The internet has changed the way we create music. Great players and amazing sounds are more accessible than ever. This has caused so many professionals to change the way they do things to stay in business. It has also made it easier for the small guys like us to get great songs to records! Putting a record together – whether it be an album or a single can be done from the comfort of your home studio setup.
As the digital music services we distribute to will have the necessary licenses in place to cover for this, there are only a few things that you'll have to think about before uploading your cover song with us.
When we say cover song, we mean
A cover song is a song that you performed and recorded yourself, but the music and lyrics were written by someone else. A cover song is a straightforward interpretation of a song and no significant changes have been made to neither the melody nor the lyrics. If you for example translate the lyrics to another language, it's no longer considered to be a cover song and you'll have to provide us with a written permission from the music publishing company representing the original song in order to release it.
Metadata requirements
Alongside all usual metadata guidelines, we have listed the most common mistakes we see on cover songs for you below.
- The name of the artist who performed on the original recording of the song has no place in your metadata/on your release.
- The names of the songwriters however must be added as composers (music/melody) and lyricists (lyrics).
- The title of the song must be exactly the same as the original. For example, you can't add any additional information to the title such as (Cover) without having a written permission from the music publishing company representing the original song to record.