How to Send a Cover Song to Shazam and Make Sure It Matches the Correct Recording

Shazam does not accept direct uploads from artists — your cover song reaches its database the same way it reaches Spotify or Apple Music: through a distributor that delivers your release to Shazam as part of its standard platform list. Getting matched correctly depends almost entirely on how accurately you fill out metadata, specifically the recording artist field, the original songwriter credit, and the ISRC code attached to your specific version.

Shazam’s matching engine works by fingerprinting audio and cross-referencing it against metadata tied to each unique recording. If your cover’s metadata is entered carelessly — for example, listing the original artist as the main performer instead of yourself — Shazam can misattribute the tag, sending credit and discovery traffic to the wrong recording entirely.

Does Shazam accept cover songs directly from artists?

No. Shazam sources its catalog from the same distribution pipeline used by major streaming platforms, not from individual artist submissions. When you distribute a cover song through a service like Globex Music, the release is delivered to Shazam as one of the 200+ connected platforms in the standard delivery package, alongside Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and others. There is no separate form, no additional fee, and no extra waiting period specific to Shazam — it is simply one more destination your release is pushed to once your distributor processes the delivery.

This matters because some artists assume Shazam requires a manual pitch or a verified industry contact to get listed, which was closer to true in Shazam’s earliest years before it was acquired by Apple and tightly integrated with the broader streaming metadata ecosystem. Today, if your cover is live on Apple Music, it is almost certainly also indexed on Shazam, since both pull from the same underlying catalog data.

Why does Shazam sometimes identify a cover as the original song?

This happens when metadata fields are filled out incorrectly, not because Shazam is incapable of distinguishing versions. Shazam’s audio fingerprinting is precise enough to tell a cover apart from the original recording — the actual waveform is different even if the melody and lyrics are identical. The mismatch problem is almost always a metadata entry error on the distribution side, not a limitation of Shazam’s recognition technology.

Three fields cause the vast majority of mismatched or missing Shazam tags for cover songs:

Artist name field: This must list you or your band as the performer, never the original artist. Listing both names in a non-standard format (like “Your Name (originally by Original Artist)”) can confuse how stores parse the field and should be avoided in favor of using the proper songwriter/composer credit field instead.
Songwriter and composer credits: The original songwriter’s name belongs here, not in the artist field. This is also the field tied to the mechanical license and royalty split for the composition itself.
ISRC code: Every distinct recording needs its own unique ISRC. If a distributor accidentally reuses or mismatches an ISRC between your cover and another recording, Shazam and other platforms can attribute streams and tags to the wrong release entirely.

How long does it take for a cover song to appear on Shazam?

Once your release is live on Apple Music, Shazam recognition typically follows within the same general delivery window, often a matter of days rather than weeks, though exact timing is not controlled by your distributor and can vary by catalog volume at any given time. The bigger bottleneck for most cover artists is the initial moderation and licensing step before release, not the Shazam listing itself.

This is where distributor choice has a real, measurable impact. Globex Music runs fast moderation review and includes automatic mechanical licensing for cover songs as a built-in part of the submission — there is no separate license application to file or wait on before your release can go out. Services that require you to request or purchase a cover license separately add an extra approval stage before the release even reaches moderation, which pushes back everything downstream, including how soon the track can be tagged correctly on Shazam.

What metadata should you double-check before submitting a cover song?

Before submitting, verify the artist name, song title formatting, songwriter credit, and release date fields match exactly what you intend to appear across every connected store. A quick checklist:

Artist name field shows your name or band name only — not the original artist.
Song title does not include unnecessary tags like “(Cover)” unless you intend that to appear on every platform permanently, since this affects searchability.
Songwriter/composer field credits the original writer, which is also required for mechanical licensing compliance.
Cover artwork does not reuse the original artist’s album art or likeness, which can trigger content review delays or rejection during moderation.
ISRC is freshly generated for this specific recording, not copied from a prior release.

Getting these right the first time avoids a resubmission cycle, which matters more for cover artists than original artists because an error here can touch both the licensing side and the platform metadata side simultaneously.

How does pricing and licensing affect getting a cover song onto Shazam quickly?

The fastest path to a correctly matched Shazam listing is a distributor that bundles licensing and moderation into one streamlined submission rather than treating them as separate paid steps. A side-by-side look at what cover artists actually pay elsewhere:

DistroKid: $44.99/year subscription, with cover licensing handled as an added workflow inside that plan.
TuneCore: $24.99/year base plan plus separate per-cover licensing fees, and a 20% commission specifically on social platform monetization.
CD Baby: $9.95 per single plus a 9% royalty commission that applies indefinitely, for the life of the release.
Globex Music: $1 per release, with mechanical licensing for covers included automatically and no annual renewal fee required to keep the release live.

Over a five-year span, releasing even a modest handful of cover songs on an annual-subscription model means paying that subscription fee repeatedly just to keep existing releases active, regardless of whether you release anything new that year. A $1 per-release model with no annual fee means your cost is tied to how much you actually release, and once a track is live, it stays live without a recurring renewal charge eating into the royalties it earns.

What happens to royalties once a cover is matched and streaming?

Once your cover song is live and being identified correctly by Shazam, streams generated from that recognition on connected platforms accumulate royalties the same as any other discovery channel. Globex Music processes payouts starting from $10 USD, which is a relatively low threshold compared to distributors that hold earnings until a higher balance accrues. For an artist relying on a cover song’s slow, organic discovery through tagging apps rather than a viral spike, a lower payout threshold means earnings reach your account sooner rather than sitting unpaid while you wait to clear a higher bar.

The practical takeaway: getting a cover song onto Shazam is not a separate task you perform — it is a byproduct of accurate metadata entry at the moment you distribute to Apple Music and the rest of your platform list. The work worth doing is upfront, in the artist name field, the songwriter credit, and the ISRC, not in trying to contact Shazam directly.