Archives for February 2023

Our entertainment lawyer, John Seay, explains how to copyright your new music without a lawyer (and how to save yourself some money.)

ALSO – check out our Music Rookie Podcast interview with John: Do you really need an Entertainment Lawyer?

Whenever a client asks me to submit copyright registration for them, I always answer, “I’m happy to do it for you, but if you’re looking to save money, this is something you can do yourself if you figure out the application yourself.”

The cost of filing a copyright application is between $45 and $85 if you file online. You’d spend at least another $100 paying someone to do the registration for you. That may make sense if you value your time accordingly, but it’s most likely a waste of limited resources. The application isn’t difficult. However, it can be intimidating to get started without a little guidance. The purpose of this step-by-step guide, replete with screenshots, is to provide a whole lot of guidance.

So, what does it mean to copyright something? Thanks to the Copyright Act of 1976, your “original works of authorship,” i.e., songs, photographs, etc., are protected by copyright law the second they’re “fixed in any tangible medium or expression,” i.e., recorded, written down, etc. There’s technically nothing else you have to do to copyright your works. Something you should consider doing is registering that copyright with the Copyright Office.

Why register? First of all, registration creates presumption of ownership and validity. It allows you to sue for certain types of unauthorized uses of your work. If your work is registered when infringement occurs, you may be entitled to statutory damages and attorney’s fees, the latter a gamechanger when enforcing copyright.

Assuming you’re on board, go to the Copyright Office website, and let’s begin.

The Brutal Truth About Achieving Your Ambitions

We’ve all envisioned that life-changing dream – landing your dream job, owning that beach house, or pulling off a body transformation that makes Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson swoon. But how many of us actually get there? More importantly, why do so many passionate goal-setters stumble just steps away from glory? Daily goals can help bridge the gap.

Here’s the cold hard fact: Your lofty long-term ambitions mean dick without strategic daily goals to incrementally conquer them. It’s about using short, 24-hour sprints of hyper-focus to ultimately crush your objectives over the long haul. Don’t believe me? Let’s break it down.

Why Going Big-Picture Alone is Doomed

Sure, having that North Star career or lifestyle target provides general direction. But leaving it at just the huge, overarching objective is a surefire way to get lost in the weeds along the journey. It’s too damn easy for the grind of every day responsibilities to divert your limited attention and momentum.

That’s where we start dropping balls, procrastinating, and slowly convincing ourselves that achieving “The Dream” just isn’t realistic. A lame excuse dripping in self-doubt to avoid admitting you haven’t mapped out the footsteps to actually reach your f*cking goals.

Unleashing Daily Goals as a Secret Weapon

Now, complement that bigger ambition with a regiment of short-term daily goals, and suddenly that pie-in-the-sky fantasy kicks into an executable, adaptive, ever-evolving game plan.

By chunking your master plan into bite-sized 24-hour sprints, you create a consistent schedule of small wins to propel you forward. Those mini-achievements string together into serious progress over weeks, months, and years while keeping your permanent endgame in sight.

Plus, daily goals impose a productive sense of scarcity and urgency. They force you to prioritize high-impact action steps over aimlessly letting another day go to waste. When you only have one rotation around the sun to operate, you tend to apply laser focus on executing instead of procrastinating.

Keys to Dominating With Daily Goals

Sounds simple enough, but maximizing this technique takes a bit of strategy too:

• Ensure your daily goals harmonize with your deepest principles and natural skillset – tackling tasks that feel purposeful and leveraging your strengths is far more satisfying than chasing shallow busy work
• Aim for binary, process-oriented goals that live inside your control like “invest two hours practicing guitar” – not vague outcome-based targets like “become a famous musician” that leaves too much up to chance
• Always attach stakes – allocated rewards for achieving your goals, and real consequences for falling short of them
• Stay keenly self-aware; use experiences to refine your approach based on what’s working and what isn’t
• Build mandatory recovery periods into your goal schedules to avoid burnout

The endgame? Fulfilling any ambition through strategically-paced daily progress, rather than toxic hustle-porn you can never sustain. Master this method, and you master the cheat codes to the game of life itself.

Bottom Line

Don’t just idly fantasize about your biggest desires. Map the maze, lace up, and start making that sh*t happen through ruthless execution of daily goals and objectives. After enough resolved short hurdles, you’ll penetrate even your most intimidating long-term endgame. The choice? Become a gear in someone else’s machine, or architect your own supreme self-actualization. Not so complicated when you have the blueprint, is it?