618.8 (A) (10) Unclear Terms for Musical Works and Sound Recordings
As a general rule, the terms “music” and/or “lyrics” should be used to describe the authorship in a musical work, and the term “sound recording,” should be used to describe the authorship in a sound recording. The applicant should avoid using the following terms in the Author Created field or the Nature of Authorship space, because they are unclear:
• Song
• Ballad
• Cancion
• Vocals
• Musical Instruments
• Equalization
• Remastering, reverberation, reprocessing, re-engineering
• Rap, Hip Hop, Beats, Loops
• Transcription, Narration, Spoken Words
• Sound Effects
For a discussion of U.S. Copyright Office’s practices and procedures regarding these terms, see Chapter 800, Sections 802.9 (E), 803.9 (D), and 803.9 (F) (3).