How to Draft a Collaboration Agreement for a Cover Song Duet

A cover song duet agreement is a short written document that settles four things before recording starts: how royalties are split between the two performers, whose account distributes the release, who covers the mechanical licensing cost, and how each person’s name and image appear in credits and artwork. None of this requires a lawyer or a long contract template — a one-page agreement signed by both parties is enough to prevent almost every dispute that comes up between cover duet partners.

Duets create a specific wrinkle that solo covers don’t have: two people are performing someone else’s composition together, but only one distributor account and one royalty destination can exist for a given release. Streaming platforms don’t split payouts automatically between collaborators the way a band’s label might. If that’s not addressed in writing before release day, the money goes to whoever hits submit — and getting it moved after the fact is slower and more awkward than agreeing on it up front.

What should a cover duet agreement actually include?

At minimum, it should cover ownership of the recording, the royalty split, who is responsible for licensing and distribution fees, and how billing order and credits will read. These four points map directly onto the practical decisions two performers have to make anyway, so writing them down costs little extra effort.

1. Recording ownership and contribution

State plainly that both performers contributed a vocal or instrumental performance to the specific recording being released, and that neither party claims ownership of the underlying composition — that always belongs to the original songwriter and publisher, regardless of who performs the cover. This distinction matters because it’s the performance (the «master») that the two of you jointly own, not the song itself.

2. The royalty split

Write down the exact percentage split, whether that’s 50/50 or something else based on who arranged, recorded, or mixed the track. A 50/50 split is standard for a genuine duet where both voices carry equal weight, but if one person did the instrumental arrangement and the other only sang a guest verse, an 80/20 or 70/30 split is common and should be stated as a number, not a vague phrase like «fair share.»

3. Who distributes, and who fronts the licensing cost

Because only one account can submit the release, name that person explicitly and note who pays the per-track distribution fee. With Globex Music’s $1 per single and automatic mechanical licensing included in that fee, this is a trivial cost to split or absorb compared to distributors that charge separately for cover licensing on top of an annual plan — but it should still be named in the agreement so there’s no ambiguity about who’s out the dollar.

4. Credits, artwork, and billing order

Specify how both names appear — «Artist A feat. Artist B,» «Artist A & Artist B,» or a joint duet act name — and who supplies the artwork. Billing order affects how the release is indexed and searched for on each platform, so decide it before submission, not after the metadata is already live.

How does payout actually work when only one person can submit the release?

The distributing account receives the royalty payment from streaming platforms, and the two performers settle the split between themselves directly, since no major distributor splits payouts mid-stream. This is the part duet partners most often get wrong, expecting the platform or distributor to handle the division automatically the way a publishing collection society might.

In practice this means the non-distributing partner is trusting the other to actually pay out on schedule. That trust gap is exactly what the written agreement exists to close — not by changing how the platform pays, but by giving the party owed money a clear, signed reference point if payment doesn’t show up. With payouts on Globex Music starting from $10, a duet cover that streams modestly can clear a payout threshold faster than one artist releasing solo, since combined fan bases from both performers typically drive more first-month plays than either audience alone.

Does the mechanical license need both names on it?

No — the mechanical license for a cover recording is tied to the recording and the distributor submitting it, not to each individual performer’s name. What matters for licensing compliance is that the original songwriter and publisher are correctly credited in the metadata and that the license fee is paid through the distributor’s automatic licensing process, which Globex Music includes in the $1 release fee rather than charging as a separate line item the way some competitors do for cover-specific licensing.

What happens if the duet partners want to release the same recording separately later?

This should be addressed directly in the agreement, because it comes up more often than most first-time duet partners expect. If one partner wants to re-release the same recording as a solo edit, or wants to remove their vocal and re-record their own version months later, spell out whether that’s allowed and whether the other partner is owed anything from that separate release. Leaving this unaddressed is one of the more common sources of friction after a duet cover gets modest traction and one performer wants to capitalize on it solo.

A simple structure to copy

A workable duet agreement can be five short sections: (1) names of both performers and the song being covered, including original writer credit; (2) statement that both contributed performances to the joint recording; (3) royalty split expressed as a percentage; (4) name of the distributing account and how/when payouts are forwarded to the other party; (5) signatures and date. Each section should take one or two sentences — this is a working document between two collaborators, not a record label contract.

Why this matters more for duets than solo covers

A solo cover artist only has to manage their own expectations. A duet introduces a second party who is depending on someone else’s account and someone else’s follow-through to see any return on their performance. The agreement’s real function isn’t legal enforceability — it’s removing ambiguity before money or credit is on the line, at a point in the process where a five-minute conversation is far cheaper than a dispute after release. Given that Globex Music charges $1 per single with no annual fee, the cost side of a duet cover is negligible; the split and payout terms are where nearly all the actual risk sits, which is exactly why they deserve to be the parts written down.