Cover songs have an interesting place in the musician lexicon. The term cover song originated in the early part of the recording era, when record labels’ distribution was often limited regionally. When a song grew in popularity in one region, competing labels in other regions would record and distribute the same song to cover their region. A similar practice occurs today, online with digital music stores like iTunes. Some popular bands refuse to sell their music on iTunes. When they release a new album, a cover version of the single will invariably appear on iTunes, often by a studio band.
Cover songs reveal much about artists, from their ability to simply sing or play their instruments to their own tastes in music. For independent musicians, cover songs are usually a way to make money, grow your fan base, and a means for creative expression.
Many of the musicians I know and work with play in wedding or dance bands. They are expected to know a long list of popular tunes, and play them exactly as they were originally recorded. These cover band gigs usually pay pretty well, and perform frequently. Steady, paying work is something every musician needs, and this is one way to get it.
Performing Cover Songs
For musicians that write and perform original music, cover songs are a chance to add some familiarity to their performances. In fact, one of the best ways out of obscurity is to add a handful of cover songs to your repertoire. While your fans may know the words to all your songs, people that are new to your music will appreciate hearing a familiar song. Furthermore, recording cover songs can help people find your music. This is especially true if you sell music online, as a search query could turn up your version of a popular song. More on this later.
Taking the notion of familiarity a step further, musicians can re-work a cover song to the point it’s hardly recognizable save the lyrics or melody. There are a handful of artists known for their cover versions of songs, usually because their versions are a stark contrast to the original. In this case, the song is often used as a grounds to measure creativity. For example, jazz artists usually know a great deal of standards, which are simply tunes many other jazz musicians have recorded or performed. Because a large part of jazz is improvisation, these standards are the familiar ground on which the creativity takes place.
When you perform cover songs, the writers and publishers are paid through performing right societies such as ASCAP, BMI, SOCAN, or PRS. One way these performing rights organizations (often referred to as PROs) collect royalties is by charging a fee to bars and live music venues. Next time you walk into a club, look for a PRO sticker on the door or front window. That means they are paying their dues so they can have a jukebox, DJ, or live bands that might play cover songs. There are two important things to keep in mind about PROs:
- They collect royalties for public performances, not for the sale of recorded music. That is considered private use.
- As a performer, you do not have to pay performance royalties. These are paid by the venue which hired you to perform. However, if you record your show and sell it as a live album, you will need to pay for the compulsory licenses, discussed later in this article.
Posting Cover Songs on YouTube
A great deal of musicians make videos of themselves performing cover songs at home and upload them to sites like YouTube. This is another great way to leverage people’s familiarity with the covered songs as a gateway to your original music. From my experience, videos of cover songs get many more views than videos of original music. Be sure to use the video description and tags wisely to help people find your cover song video and then link to your music elsewhere online.
You are allowed to post your cover songs on YouTube… sometimes.
Initially, YouTube ran into problems with copyright holders (mainly publishers) because legally speaking, these videos are a form of distribution that requires a synch license. This issue is gradually being cleared up, however. YouTube allows publishers to claim their copyrighted material and monetize the videos. In other words, a publisher might have the ability to make money from ads on your cover song video.
As of now there is no way of knowing which publishers have inked deals with YouTube and your videos can still run the risk of being pulled down. Proceed with caution, and for a more in depth read on this subject, check out “Music, Copyright, and YouTube” by Suzanne Lainson.
Recording Cover Songs
If performing cover songs is a great way to reach a few new fans, recording them is a great way to reach hundreds or thousands of new fans. Just as playing a cover song at your gig can attract the attention of new fans, putting a cover song on your album or EP might encourage people to check out more of your music.
One clever approach to deciding which cover songs to put on your album is to choose a somewhat obscure song by one of your major influences. While most people might not immediately recognize the song, die hard fans of the original artist will be more interested in hearing your version. After all, if they are fans of the music that inspired you, they’re much more likely to be fans of your original music. For more ideas on how to chose which cover songs to record, see “Cash For Covers” by Alex Holz.
How Do I Release Cover Songs Legally?
Sharing of an audio recording in any form, paid or unpaid, constitutes distribution. Distribution can be in the form of downloads, streaming from any website, including yours, or any physical product such as CD or vinyl. When you distribute a recording a song somebody else wrote, whether it’s for commercial use (making it for sale) or promotional use (giving it away for free), you are still required to obtain a compulsory license and pay royalties.
In order to share your cover song recordings, you must obtain a license.
Many independent artists are weary of putting cover songs on their album because of the hassle of obtaining a compulsory license. I was among this group of people until I figure out how to use an online licensing system such as RightsFlow’s Limelight service. I licensed four cover songs on one of my albums for both physical and digital distribution.
Through Limelight or Harry Fox, royalties are pre-paid. There is also a flat fee per song regardless of how many licenses you purchase. It takes a little guess work to estimate how many licenses to pay for up front, which will add to the initial cost of your release, but this is an extremely convenient way to obtain a compulsory license. If you want to record and release a cover song, I highly recommend using one of these services. If you have any questions, consult a music lawyer ahead of time.
If you want to avoid paying royalties altogether, you may be able to find popular songs in the public domain. Generally speaking, these are songs that were written before 1923. Most traditional spirituals and hymns fall into this category. To prove a song is in the public domain, you will need to be able to produce published sheet music that displays the copyright. With the vast number of resources online, this is pretty easy. One other warning here–original arrangements of public domain music can be copyrighted. Before you record a public domain song, make sure you’re not using a copyrighted arrangement.
The benefits of releasing cover songs outweigh the hassle of tracking sales and paying for royalties, especially with services like Limelight! streamlining the process for independent musicians. The cover songs I’ve released have generated more sales than my original music, either from individual downloads or by leading people to buy my full album as either a download or CD. I’m currently working on a covers album with a friend (and regardless of when you read this article, that statement is probably true). This is simply an easy way to create some steady income as a musician.
Make Cover Songs Work for You
I’ll leave you with one tip for releasing cover songs: Get your metadata right! The biggest advantage of releasing cover songs online is that people will find you in search results. Make sure you’ve optimized your key words, and it’s a good idea to experiment with a few searches and see what comes up on various sites. Understand how people search for songs (usually by the original artist, album, and title). Make sure you spell everything correctly.
Good luck!
Cameron Mizell
New York guitarist Cameron Mizell is involved in a wide variety of musical projects ranging from jazz to pop, avant-garde to singer/songwriter, bluegrass to indie rocktronica. He recently released his third album, Tributary, with his jazz/funk organ trio. Cameron's experiences as a musician and former record label employee give him a unique perspective on the musician industry, which he enjoys sharing on MusicianWages. Connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.
Firstly, if I take a 20 second snippet of me performing a cover of a song, post it on my website and credit the songwriter(s) and urging people to buy their works, so people can hear me and decide if they might want to hire me because I don’t write my own material (and have no idea if I ever will), it is highly unlikely that anybody can take issue with it. Besides, you can’t blood from a turnip, as the old saying goes.
Secondly, I do not see why, with the technology today, somebody like CDBaby and/or iTunes cannot work out an incremental mechanical licensing arrangement with Fox and Limelight. Wouldn’t everyone here be willing to pay a premium licensing fee if it was simply built into the fee for distributing your music? You fill out a blanket form agreeing, CDBaby or iTunes tracks the sales, collects the money, and settles up with the mechanical licensing agencies once a month. All you do is credit the songwriters when you upload the song for sale so they can figure out who gets the fees.
You wouldn’t have to worry about paperwork, purchasing mechanical licenses in advance, etc. You just do what you’re good at, the distributors get compensated for their role in simplifying your life, and the licensing agencies get very accurate accountings of sales and a nice chunk of money every month (or quarter or whatever) to pass along to the songwriters.
Wouldn’t you pay a 10-20% premium on the standard license fee if you never paid for any more units than you actually sold and never had to do any paperwork or accounting?
I cannot imagine this would be anything but a tremendous boon for the recording musican. Not all of us are songwriters.
I’m pretty sure a 30 second clip does not require any kind of license. That’s why all those online stores use 30 second clips. When iTunes switched to 90 seconds, it was a big deal for people who cared about that kind of thing.
Regarding your second point, I agree, and I think everyone would agree. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before that happens. There’s just a lot of red tape to sort out. It’s easier to leave the responsibility (and liability) to the artist right now. Once the lawyers can make sure all the money goes to the right people, we’ll see this sort of thing hit the market.
I have read and read and it seems that the questions closest to mine are never really answered unless I just missed it, in which case I apologize, but here it is. I operate an upstart indie label with some great song writers. We don’t mind paying royalties if needed. Just want to know without a doubt if this is in fact necessary if we only use the music and not the lyrics as we all write our own original lyrics. The delivery of the songs also do not resemble the original song. This is common in Rap/HipHop and are known as a “remix.” However, I am working with RnB artists.
I’m no expert, but it has always been my understanding that melody and lyrics are copyrighted, and if you use either you need to pay royalties. Chord progressions are not, however, which is why it was common for jazz musicians to write new melodies to favorite progressions (such as rhythm changes).
Can this rule be applied to sampling or is that a whole other subject on its own. If I could sample music and just pay royalties via CD Baby or Itunes that would be awesome!
Sampling requires an entirely different type of licensing, because you’re using a recording that is owned by somebody else.
The compulsory license discussed in this article is for the underlying composition.
When remixes are created, they are either commissioned by the owner of the original recording, or the remixer pays royalties for the samples.
If you purchase a prepaid digital license via harry fox agency which covers USA, do you also have to purchase a license for Canada, UK etc… for everywhere your song may be purchased?