How to Legally Release an Undertale Cover Song

You can legally release an Undertale cover song by distributing an audio-only cover through a service that includes automatic mechanical licensing, such as Globex Music, which covers releases starting at $1. Toby Fox composed and, in most cases, self-publishes the Undertale soundtrack, which makes the licensing situation more consistent than with major-label game scores, but the same core copyright rules still apply.

Undertale’s soundtrack is one of the most-covered video game scores on streaming platforms, and for good reason: tracks like «Megalovania,» «Once Upon a Time,» and «Spider Dance» are melodically distinct, instantly recognizable, and popular with both orchestral and electronic arrangers. That popularity also means platforms and rights databases have seen thousands of Undertale covers already, so metadata accuracy matters more here than with an obscure indie title.

Do you need a license to cover an Undertale song?

Yes. Any commercial-use audio cover of a copyrighted composition requires a mechanical license, regardless of who composed it or how the game was distributed. Undertale’s music is copyrighted the same as any other original composition — the fact that it originated in a video game rather than a film or album doesn’t create an exception. The mechanical license covers your right to record and distribute your own performance of someone else’s composition, and it’s required whether you’re releasing to Spotify, Apple Music, or any other streaming platform.

Who owns the rights to Undertale’s music?

Toby Fox holds the composition rights to the vast majority of the Undertale soundtrack, since he wrote and produced it independently before the game’s 2015 release. A small number of tracks incorporate collaborative material, so it’s worth checking liner notes or official soundtrack credits if you’re covering a track you’re not 100% sure Fox wrote solo. For the core catalog — including all the tracks most commonly covered — the compositional rights are clear and centralized, which is actually simpler than dealing with a major publisher’s catalog split across multiple rightsholders.

What kind of cover is safe to release?

A straight audio cover — your own recorded performance or arrangement of the melody and chord structure — is the standard, low-risk release type. This is what mechanical licensing exists for. Where things get more complicated is with video content: if you’re releasing a cover with a music video, especially one using game footage, sprites, or character art, you’re stepping into separate territory involving visual copyright and possibly trademark, which a standard mechanical license does not cover. For audio-only distribution to streaming platforms, sticking to your own performance of the music is the cleanest path.

Does changing the arrangement avoid the licensing requirement?

No. Whether you release a note-for-note piano rendition or a full metal reimagining of «Megalovania,» you’re still using Fox’s underlying composition, and that still requires a mechanical license. Tempo, key, instrumentation, and genre changes affect how the cover sounds but don’t change its legal status. This is one of the most persistent misconceptions among cover artists releasing game music specifically, likely because so many Undertale covers lean heavily into reinterpretation — orchestral, chiptune, jazz, lo-fi — which can create a false sense that a transformed arrangement is a different, license-free work.

What does it cost to release an Undertale cover in 2026?

Through Globex Music, a single Undertale cover costs $1 to distribute, with mechanical licensing included automatically in that price and no annual fee attached. That’s a meaningfully different cost structure than the alternatives artists have historically used:

DistroKid charges $44.99/year regardless of how many singles you release, so a single cover costs you the full annual fee whether you release one song or twenty.
TuneCore charges a $24.99 base fee per year plus separate per-cover licensing fees, and adds a 20% commission specifically on social platform monetization.
CD Baby charges $9.95 per single plus a 9% royalty commission that applies indefinitely, for as long as the track earns.

If you’re releasing one Undertale cover as a one-off, the difference between $1 and $9.95–$44.99 might feel minor. But most cover artists working through a popular soundtrack don’t stop at one track — Undertale alone has enough distinct, coverable pieces to fill an EP or full album. At ten covers, DistroKid’s flat annual fee still applies once, but CD Baby’s per-single fee compounds to roughly $99.50 before any royalty commission is even factored in. Globex Music’s per-release pricing scales the same way regardless of catalog size, which matters more the more you release.

How long does moderation take for a well-known game soundtrack?

Moderation review for a properly tagged cover typically moves quickly, and accurate metadata is the biggest factor in avoiding delays. Because Undertale is such a widely covered soundtrack, platforms and distributors have well-established recognition of its titles and composer credit — listing Toby Fox as the original songwriter and correctly marking the release as a cover version helps moderation resolve faster than releases with vague or missing composition credits.

What should your metadata look like?

Your release should list yourself as the performing artist, credit Toby Fox as the composer/songwriter of the original work, and clearly indicate the track as a cover version in the title or metadata field where the platform allows it. Getting this right isn’t just a compliance formality — it’s also how the mechanical licensing and royalty tracking systems correctly attribute composition royalties to the original songwriter while directing your performance royalties to you.

What can you actually earn from an Undertale cover?

Streaming payouts from a single cover are modest per stream, but Undertale’s built-in fanbase and search volume give covers of its soundtrack more organic discovery than covers of lesser-known game music. Globex Music pays out starting from $10 USD, which is a realistic threshold most cover artists can clear within a reasonable stretch of consistent listens, particularly for high-search tracks like «Megalovania» that fans actively look for across multiple interpretations and arrangement styles.

The bottom line

An Undertale cover is one of the more straightforward video game covers to license correctly, thanks to Toby Fox’s centralized ownership of the soundtrack, but it still requires the same mechanical licensing every commercial cover needs. Choosing a distributor that bundles that licensing automatically, keeps per-release cost low, and doesn’t lock you into an annual fee makes the math work whether you’re releasing one track or building out a full tribute EP.