As the name implies, a "copyright" is a song writer’s exclusive right to copy his or her creative music work, with certain exceptions and for a certain period of time. A copyright basically gives the song writer a limited monopoly over their musical works. Thus, it protects the original author of a musical composition from having his work copied for a limited duration.
If the song writer is also a recording artist, there are two distinct copyrights; one in the composition (song), and one in the sound recording (record). Thus, the song writer and recording artist of a musical work is the exclusive 100% copyright owner of both the underlying composition (the song) and of the sound recording (the record).
Visit our section on "Copyrights " for a further discussion.