Any experience selling your own music?

The posting it to yourself method ("poor mans copyright") flat out doesnt work, at all, ever. My bro is in a band (Jane No), and went to uni to do Music production and performance. I forget how he said you actually go about copyrighting things (and it probably wouldnt be applicable anyway, as he studied in the uk, so it would be british copyright law), but I do remember him saying that, contrary to what I believed, poor mans copyright provides absolutely ZERO protection, wherever you are.

A few facts about copyrights:

A work (song, story, etc) is copyrighted the instant it is placed in a fixed medium. Write it down, make a tape recording, digital record, whatever. It's copyrighted by you. You don't need to write anything on it saying so.

You cannot copyright an idea--only a finished work in a fixed medium.

The reason for mailing something to yourself is purely to establish a timeline. If you write out the sheet music to your songs, place them in a sealed envelope and mail them to yourself, you've established a timestamp (postmark) which is legally recognized by the courts. It does nothing to say you own the copyright, it simply says you had it in a fixed medium as of that date. It's how you can help to show you had it before someone else, should the issue go to court. It's not, however, a sure-fire way to prove ownership, just a bit of evidence in your favor.

You may, however, want to register your work with the US Copyright Office.

In many cases you will see the phrase "all rights reserved" within the copyright notice. "Copyright" is actually a whole compendium of rights including, but not limited to, publication, distribution, translation, performace, movie, TV, theatrical performace, games, adaptation, and all of the above for each foreign market. Any of these rights can be leased, sold, given, or lent to anyone the current owner wishes. Each identifiable right may be assigned to a different person or company.

You can not copyright a title--though you can, in some ways, make it a trademark (primarily in terms of visual representation).

Copyrights are governed by two principle sets of legislation: US Copyright law (Generic Geek's profile lists that he's in Florida), and international copyright treaty (Berne Convention). I haven't read the Berne Convention, but I have read through US Copyright Law. It's very complicated and filled with non-specific terms. These primarily deal with the "fair use" clauses--the area where organizations such as the RIAA and the MPAA are working so hard to change the interpretations.