This has been a most illuminating thread. I read the whole thing. Thank you.

So I'm not trying to hijack the thread, but instead I want to approach the question from the other side -- that of the potential infringer.

Over the years, I've played in, and recorded several original bands. Most of the songs were written by bandmates. I have the recordings. They are usually the first recordings. I'm not trying to make money from releasing these songs, but I would like to make it possible for people to hear them, mainly friends and family.

I know that I own the rights to the recordings and production. Most of these songs were written in the 90s and are unpublished and unregistered works. Most have been performed live. I've lost touch with most of the songwriters. Spotify makes it easy for songwriters and publishers to collect their royalties for streams. I'd love to do that. Searches for copyrights on Google, easysong, and with the Harry Fox Agency turn up nothing for my recording. I have several questions.

(1) What risk am I taking if I publish these works on SoundCloud and post links on facebook?

(2) Should I copyright these recordings?

(3) Any other related issues I should think about?

So all songwriters here who recorded their unpublished works with bands, please copyright your works so it's easier for us amatuer producers to get our recordings out there without infringing.