What counts as a cover song? What music is in the public domain? Do I need a mechanical license? Where can I obtain a license? How do I format my metadata for distribution? You’ll need to know all of these answers before uploading your cover songs to RouteNote. Likewise if you wish to sample a sound recording that is in the public domain, you may be able to use the recording without acquiring a license.

After this period of time, works become public domain and their stores/territory restrictions will no longer apply. Works remain under copyright for between 50 to 70 years – depending on the country – after the original composers death. If a composition is in the public domain then you may not need a license to cover it. This means that you can’t include any samples from the original track or any other songs without the correct documented permissions or mechanical licenses Public Domain Samples and Backing TracksĪs with all releases you cannot use any samples or backing tracks unless they are original or you have the licenses/permissions required to use it. Only mention the original artists in the ‘C Line’ section and not anywhere else in your release, including artist fields, track fields, or in the cover art. For example: The Beatles, Elton John, Madonna, etc. If you have multiple covers in your release then list each artist in the ‘C Line’ one after the other, separated by commas. For example, if you were to cover Don’t Let Me Down then you would need to list ‘The Beatles’ and not name ‘John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr’. Make sure that you credit the name of the performing artist and not the composers. This will be under Album Details when uploading your release through RouteNote. You must credit the original artist in the ‘C Line’ (Composition Copyright) of the album details. When you upload your release you will need to format it slightly differently for a cover release to ensure that the original artist is credited correctly. It cannot use any samples from the original recording. This means that you can distribute your covers to these services worldwide.

However Spotify, Deezer, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Saavn, Nuuday, Anghami, Tidal, and KKBox pay for their own licenses for cover songs. You will need to exclude these territories to distribute your release to the rest of the world unless you have acquired a mechanical license to release a cover of the song(s) you have recorded. For releasing cover songs online you don’t need a license and can just upload it and release it.

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