Who is a composer
A composer is the author of the musical part of a work – the person who came up with the melody, harmony and rhythmic structures. Without them, there would be nothing to record or distribute.
What does the law say?
Under Section 5 of the Copyright Act (Act No. 121/2000 Coll.), the author is the natural person who created the work. The composer is therefore the author of the musical component of the work – the melody, harmony and rhythm. The law does not require any education, diploma or membership of a professional organisation. It is enough that they actually created the music.
A composer cannot be a company, a band as a whole or artificial intelligence. The metadata must give the name of a specific natural person – with one exception: If the music was generated by artificial intelligence, the AI tool used is entered in the Composer field (see How to credit AI as an author correctly). You will find more about who can be the author of a work in a separate article.
The composer is the author of the work – that is, the music itself. A recording (sound recording) is something else: It is a specific capture of a performance on a medium. One song can be recorded again and again, each time creating a new sound recording – but the authorship of the music stays with the composer.
The composer and other roles
One person can hold several roles at once – or each of them can be held by a different person. These are the most common ones on the authorship side:
Composer
The author of the music – the melody, harmony and rhythm. This is a creative contribution to the work, from which copyright arises.
These roles can be combined in any way. If you wrote both the music and the lyrics yourself, you are both the composer and the lyricist. If someone else composed the music and you just sing it, you are a performer – but not an author of the work.
How is the composer entered in the metadata?
When adding a recording in Artists Bez Labelu, you fill in the Composer field in the Authors section. It is mandatory – the form will not save the recording without it, and platforms require it. The field is pre-filled with your first name and last name from your account – if the music was composed by someone else (or by someone else as well), edit it. The following rules apply:
- Always the legal name – in the format First name Last name, exactly as on an ID card.
- Multiple composers are separated by a comma: Jan Novák, Petra Svobodová.
- A pseudonym only if registered – first provide proof of an officially registered pseudonym in the Requests section (Songwriter pseudonym); platforms penalise unregistered pseudonyms. More in the article on pseudonyms in music distribution.
- The Composer field is not the place for roles (e.g. “music: Jan Novák”), abbreviations or band names. For details, see the article The Author field: Dos and don'ts.
A producer and a composer are two different roles. A producer shapes the sound of the recording but does not have to be the author of the music. If a beatmaker composed the music and you sing on it, the beatmaker is the composer – and this should be reflected in the contract or licence. If it is a beat bought or downloaded from the internet, answer YES to the question about the backing track in the Track origin guide and upload the licence as a PDF – without it, the release cannot go to distribution. More on the rights in the music and in the recording in the article Who is the producer of a sound recording.
How does a composer earn money?
A composer earns income from two sources:
- From digital streaming and sales – if they are also the performer and the owner of the recording, they receive royalties through the distributor (e.g. Bez Labelu).
- From author royalties – royalties for public performance (radio, TV, live events) are managed by the collecting society OSA. For these royalties to be paid out to you, the work must be registered with OSA.