If you learned about cover song licensing from US-focused blog posts, you probably picked up the phrase ‘compulsory mechanical license’ and assumed it works the same way everywhere. It doesn’t. The US system built around Section 115 of the Copyright Act is actually one of the more unusual setups in the world — most other countries handle cover licensing through collective management organizations instead of a fixed statutory formula. Here’s a quick, practical comparison so you know what you’re actually dealing with depending on where you (or your listeners) are based.
The good news for artists using Globex Music: no matter which of these systems applies to your cover, mechanical licensing is handled automatically as part of your release, starting at $1 per single. You don’t need to file separate paperwork per territory to get your cover distributed to 200+ platforms.
The US baseline: compulsory license via Section 115
In the US, once a song has been commercially released, anyone can record and distribute a cover version without asking the original songwriter’s permission — as long as they pay the statutory mechanical royalty rate and don’t change the fundamental character of the composition. It’s a formal, codified compulsory license system, often processed through the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) for streaming use. This is the model most American distributors are built around.
Canada: similar in spirit, different mechanism
Canada also allows compulsory-style mechanical licensing for covers under its Copyright Act, but the rates and administration flow through different collecting bodies than the US system. In practice, for streaming distribution, the process feels similar to the US from an artist’s perspective — you’re not required to track down the original songwriter for permission — but the royalty rate-setting body and the compliance paperwork are distinct. If you’re distributing to Canadian platforms alongside US ones, this rarely creates extra work for you directly, since your distributor’s licensing partners handle the jurisdiction-specific routing.
UK and EU: no direct US-style compulsory license
This is the one that surprises people most. The UK and most EU countries don’t have a direct equivalent to the US compulsory mechanical license. Instead, mechanical rights for covers are typically managed through collective rights organizations — PRS for Music and MCPS in the UK, GEMA in Germany, SACEM in France, and so on. These organizations issue licenses on behalf of songwriters and publishers, and rates are set through negotiated tariffs rather than a fixed statutory formula written into copyright law.
For a solo artist releasing a cover, the practical difference is small: you still don’t need to personally track down and negotiate with the songwriter. But the licensing is happening through a collective management structure rather than an individual statutory right, and the specific tariff can vary depending on the collecting society and the type of use (physical, download, or streaming).
Australia and New Zealand: collective licensing model
Australia and New Zealand follow a model closer to the UK than the US. Mechanical rights are administered through APRA AMCOS, which handles both performance and mechanical licensing under one roof — a structural difference from the US, where performance rights (PROs) and mechanical rights (MLC) are handled by entirely separate organizations. If you’re an Australian artist covering a song, your local collecting society relationship is doing a lot of the background work that would otherwise require separate registrations in a US-style system.
Why this matters for where you release, not just what you release
Here’s the practical takeaway: the underlying licensing framework in the songwriter’s home country determines how the royalty gets paid out, but it doesn’t usually create extra steps for you as the artist releasing a cover through a distributor. What changes country to country is:
- Which organization actually processes the mechanical royalty (a government-recognized statutory system vs. a collective society)
- How rates are calculated (fixed formula vs. negotiated tariff)
- How performance and mechanical rights are split administratively (separate bodies vs. one combined society)
None of this changes your job as an artist: pick the song, record your version without altering the core composition beyond what’s reasonable for an arrangement, and release it through a distributor that already has licensing infrastructure in place across these different systems.
What this looks like in practice with Globex Music
Globex Music includes automatic mechanical licensing as part of every cover song release, so you’re not expected to figure out whether a given track falls under a US-style compulsory license, a UK collective tariff, or an Australian combined-society arrangement. That routing happens behind the scenes. From your side, the process looks the same regardless of where the original songwriter is based:
- Submit your cover for a flat $1 per single, with no annual fee
- Moderation and review move quickly, so you’re not stuck waiting weeks to find out if your release is approved
- Your cover goes out to 200+ streaming platforms globally
- Royalty payouts start from $10 USD, with no catalog expiration or forced renewal
Compare that to the ongoing costs of other distributors: DistroKid runs $44.99 per year just to keep your catalog live, TuneCore charges a $24.99 base fee per year plus separate per-cover licensing fees and a 20% commission specifically on social platform monetization, and CD Baby charges $9.95 per single plus a 9% royalty commission that applies forever, not just in year one. Over three or five years of steadily releasing covers, those recurring costs stack up in a way a flat $1-per-single model simply doesn’t.
The bottom line
You don’t need to become an expert in Canadian tariff schedules or German collecting society structure to release a cover legally and get paid. What matters is choosing a distributor whose licensing infrastructure already accounts for these regional differences — so your cover reaches listeners in the US, UK, EU, Canada, and Australia under whichever framework applies locally, without you having to manage five different licensing processes yourself.
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