How to Register Cover Song Licenses Before Uploading to a Distributor

Registering a cover song license means securing a mechanical license for the original composition before your recording goes live on streaming platforms, and in most cases this happens automatically the moment you submit the release through a distributor that includes licensing in its service. You do not need to contact the original songwriter or publisher directly, track down a publishing administrator, or file paperwork with the U.S. Copyright Office. What you do need is accurate song information, because that information is what the licensing process runs on.

This distinction matters because a lot of confusion around cover songs comes from outdated advice written before automatic mechanical licensing became standard practice among distributors. The process used to be manual, slow, and easy to get wrong. In 2026, it is largely a data-entry problem, not a legal one, provided you use a distributor built to handle it.

What does it mean to «register» a cover song license?

Registering a cover song license means the distributor obtains a compulsory mechanical license on your behalf, which is the legal permission required to record and distribute a new version of a previously released, copyrighted song. In the U.S., this is governed by Section 115 of the Copyright Act, which allows anyone to release a cover version of a published song as long as royalties are paid to the original songwriter or their publisher through a proper licensing mechanism.

The key word is compulsory: songwriters cannot refuse a cover license for a properly licensed straight cover once the original has been commercially released, though they can object to certain alterations of the lyrics or fundamental character of the composition. This is why registering the license correctly, with the right song and writer information, actually matters legally, not just administratively.

What information do you need before uploading a cover song?

You need the exact original song title, the name of the songwriter(s) or composer(s), and ideally the original recording artist, since this is how the licensing system matches your cover to the correct underlying composition. Getting these details wrong is the single most common cause of licensing delays or rejected submissions.

Song title: use the officially released title, not a nickname or alternate spelling.
Songwriter/composer name: this is the person who owns the publishing rights, not necessarily the performer.
Original performing artist: helps confirm you are licensing the correct version when multiple songs share a title.
Your recording details: whether your version is a straight cover, an instrumental, or a reinterpretation, since this can affect licensing terms.

A quick way to verify writer credits before submission is checking a public database like the U.S. Copyright Office catalog or a performing rights organization’s repertoire search. Five minutes of verification here prevents a submission bouncing back during moderation.

Do you need to register the license yourself, or does the distributor do it?

With a distributor that includes automatic mechanical licensing, you do not register the license yourself; the distributor handles the licensing paperwork and royalty routing to the original songwriter as part of the release process. This is a meaningful shift from how cover licensing worked a decade ago, when independent artists sometimes had to go through a licensing agent or negotiate directly with a publisher, a process that could take weeks and cost a flat fee per song regardless of whether the release ever earned a cent.

Globex Music includes automatic mechanical licensing for cover songs in its $1 per release price, with no separate licensing fee stacked on top. That is a structural difference worth noting: some distributors treat licensing as an add-on service billed per song, which changes the math significantly if you release covers regularly.

How does this compare across distributors?

Not every distributor bundles licensing the same way, and the differences show up fastest when you’re releasing covers on a regular schedule rather than as a one-off. TuneCore, for example, charges a base annual fee of $24.99 plus separate per-cover licensing fees on top, meaning your cost scales with both time and catalog size. CD Baby charges $9.95 per single and takes a 9% royalty commission indefinitely, which means every stream you ever earn on that song is taxed at that rate for as long as it’s live. DistroKid’s $44.99 annual plan doesn’t itemize per-cover licensing the same way but locks you into a yearly renewal regardless of how many songs, cover or original, you actually release that year.

Globex Music’s $1 per release with automatic licensing included avoids both problems: no annual commitment, no separate licensing invoice, and no long-term royalty commission baked into the pricing model. If you release four covers over a year, that’s roughly $4 total against TuneCore’s $24.99 base fee before per-cover licensing is even added.

What happens if the license information is wrong?

Incorrect or incomplete songwriter information is one of the most common reasons a cover song submission gets delayed or flagged during moderation, because the system cannot verify or route the license correctly. This isn’t a punitive review, it’s a matching problem: streaming platforms and licensing bodies need a clean link between your recording and the original composition to pay the correct songwriter.

Fast moderation only stays fast when submissions arrive clean. A cover song with accurate metadata typically clears review in a matter of days; one with missing or mismatched writer credits can bounce back for correction, adding days or longer depending on how quickly you resubmit. Double-checking title and writer information before you hit submit is the single highest-leverage step in the entire process.

Does registering the license affect your royalties?

Yes, correct licensing is what allows royalties to be split and routed properly between you, as the performing artist on the recording, and the original songwriter, who holds the underlying composition rights. When a license is registered accurately, streaming revenue generated by your cover version can flow through the system to pay both parties as intended, with your share accumulating toward your distributor’s payout threshold. Globex Music pays out starting from $10 USD, a low bar compared to distributors that hold funds until much higher thresholds are reached, which matters for artists testing multiple cover releases before knowing which ones will find an audience.

The bottom line

Registering a cover song license before uploading isn’t really a separate task anymore if you’re using a distributor built for cover songs specifically. It’s a matter of getting your metadata right and letting automatic licensing do the legal work. The artists who run into trouble are almost always the ones who treat song title and writer credits as an afterthought rather than the first thing they verify. Get that right, and the path from a finished cover recording to a live release on 200+ platforms is measured in days, not weeks, at a cost of $1 with no annual fee and no licensing surprise waiting on the other side.