Cover Song Licensing in Canada: What Independent Artists Need to Know

Canada does not have a compulsory mechanical licensing system identical to the US Music Modernization Act, which means Canadian artists releasing cover songs rely on a mix of reproduction rights administered through licensing bodies and, in practice, on distributors who obtain the underlying license on the artist’s behalf. For most independent artists, the practical path is the same one used worldwide: release through a distributor that automatically clears the mechanical license as part of the upload process, rather than trying to negotiate rights song-by-song.

This matters because Canada’s system is structurally different from the American one, and artists who assume US rules apply north of the border sometimes get confused about who they need to pay and how.

How is cover song licensing different in Canada versus the US?

In the US, the Music Modernization Act created a compulsory blanket mechanical license administered by the Mechanical Licensing Collective, meaning anyone can obtain a mechanical license for an eligible song at a fixed statutory rate. Canada has no equivalent single blanket system for mechanical reproduction rights in this exact form. Instead, reproduction royalties for musical works in Canada are collected and distributed largely through CMRRA (the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency) and SODRAC’s legacy catalog, which CMRRA now administers after SODRAC’s 2018 restructuring.

For an independent artist, the difference is mostly invisible in day-to-day practice. You are not expected to personally contact CMRRA or negotiate a license every time you want to record a cover. Distributors that specialize in cover song releases build the licensing clearance into their submission process, checking that the composition is eligible and handling the paperwork on your behalf. That is the entire point of using a distributor built for covers rather than a general-purpose upload tool.

What role does SOCAN play in cover songs?

SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) collects performance royalties, not mechanical royalties. This is a distinction that trips up a lot of new artists. Performance royalties are generated when a song is played publicly, streamed, or broadcast, and they get paid out to the original songwriter and publisher, not to you as the cover artist, since you did not write the underlying composition. Mechanical royalties, by contrast, are generated when a reproduction of the composition is distributed, which is the category cover songs fall under when you press or upload a new recording of someone else’s song.

As a cover artist, you will not collect SOCAN royalties for a cover unless you also wrote original material in it, such as a new arrangement with substantial original elements that qualifies for its own copyright treatment, which is rare and requires the original publisher’s separate approval. What you will collect, once your distributor has secured the mechanical clearance, is your share of royalties generated from streams and downloads of your recording — the master recording royalties, which is a separate and distinct revenue stream from songwriting royalties.

Do you need to contact the original songwriter directly?

No, and doing so is generally unnecessary and inefficient. Mechanical licensing for covers is designed to work without direct artist-to-songwriter negotiation, provided the song qualifies (previously released, not out of copyright ownership disputes, and not altering the fundamental character of the composition beyond a reasonable arrangement). A distributor that automatically includes mechanical licensing as part of the release process — as Globex Music does at $1 per single — removes this step entirely. You upload the cover, the distributor identifies and clears the composition, and the release moves to moderation.

What about the Copyright Board of Canada?

The Copyright Board of Canada sets certain statutory tariffs for specific uses (like commercial radio or certain streaming categories) but it is not something an individual independent artist interacts with directly when releasing a single cover song. Tariff-setting happens at the institutional level between the Board and collectives like CMRRA or SOCAN. Your involvement as an artist is limited to making sure your distributor is actually securing the license correctly — the compliance burden sits with the distribution platform, not with you personally, which is exactly why platform choice matters more than most artists initially assume.

How much should cover song distribution cost for a Canadian artist?

It should cost close to what it costs anywhere else, since licensing is now largely automated on the distributor side rather than negotiated per artist. Globex Music charges $1 per single release with automatic mechanical licensing included, which stands in sharp contrast to services that charge an annual subscription or stack per-cover fees on top of a base plan.

Run the numbers on a realistic release schedule. An artist putting out one cover single a month pays $12/year through a $1-per-release model. The same volume through DistroKid’s $44.99/year plan costs nearly four times as much regardless of how many covers you actually release that year. TuneCore’s $24.99 base annual fee adds per-cover licensing fees on top, and its social platform distribution carries a 20% commission on top of that. CD Baby charges $9.95 per single plus a 9% royalty commission that applies forever, on every stream, indefinitely — not a one-time fee but a permanent cut of your catalog’s earnings. Over five years, that 9% compounds against every dollar your covers ever earn, which is a materially different cost structure than a flat $1 upload fee with no recurring charge and no annual renewal.

What should Canadian artists check before releasing a cover?

Confirm three things: the song is eligible for cover licensing (commercially released, not subject to a specific «no cover» restriction from the publisher, and not altered in a way that changes its fundamental character), your distributor explicitly states that mechanical licensing is included rather than left to you to arrange, and your payout threshold is reasonable. Globex Music pays out starting from $10 USD, which for a cover artist releasing a handful of singles a year is a realistic, reachable threshold rather than a number designed to keep small balances locked in the platform indefinitely.

Fast moderation matters more for covers than originals

Cover songs face an extra verification step that original music does not: the distributor has to confirm the composition is legitimately licensable before the release goes live. Slow moderation on this step can mean weeks of delay on a single track. Fast-moving cover catalogs — the kind built by artists releasing new covers regularly to catch trending searches or seasonal interest — depend on moderation turnaround measured in days, not weeks, since a cover of a song that is trending this month has a shrinking window of relevance.

The bottom line for Canadian cover artists

Canada’s licensing infrastructure is different in its institutional plumbing from the US, but it changes almost nothing about what an independent artist actually needs to do. You still need a distributor that automatically secures mechanical clearance, charges a low, flat per-release fee rather than a recurring annual cost that punishes low-volume releasing, and pays out at a threshold you can realistically hit. The legal complexity is real, but it is complexity that belongs to the distribution platform to manage, not the artist releasing a cover of a song they love.