Whether you copyright music lyrics or just notes to a song, either way you have ownership in the song if you are one of the collaborators. This is one of the many instances where the copyright affects more than one person and results in being valid until the last remaining person on the project (of course you must be identified in the copyright for this to affect you) have been deceased for at least 70 years.

The easiest route for musicians is not just to write the notes, but also to copyright music lyrics at the same time. This is much better for everyone involved and there is only one registration fee rather than having to register the music and the lyrics as separate entities. For those who are new to registering copyrights, owning copyrights and wondering exactly what happens after you've registered can seem like a complicated or confusing process. Many new artists fail to properly protect themselves and their non-copyright music lyrics from those who would take advantage of them.

If you want to copyright lyrics you've written for a song, I strongly recommend copyrighting music lyrics and registering them before introducing the lyrics to the music of the song, unless you wrote both the lyrics and the music. Doing all of it together is often more difficult, particularly for those who feel more talented or gifted in one area than another. It's also great practice to write your own music rather than focusing only on the use of words. After all, you had something in mind when you wrote the lyrics (a tune, a melody, something) and only you can truly give the unfinished artwork the justice it deserves.

Many people forget how similar creating music is to creating visual art. Both require dedication, vision, purpose, and passion. They require different skills but very similar emotions and qualities to do well. Once you've begun to copyright music lyrics there really is no major difference between moving on to the next task, which is actually writing and copyrighting the music to go with those wonderful lyrics.

If you're not a great music writer, then you might want to find someone to collaborate on the project with you. Perhaps your next copyright music lyrics session will lead to some wonderful collaborations and joint ventures. Many times in music the hardest part of any big break is finding the right partner who shares your common goals. Most bands fail because they either never shared a common goal or someone in the band changed the goal without consulting anyone else.

Not everyone who can copyright music lyrics will be completely honest about the source of the lyrics or the period of their lives while leading up to that point. If you aren't the one writing the lyrics, or the music for that matter, be careful you don't mistakenly pass copyrighted music lyrics or notes which aren't your own creation, as this could lead to copyright infringement.