I have friends with a band and they need three of their songs copyrighted. How would they go about this? Would you need to copyright each instruments music seperate? Or all together? Where can they get this done cheap?

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Copyright automatically attaches to the songs once they are recorded. Nothing else needs to be done to actually obtain the copyright. However, your friends can register the copyright with the copyright office. While registration has nothing to do with obtaining copyright, it provides a number of important benefits, such as the ability to pursue an infringement action in federal court. Like all music, there are actually two separate works in a band's demo that are subject to copyright protection. First is the composition of the music and/or lyrics. The second copyright is the sound recording of the performance itself. Whoever contributed to the composition of the work has an equal claim to the entire copyright as a joint author. The copyright is not divided up according to who did what. Each joint author owns the copyright and each author has rights to use or license the work as long they split any money earned. One joint author cannot prevent another from using the copyrighted work. For the sound recording, usually, whoever paid for the studio time owns the copyright to the sound recording. If all the band members contributed to the recording and performed on the recording, they would all equally own that copyright unless they agreed otherwise in a written contract. The cost of copyright registration is very low.