Advice regarding copyrighting my music?

[glass shoal]

You should register your songs with your national collection society or PRO (performing rights organisation) so that they can claim royalties for you whenever your track is played or performed in public or on the radio, etc. Sometimes there are different PROs for the publishing (the composition / lyrics and melody) and the master (the audio / production). Some PROs you may have to pay a membership fee to join and register your tracks.

[glass shoal]

generally there's not a choice! I'm in the UK so I'm with PRS (for publishing) and PPL (for phonographic royalties)

[lilac wyvern]

In the US the two big ones are ASCAP and BMI. Ascap is a bit more user friendly but BMI is a bigger international org

Copyright law differs in different countries. In the US as soon as your work is made public it is automatically protected by copyright. If you’re big enough to think you may get sued, your lawsuits can be much shorter and easier if you formally register with the US copyright office but it’s not explicitly required. I’m not a lawyer and a real legal consultation may be more helpful for your specific country.

[smoky pagoda]

Looking at PRS now. Say I'm a music producer that writes all their own music that will have an online presence for people to licence/buy music from me. Would this equate to a PRS & MCPS licence, both of which should cover every song I publish?
Are phonographic royalties aka performance? Why are you with PPL for one and not PRS for both?

Thanks so much! Your information thus far has been really useful and thank you @nimble walrus for the OP!

[glass shoal]

PRS only collect publishing royalties, so I need to be with PPL to collect phonographic royalties. I can't speak to how to license your own songs to other people I'm afraid. Phonographic concerns the sound recording (the audio itself, rather than the "song" as a concept)

[smoky pagoda]

Thanks for following up! I'll look into this more so I know what will be best for me in the future.