of its creators. It is a unique and dynamic form of intellectual output that blends melody, rhythm, and lyrics to convey ideas, emotions, and cultural narratives that plays an essential role in an individual’s life and contains large economic value thereby making the creation and distribution of it significant. Fair compensation for such creation recognises the intellectual labour involved in creating songs and supports the sustainability of the creators. However, there is looming disparity between the creators and the production houses / music recording labels with regard to the compensation and often the original creator’s creation is traded for a one time compensation under a contract and the production houses / music recording labels tend to enjoy the recurring extravagant royalties when the songs are subsequently used, taking advantage of the recall value of the songs. This practice disregards the labour of the original creators depriving them of their rights and their entitlement to royalties. In the present article we have analyzed the position of Copyright law having regard to the Amendment of 2012, alongside relevant judgements to closely understand the rights of the various stakeholders behind a completed song, ready for public viewing.