Okay, this is one of my pet peeves, especially among NEW songwriters! Everybody who writes five songs and then are SURE SOMEONE IS GOING TO STEAL THEIR SONG CALLED “I LOVE YOU BABY!” Because it has NEVER BEEN WRITTEN BEFORE! And go off on the copyright world,(“oh my GOD! You’ve got to copyright everything!! “)
No you DON'T!

Look folks, most everything has been written and done before. Usually long before YOU were born! There are only so many notes, so many ways to say “I love you” and only so many emotions.

Most are totally accidental. We all do it! I’ve found myself stealing from MYSELF, when I’ve had to progressions,melodies or even songs very similar. Who do I SUE? ME?

If you write a lot of songs, some are going to sound like other songs. It’s unavoidable. There are a BILLION songs a MONTH on the internet. So if you can think of it, probably someone else can too.

So you hold off until you write a lot of songs, are ready to release them commercially, then you do all that stuff.

And you have to PROVE someone had access to your song, and purposely tried to defraud you. Since very few songs actually get heard much past the friends and families of their writers, that’s a pretty tall order. Why most lawsuit never go anywhere (but cost a fortune in legal fees!)
Most of those suits are one major artist suing another, and are quite complicated!

Write what you want and don’t worry about it.
If you write something amazing, and you find other people that agree, it’s probably going to take care of itself.

by Marc Alan Barnette
www.marcalanbarnette.com