Tweet Acquiring a Copyrighted Song

I'm looking for the words and music to an unpublished song from 1944. I've found the song title, authors, etc. in the Library of Congress', "Catalog of Copyright Entries". Does anyone know how I can acquire a copy - online or hard copy -of this song?

I would think the first thing to check is whether the copyright was renewed. If not, the song may be in the public domain, and it may be that LOC can then provide a copy to you.

If the copyright is still valid, I guess you need to locate the present owners of the copyright (the author or his/her heirs) and work something out with them. SETH

Keep in mind that the copyright owners don't even have to own a copy of the song... they just have to know the title. Also, some songs were never "published" as sheet music -- maybe they appeared in a film or were recorded, but no sheet music was made up.

Your best bet is libraries, whether public or at universities. Search your local libraries' computer database (since if you go in to look at them, often you can make a photocopy where the institution itself won't do it for you for copyright reasons).

If that doesn't work for you, try interlibrary loan. There may be a fee in this day and age of budget cuts, but the librarians have pretty powerful search tools to see what's available in other libraries' collections, and sometimes the other library will just send in a photocopy.