Mondo Knows Facts
US copyright lasts 70 years after a songwriter dies
Works written from 1978 onward are protected for life plus seven decades American law gives works created on or after 1 January 1978 a term of the author's life plus 70 years. Older works generally get 95 years from publication, which is why recordings from the 1920s have been entering the public domain each January. The 1998 extension added twenty years to both terms. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
American film copyright now lasts 95 yearsTitles enter the public domain on a fixed schedule each JanuaryA cover version needs only a statutory licenceA compulsory licence dates from 1909, after player piano rolls escaped controlAmerican copyright now runs for life plus seventy yearsWorks published long ago can still be under protection after repeated extensionsMany old films have no identifiable ownerRights can be impossible to trace, which blocks any re-releaseOne song pays out through several separate streamsPublishing, performance, mechanical and sync money are collected differentlyComposers organised a collecting society in 1914ASCAP gathered licence fees from venues and split them among members
🎵 Musicfact 123 of 200
← → to keep reading, or swipe
Tags: copyright, law, public-domain
US copyright lasts 70 years after a songwriter dies: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Works written from 1978 onward are protected for life plus seven decades. The figure is taken from US Copyright Office, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a music fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.