Can You Re-License a Cover Song After a Rejection?

Yes, you can almost always re-license a cover song after a rejection, and doing so is usually a matter of fixing a specific, identifiable problem rather than starting over from scratch. Most rejections come down to metadata mismatches, an unclear or unavailable original recording, or a song that isn’t actually eligible for the type of license you requested. Once you know which category your rejection falls into, resubmission is typically fast.

This matters because a lot of artists treat a licensing rejection as a dead end, when in most cases it’s closer to a data-entry problem. Understanding the mechanics of why mechanical licensing requests fail lets you fix the actual issue instead of resubmitting the same broken request twice.

Why do cover song license requests get rejected?

Cover song licenses get rejected for a small set of recurring reasons: the song title or artist name doesn’t match any registered composition, the song is not actually cleared for compulsory mechanical licensing in your territory, the arrangement changes the fundamental character of the composition without additional permission, or the release includes elements — samples, spoken interludes, additional co-written lyrics — that go beyond a straight cover.

In the US, mechanical licensing for cover songs is governed by Section 115 of the Copyright Act, which gives you a statutory right to license and record a previously released, non-dramatic musical composition as long as you don’t substantially change its fundamental character. That right is broad, but it’s not unconditional — the composition has to be identifiable in rights databases, and the request has to accurately describe what you recorded. Most rejections happen at that identification step, not because the underlying right doesn’t exist.

Is a rejection permanent, or can I fix it and try again?

A rejection is almost never permanent. Automatic mechanical licensing systems, including the one built into Globex Music’s distribution process, check your submission against rights databases in real time, and a failed match simply means the system couldn’t confirm the composition or the metadata you entered — not that the composition is legally off-limits.

The practical fix depends on why it failed:

Metadata mismatch: Re-enter the exact original songwriter names and the exact original title, avoiding nicknames, live-version titles, or alternate spellings pulled from a streaming app.
Composition not found: Check whether the song has multiple registered titles or was written under a different legal name than the performing artist — classical arrangements and older folk songs are common culprits here.
Arrangement concerns: If you added new lyrics, translated the song, or substantially reworked the melody, that may require direct publisher permission rather than a statutory mechanical license — this is the one case where resubmitting the same request won’t help until you get separate clearance.
Unreleased or dramatic work: Section 115 only covers previously released, non-dramatic compositions. A song from an unreleased demo or a stage musical typically needs direct licensing instead.

How long does it take to resubmit and get approved?

Resubmission review is typically fast because you’re not restarting a full distribution review — you’re correcting one flagged data point. With Globex Music’s fast moderation process, corrected cover submissions are usually reviewed within a short turnaround window rather than being pushed to the back of a queue, which matters if you’re trying to time a release around a trending moment or an anniversary date.

Compare that to the cost of getting it wrong repeatedly on a platform that charges per submission or per cover license fee — TuneCore, for example, charges a base annual fee plus separate per-cover licensing fees, so a rejected and resubmitted cover can mean paying twice. At $1 per release with licensing included, a Globex Music resubmission doesn’t carry that same financial penalty for getting the metadata right on the second try instead of the first.

What information should I double-check before resubmitting?

Before you resubmit, verify four things against a reliable source — ideally the original album credits or a rights database, not a fan wiki: the exact composition title as registered, the full legal names of all credited songwriters, the country of your streaming release versus the country where the original was first published, and whether your version alters melody or lyrics beyond a straight performance.

Getting these right the first time is the single biggest lever for avoiding a repeat rejection, and it’s worth the extra ten minutes of research before you hit submit again.

Does a rejection affect my ability to release other covers?

No. A rejected license request for one song has no bearing on your account’s ability to distribute other cover songs. Each submission is evaluated independently against its own composition data, so an unresolved issue with one title doesn’t create a backlog or flag on unrelated releases.

This is worth knowing because some artists hesitate to submit their next cover while waiting on a resubmission, assuming there’s some kind of account-level hold. There isn’t. You can work on clearing one title while releasing others in parallel, which keeps your catalog moving instead of stalling around a single stuck song.

What if the composition genuinely isn’t eligible?

If a song is genuinely ineligible for automatic mechanical licensing — because it’s from a stage musical, was never commercially released, or the arrangement requires direct publisher approval — resubmitting the identical request won’t change the outcome. In that case the path forward is direct licensing negotiation with the publisher, which sits outside the scope of automatic compulsory licensing entirely.

This is a smaller category than most artists assume. The large majority of commercially released, non-dramatic songs are eligible under statutory mechanical licensing, and most rejections trace back to a data mismatch rather than genuine ineligibility. Treating every rejection as a legal dead end overstates how often that’s actually the case.

With 200+ platform reach, no annual fee, and royalty payouts starting from $10 USD, the cost of getting a cover song rejection wrong and resubmitting correctly stays low — which makes it worth the ten minutes to check your metadata rather than abandoning a cover that’s likely still fully licensable.