Sooner or later every songwriter hears a track that sounds a bit like theirs and thinks: they stole it. Often the overlap is a chord progression, a title or a general mood. Copyright usually does not protect any of those. What it protects is narrower and more specific, and knowing the line saves you from both worry and bad accusations.
What copyright usually does not protect
Copyright covers original expression, not building blocks or ideas. In most countries the following are not protected on their own:
- Titles and short phrases. A few words such as "Summer night" or "Don't leave" are too short and too common to belong to anyone.
- Chord progressions. The same handful of chords sits under thousands of songs across every genre. They are a shared toolbox.
- Genres and styles. Nobody owns deep house, lo-fi, reggaeton or a "dark pop" sound. You can make music in the style of another artist without copying a single note.
- Ideas and themes. A song about leaving your hometown, or a love story told over one night, is an idea. Only your particular way of writing it is yours.
- Tempo, key, common rhythms and song structure. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge belongs to everybody.
The exact rules differ between countries, and a court always looks at the facts of the case. Treat this as a general picture, not legal advice.
What copyright does protect
A song usually carries two separate layers of protection.
The first is the composition: the original melody, the lyrics, and sometimes a distinctive arrangement of parts. The melody is the sequence of pitches and rhythms that makes a tune recognisable even when it is hummed. The lyrics are your original words.
The second is the recording, often called the master: the actual audio file. Even if someone remakes your song from scratch, they have not used your recording. But if they lift a few seconds of your audio and put it in their track, that is a use of the recording.
Why "they stole my chords" rarely works
Imagine Mara Quill writes "Glass roads" over four chords. A few months later another artist releases a song with the same four chords in the same order. Is that copying?
Almost certainly not. A claim like this would need to show that the other song took something original: a recognisable melody, a hook, lyrics or audio. Two songs can share a progression and have nothing else in common. Experts comparing them would ask how much is truly unique to your song and how much is vocabulary that other songs already use.
Similar vibe is also not enough. A song can have the same tempo, the same synth sound and the same mood as yours and still be a different song. If the tune and the words are different, you have a neighbour, not a thief.
It is a different story when the melody of the chorus matches note for note, when lyrics are repeated, or when your audio shows up in someone's track. That is the kind of thing worth taking seriously.
Titles: not protected, but not a free-for-all
Many different songs have the same title, and streaming platforms show them side by side. So you can usually use a title that already exists. Still, two cautions apply.
Do not choose a name that is another artist's name, or one that makes listeners think your track belongs to someone else. Platforms treat that as misleading. And if a title is also the name of a brand, a series or a product, trademark rules can apply even though copyright does not. Before you settle on a title, search it on the streaming platforms and see what comes up.
How to protect what is actually yours
You cannot protect a chord progression, but you can make it easy to prove your own melody and lyrics.
- Keep dated evidence: demos, project files, lyric drafts, session exports and messages with co-writers.
- Agree the writing splits in writing before release, not after the song takes off.
- List all credits correctly when you submit a release. In the CULT portal you add the credits together with the audio and the artwork.
- Only submit what you own or have permission to use, including samples and loops.
If you believe someone has copied your actual melody, lyrics or recording, collect the evidence first: links, dates, audio comparisons. Then report it to the platform, and talk to a lawyer who knows music if the matter is serious. A message saying "you used my chords" will get you nowhere. A comparison showing the same melody in the same place will.
A quick test before you worry
Ask three questions. Is the same melody there, note for note? Are the same lyrics there? Is my actual recording in it? If the answer to all three is no, what you heard is most likely shared vocabulary of music, and the best answer is to keep writing better songs.