The way I see it is that when a songwriter writes a song, copyrights it, and then sells it to anational song brokerage company for $20,000, this would be considered as an ordinary income and not a LTCG or a STCG or is excluded from gross income... Correct? This is something that I have not thought about before. Thanks!

In my opinion, it IS ordinary income, as it is a product of the songwriter's profession.

Thanks for confirming as I thought so.

Glad to help!

There is a relatively recent exception for self-created musical compositions. The creator may elect capital gain treatment.

Note that ATE's comment about it being ordinary is in fact the default position. Unless you elect otherwise, it will be ordinary.

See, TTE and I actually DO agree sometimes! :-)