What is a cover?
A cover is when you re-record a song from another artist using your own instrumental and vocals.
What to consider when distributing with Amuse
You can release a cover on streaming platforms without a license. You’ll need, however, a mechanical license to release it on download stores in the US, Mexico, Canada, India, and/or Pakistan. The download stores we have at Amuse are iTunes and Amazon.
You can get an individual mechanical license for each country on these sites/in the following way:
USA: songfile.com
Mexico: emmacsacm.com.mx
Canada: cmrra.ca or sodrac.ca
India & Pakistan: contact the rights holder directly
Additionally, when uploading a cover there are certain requirements that must be met:
- The original lyrics, composition, and arrangement can’t be modified by copyright law (e.g. it is not allowed to translate the lyrics to another language, this would be considered derivative work)
- The cover should always be your own recording. Recordings from another source (karaoke backing tracks, other people's covers from Youtube, etc.), are not accepted. It cannot include any audio from the original song or another artist's cover recording.
- The original artist should be added as a writer. This is the only reference of the original artist, they shouldn’t be mentioned in the title/artwork nor be assigned any other role than the writer.
- During the upload process, you need to indicate that it is a cover in the origin field (and not a remix or original song).