Discussion:
What is the name of your state? CA
I heard that there is a cheap way to copyright your own music or lyrics...someone told me if you male a copy of the cd with the lyrics written out to yourself then that is one way to copyright something.
Answer:
You automatically get copyright protection on a creative work as soon as you create it. You do not have to register a copyright to have copyright protections.
However, if you ever need to enforce your copyright through the courts, you will need to register your copyright (you can register at any time). When you go to court, if the copyright was not registered prior to the day that the copyright was infringed, you will have to prove that you did indeed hold a copyright prior to the occurrence of the infringing act. The best way to do this is to have registered the copyright before it happened; another way is what you described -- an unopened envelope with the work inside and a postmark can be used to help show that you created the work on or before the date of the postmark.
But that's all it's really good for. Sending yourself a copy of the work, or depositing a copy of the work with an attorney, etc., doesn't give you any extra rights or protections than you would have had otherwise -- it just can be used to help establish a date of creation and, perhaps, ownership, if it ever comes up in litigation.