When you submit a cover song for distribution, it doesn’t go straight to Spotify or Apple Music. It passes through a moderation review first — a human and automated check that decides whether your release is ready for 200+ platforms or needs a fix. Most artists never see this process happen, so it feels like a black box. Here’s what’s actually going on behind the screen.
Step 1: Automated Metadata Checks
The moment you hit submit, software scans your release for structural problems before any human looks at it. This automated pass typically checks:
— Whether the track title matches formatting rules (no all-caps, no excessive emojis, no promotional text like ‘FREE DOWNLOAD’)
— Whether the artist name matches your verified profile
— Whether the audio file meets technical specs (correct sample rate, no clipping or silence at the start/end)
— Whether artwork meets resolution and content requirements (no blurry images, no streaming platform logos, no unrelated text)
This automated layer catches the majority of rejections, and it happens fast — often within minutes of submission. If your file fails here, you’ll usually get an immediate error message rather than waiting through the full review.
Step 2: The Cover-Specific Check
This is where cover submissions diverge from original releases. Because a cover involves someone else’s composition, the moderation team needs to confirm a few extra things:
— That the original song and original writer(s) are correctly identified in your submission
— That your recording is a legitimate cover (a new vocal/instrumental performance) rather than a remix, sample-based track, or unauthorized use of someone else’s master recording
— That the song is eligible for compulsory mechanical licensing (this generally covers commercially released, non-classical musical compositions)
This is also the step where automatic mechanical licensing gets applied on the back end. Because Globex Music handles this automatically for eligible covers, you don’t need to submit separate licensing paperwork or wait on a third-party licensing agency — the check and the licensing happen together, in the same review pass.
Step 3: Human Reviewer Pass
Even with automation, a person still looks at every submission before it goes live. A reviewer is generally looking for:
— Whether the audio actually matches the metadata (is this really ‘Yesterday’ by the Beatles, or is the title misleading?)
— Whether the release violates any content policy (explicit content flagged incorrectly, copyright red flags outside the cover-license scope)
— Whether the artwork or title implies false affiliation with the original artist (for example, artwork that makes it look like an official release from the original band)
This is the step most people picture when they think of ‘moderation,’ but by the time a human sees your submission, most of the technical work has already been done automatically. The human pass is really a final sanity check, not a from-scratch review.
Step 4: Approval and Delivery Scheduling
Once approved, your release is queued for delivery to your selected platforms. Delivery timing varies by platform — some platforms ingest new releases within a day, others take longer depending on their own internal processing. This is why release date planning matters: submitting with a buffer of several days to a couple of weeks before your target date gives moderation and delivery time to complete without rushing.
Typical Review Timeframes
Fast-moving moderation is one of the practical advantages of a distributor built around volume and simplicity. Because Globex Music processes cover submissions with a streamlined, cover-specific workflow (rather than routing every cover through manual licensing correspondence), typical review times stay short — which matters a lot if you’re releasing covers on a weekly or biweekly schedule and can’t afford multi-week delays between recording and going live.
Common Reasons a Cover Gets Sent Back
Understanding the checks above makes it easy to predict what triggers a rejection or a request for changes:
— Title includes phrases like ‘cover,’ ‘tribute,’ or ‘in the style of’ formatted incorrectly, or omits the original writer credit entirely
— Artwork features the original artist’s name or image in a way that implies their involvement
— The submitted song isn’t actually eligible for the standard cover licensing path (for example, it’s a parody, a sample-heavy reinterpretation, or based on a composition not commercially released yet)
— Audio file issues unrelated to the cover itself — wrong format, low bitrate, or a rendering error
None of these are usually fatal. Most rejections just mean fixing metadata or artwork and resubmitting, and because review passes move quickly, a correction rarely costs you more than a day or two.
Why This Process Matters for Your Release Strategy
Knowing what moderation actually checks lets you submit clean the first time: correct title formatting, accurate original-writer credit, clean artwork, and a properly rendered audio file. Combined with a distributor that charges around $1 per release with no annual fee, offers payouts starting from $10, and includes automatic licensing for eligible covers, a fast and predictable moderation process means you can plan release dates with confidence instead of guessing when your track will actually go live.
The Bottom Line
Moderation isn’t a mysterious gatekeeping exercise — it’s a structured sequence of automated checks, cover-specific licensing verification, and a final human review. For cover artists specifically, the extra layer around original-song identification and licensing eligibility is the main difference from an original release, and it’s exactly the step that automatic mechanical licensing is designed to simplify.
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