Cover Song Licensing

This guide covers licensing a cover song in the US, based on the US Copyright Office, The MLC, the Harry Fox Agency, YouTube Help and the help centers of the seven distributors TheDebutRoom tracks, checked Sep 24, 2026. A cover license clears the song you recorded yourself. It doesn’t clear someone else’s recording or a video.

What is cover song licensing?

Cover song licensing is getting permission to release your own recording of a song someone else wrote, and in the US that permission is a mechanical license. Section 115 of the Copyright Act makes it compulsory: once a song has been released in the US, its owner can’t refuse you, as long as you pay the royalty rate set by law and follow the notice rules. The license covers the song (lyrics and melody), so the songwriters get paid on every copy or stream. It doesn’t cover the original recording, and it doesn’t cover video. You can arrange the song in your own style, but you can’t change its basic melody or fundamental character.

That last rule is from the statute itself, 17 U.S.C. § 115, which also sets the first condition: the song has to have been distributed to the public in the US with the owner’s permission. DistroKid’s cover song page puts it in practice: a song that only appeared on a film or video game soundtrack can’t be licensed as a cover, and neither can one released only on a compilation outside the US.

CD Baby’s cover song page adds a case people miss: if a songwriter hands you an unreleased song and says go ahead, that’s not a cover. It needs a “first use” license straight from the song’s owner. Old songs in the public domain need no license at all, though checking that a song really is public domain is on you.

The royalty rate is the same one every mechanical uses. Our guide to mechanical royalties has the 2026 numbers and how they’re set.

Whether you have to buy the license yourself depends on where your cover is going.

Do you need a license to put a cover on Spotify?

No, not in the US if your cover is only streaming: Spotify and other on-demand services hold a blanket mechanical license from The MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective) and pay the songwriters themselves. Download stores are different. The blanket license can legally cover downloads too, but for permanent downloads, record companies can still license songs one at a time and services can rely on the label’s license instead. When you release through a distributor, you’re the label, so iTunes and Amazon downloads of your cover need your own license. CD Baby, LANDR, Amuse and TuneLicensing all say streaming-only covers need no license from you, and all of them say US downloads do.

The legal side is on the US Copyright Office’s page about the Section 115 blanket license: digital music providers get one license covering “permanent downloads, limited downloads, or interactive streams,” and the Office no longer accepts notices for digital uses. The catch is in The MLC’s DSP FAQs: for permanent downloads, record companies may keep licensing song by song, and services may lean on those “pass-through” licenses from labels. That’s why download stores push the job back to you.

Three wrinkles change what “streaming only” means in practice:

• Apple Music comes with iTunes. LANDR can’t send Apple Music without the iTunes Store, so its no-license option leaves Apple Music out entirely.
• Some countries want a license for streaming too. LANDR says Canada does, and it leaves covers out of India, Pakistan, Brazil and Mexico.
• Timing counts. Amuse’s license FAQ says a compulsory license has to be in place before or when the cover comes out in the US. Buying one after the release is already out doesn’t make it valid.

So if you’re thinking “I’ll skip downloads and save the fee,” that works at some distributors and not at others.

How each distributor handles cover songs

DistroKid, LANDR and Amuse sell a cover license during upload, TuneCore sends you to its licensing partner, CD Baby and Ditto want you to bring your own license, and UnitedMasters doesn’t distribute covers at all. TheDebutRoom checked each of the seven distributors it tracks against that distributor’s own help pages on the same day, Sep 24, 2026, because the rules differ more than the prices. The biggest split is whether a streaming-only cover is allowed without a license: LANDR and Amuse allow it, while DistroKid and CD Baby require a license for every cover. A cover license from a distributor applies only to music that distributor delivers.

DistroKid is the strictest and the simplest. Its page on why you buy the license through DistroKid says covers can’t be sold as downloads in India, Pakistan, Mexico or Canada but can stream there. The same song on a single and later on an album needs two licenses, and a license bought from another agency doesn’t replace DistroKid’s. The license is yearly like the plan itself; our DistroKid pricing breakdown lists it next to the other extras.

TuneCore puts formatting first on its covers page: titles like “Song (Cover)” or “Song (Acoustic Version)” are fine, the original artist’s name never goes in the title, and the original songwriters must be credited. It also warns that stores hide soundalike covers.

CD Baby has the odd rule. Its cover page agrees streaming alone doesn’t legally need a license, then requires a download license anyway as CD Baby policy. It gets that license through Easy Song or the publisher.

Ditto’s help page on covers and samples only says you’ll probably need a license. Its cover song guide is clearer: no license for streaming, a mechanical license for download stores, bought from a service such as Songfile.

If covers are a big part of your plan, that’s a fair reason to pick a distributor. The full comparison of all seven is in our best music distribution services roundup.

The license fee is only part of what a cover costs you. The songwriter’s royalty is the rest.

How much does a cover song license cost?

A US cover song license costs a service fee plus the statutory mechanical royalty. On official pages checked Sep 24, 2026, fees run from $12 a year per cover at DistroKid to a one-time $70 for TuneCore’s Standard License, with Songfile, Easy Song, LANDR and Amuse in between. The royalty for 2026 is 13.1 cents per download or physical copy for a song of 5 minutes or less, or 2.52 cents per minute for longer songs, per the Federal Register notice of Dec 1, 2025. The fee goes to the licensing service. The royalty goes to the songwriters, either prepaid for a set number of copies or taken from each sale.

Here’s what each service charges, from its own page:

The rate is from the Federal Register notice of Dec 1, 2025. One heads-up: DistroKid’s help pages still quote 12.7 cents per sale, an older rate. Expect the 2026 rate to apply.

Which is cheapest depends on two of your numbers: how many years the cover stays up, and how many downloads it sells. Say you expect 200 downloads of a 3:30 cover. The royalty is 200 × 13.1 cents = $26.20 wherever you license it. On top of that, DistroKid’s fee adds $12 each year the song stays up, while LANDR, Amuse and Songfile charge once. Keep a cover up for three years and DistroKid’s fee is $36. Only put it on streaming at LANDR or Amuse and there’s no fee at all.

Most covers sell very few downloads now. The royalty rarely hurts. The fee is what adds up across a covers EP, because every service charges it per song.

That royalty applies to CDs and vinyl too, but the license comes from a different place.

How to license a cover for CDs and vinyl

To press a cover on CD or vinyl in the US, license it for the number of copies before you sell them: buy a limited license through the Harry Fox Agency’s Songfile, or serve a notice of intention on the song’s owner yourself. Songfile handles runs of fewer than 2,500 copies and charges its fee per song, not per copy. The notice route is free but strict: the notice has to reach the owner within 30 days after you make the records and before you distribute any, and you then send monthly statements with payment. A digital license from your distributor doesn’t cover physical copies.

Songfile’s limits are on the Harry Fox Agency’s page on how to use Songfile: fewer than 2,500 copies of a CD, cassette, LP, download or ringtone.

The do-it-yourself route comes from 17 U.S.C. § 115, and it’s unforgiving. Miss the notice and the law says you’ve lost the compulsory license for that record, so the copies you sell are infringing. The Copyright Office still takes notices for physical formats when you can’t find the owner, per its Section 115 page, but it stopped taking them for digital uses.

Two traps to plan around:

• The license doesn’t carry over between formats. CD Baby says a physical license won’t cover digital sales, and TuneCore’s partner says its download license won’t cover physical copies.
• Your distributor’s license stays with your distributor. DistroKid’s covers only apply to music DistroKid delivers, so merch-table CDs need their own license.

If you’re pressing 300 records for a tour, one Songfile order before you pay the plant is the simple way through.

Video is the one place none of this reaches.

Cover songs on YouTube

A cover in a YouTube video isn’t covered by a mechanical license: the US Copyright Office says the Section 115 license applies to audio-only copies and streams, and putting a song in a video needs a sync license, which has no rate set by law. YouTube’s own rule for monetizing a cover is narrower. You can earn from a cover video in the YouTube Partner Program only when the song’s publisher claims it through Content ID and chooses to monetize it, and the ad money is then shared. If the publisher hasn’t claimed it, YouTube says you can’t monetize and you should have the rights owner’s explicit written permission beforehand.

The Copyright Office draws the audio versus video line in its guide to how songwriters, composers and performers get paid. YouTube’s pages describe the practical side: monetizing eligible cover videos explains the “Sharing ad earnings” notice that tells you a claimed cover can earn, and what kind of content you can monetize rules out covers built on a commercial recording such as an instrumental, a karaoke track or the artist’s live performance.

Neither page promises a cover video stays up, and neither says every cover gets claimed. Read them as the monetization rules they are.

The licensing services step back here. TuneLicensing’s FAQ says it doesn’t license YouTube releases, and points you to the YouTube Partner Program or the publisher directly. DistroVid won’t distribute music videos with covers.

Content ID for your cover’s audio (you claiming other people’s videos) is a separate question, and the distributors disagree:

• DistroKid: covers are eligible through the Social Media Pack extra.
• CD Baby: covers aren’t eligible for Social Video Monetization, even fully licensed.
• TuneCore: its Content ID rules exclude karaoke, soundalike and tribute covers, and covers of public domain songs.

Back to audio: once a licensed cover is out, the money splits in a way that surprises people.

Do you earn royalties from a cover song?

Yes, but only on the recording: you keep the sound recording royalties your distributor pays for your cover, minus the songwriter’s mechanical royalty on each US download sale, while the song’s own royalties go to the people who wrote it. On streaming services, the song’s mechanical royalty is paid by the service through The MLC, and the performance royalty goes to the writers through their PRO. Neither touches your statement. Because you didn’t write the song, you can’t register it with The MLC, a PRO or a publishing administrator to collect those song royalties yourself.

The writer’s side is spelled out in CD Baby’s page on what songwriters are owed when someone covers their song: performance royalties through their PRO, and mechanicals if they control their publishing. TuneCore’s covers page says the same from your side: a mechanical license to distribute a cover doesn’t let you register the song for TuneCore Publishing, since you have to be a credited writer.

In practice, a streamed cover pays you roughly what an original of yours would on the recording side. What you give up is the songwriting money, which on your own songs is a second stream of income. Our guide to mechanical royalties shows how big that second stream can be.

That’s the trade covers make: the song brings listeners who searched for it, and the writers keep the song money. It’s a fair deal if the cover sends people to your originals.

All of that assumes your cover qualifies for a license in the first place, and plenty don’t.

What a cover license doesn’t cover

TheDebutRoom’s view: most cover takedowns don’t come from skipping the license, they come from releasing something a cover license was never able to cover. The compulsory license only works for a song already released in the US, recorded by you, with the lyrics, melody and title left intact. Translations, rewritten lyrics, parodies, mashups, medleys, remixes, samples and interpolations all fall outside it, and each distributor that sells cover licenses lists some of them. A cover that breaks those rules can be taken down even with a paid license, because the license never applied. Those uses need direct permission from the song’s publisher, and the recording’s owner too if you use their audio.

The lists line up across companies. DistroKid rules out samples, remixes, medleys, mashups, translations and changed lyrics, melodies or titles, and excludes interpolations. LANDR adds parodies, karaoke backing tracks and AI-generated covers. Amuse won’t take karaoke backing tracks.

The one that catches the most people is the translated cover. It feels like the most respectful kind of cover there is, and it’s a new work in the law’s eyes. Same with a parody that keeps the melody and swaps every line: funny, and not a cover.

What to do if yours is one of these:

1. Find the publisher. The songwriter and publisher credits on the original release are the place to start.
2. Ask for a direct license in writing, naming the change you made (translation, new lyrics, medley) and where you’ll release it.
3. Upload it as licensed content, with the permission attached, not as a standard cover.

If the problem is someone else’s audio rather than their song, the rules for samples are different, and our page on whether DistroKid allows samples walks through them.

More on where your music’s money comes from is in the royalties hub.