There are two questions being discussed here...1) how do I protect my songs and 2) should I bother?

For the first question, I have heard people say "mail your songs to yourself and never open the package". I guess they imagine the package will be inspected and opened by a judge at a trial some day to determine ownership of the songs! I have never done this but I guess it would be better than nothing?

I have used Songuard because it is included with Masterwriter. Incidentally, it is NOT free if you ever need to use it to prove ownership. It is free to submit songs but not free to retrieve them. At least that is my understanding. And what happens if the MasterWriter company just goes belly-up one day? All your "proof" could just vanish overnight. Again, maybe better than doing nothing but I don't know.

Copyright, on the other hand, is a pretty solid way to protect your rights. If you properly register your songs and are ever challenged or need to challenge, your registered copyright will be all you'll need to prove your rights. I am no lawyer but I would guess a registered copyright will always trump a postmarked package or a Songuard certification!

The second question is a little tougher to address! Are your songs any good? If they are do they have any commercial potential? If so, what are the odds that someone will hear and steal your song when there are hundreds or even thousands of songs written every day by staff writers and independents all over the world?

Each person will have to answer that question for themselves and decide whether the cost to register is worth it to them. For me, I really like the idea of registering a whole bunch of songs on one application! I have only been writing a short while but I have more than 50 songs that I feel have potential and I'd like to register them. But I am not convinced enough to pay $35/song to register them!! However, I will pay $55 to register all 50 songs!