The terms and can apply to a musical work's lyrical and musical elements. But when we speak of adaptors, we refer to the role that adapts the the musical elements of a work, hence the adaptation.
What is an Adaptor?
An adaptor modifies a pre-existing musical work or its . It can take different forms depending on how it's written, who it's for, and the musical genre. Adapting a musical work can be done by hand or with dedicated software.
Under , both translations and adaptations require authorization from the original unless the work is in the and both qualify as .
You can learn more about translations on our Translators page.
Copyright ownership for Adaptors
When a pre-existing musical work is adapted, the adapted work usually qualifies as a derivative work. The adaptor will co-own the in the adapted work but needs authorization from the authors of the original work to adapt it.
Adaptors are considered authors under copyright law if their contribution to the adaptation is . This means they and the author of the pre-existing musical work can own a share of the rights in the adapted piece, legally called a derivative work.
Properly documenting the adaptor's ownership share is the first step for them to be credited and receive a share of earnings when the derivative musical work is used. Learn more about this in the Songwriter Splits and Registering Musical Works topics.
Adaptors that have multiple creative roles
If you are an adaptor, you might also have additional roles when writing or recording a musical work, in which case you might also have additional shares in the ownership of that musical work and the .
Find out more about how this works in the Recording topic. To understand authors' rights in more detail, visit the Music Creators’ Rights topic.
Image Credit: Eric Ivar Persson, Parapix