Cover song for album, needs license?

[William B.]

Hi, my question is if I want to put a cover of "Unholy Confessions" on my album, how does that work?
Is it not allowed, do I need permission, pay a fee or what?

I was just wondering cause on some albums I've listened to, there's sometimes a cover song from another band.
Thanks!

 

[Rad Synner]

The copyrights laws are relatively complex and so in short, yes you need authorization to put a cover in your album and monetize it.

and so if it means that you need authorization then you have to find a way to clear the right copyrights. There are some deals that can be made relative to royalties percentages or sometimes distributor have some type of deals.

 

[Ed Seith]

Additionally, the original songwriters get paid for that song on the album.

 

[Andrew Milner]

If you want to upload them on Spotify, yes, you definitely need it. Technically, this also applies to YouTube, if you want to monetize there as well, though YouTube's bots are notoriously mentally challenged when it comes to issuing and handling copyright claims (source: my original songs got copyright claimed two times ). Though, if you dispute it and prove you have a license, you should be good.

For Spotify, this is easily solved since you have to upload your music via a distributor like DistroKid and you can just tell DistroKid: "hey, this song's a cover, please help me with the cover license".

 

[William B.]

Thanks! I was just wondering.
It's probably good that I try to write my own songs eventually, I haven't really been doing much of that. Mostly drums practice and guitar when I'm home.

my original songs got copyright claimed two times

Did they let you know what songs they resembled?
On YouTube I think it shows that, I don't remember for sure. I do know that it highlights the section of copyright and shows who has the rights.

DistroKid

I've heard of this before

 

[Andrew Milner]

Did they let you know what songs they resembled?
On YouTube I think it shows that, I don't remember for sure. I do know that it highlights the section of copyright and shows who has the rights.

They did and they do. But as I was expecting, there wasn't a match for like the 2-3 songs I tested it out for .