Cover Songs

A cover song is any new recording of a song that was previously written, recorded, and released by someone else. You own the recording (your version), but the original songwriter owns the composition itself (lyrics, melody, and song structure).

If you want to distribute a cover song with Symphonic, you will need to obtain a mechanical license from the original copyright holder before you release your song digitally.

We recommend our partner Easy Song for this.

Note: iTunes and many other platforms do not accept sound-alike cover songs.

A soundalike cover is a song that sounds almost identical to the original. Stores consider this content deceptive and misleading and do not want their customers to purchase this material by mistake. If you distribute soundalike covers, they will get hidden by the stores, and we will not be able to reverse this or issue any refunds.

Cover Song Formatting Guidelines

Cover songs should NOT include the original performing artist in the track title or artist field.

INCORRECT:

My Way (Originally Performed by Frank Sinatra)
My Way (Cover of Frank Sinatra)
My Way (Tribute to Frank Sinatra)

CORRECT:

My Way
My Way (Acoustic Version)
Remixes, Mixtapes, and Mashups

The same rules apply to remixes, mixtapes, or mashups if they include samples of a recording you did not record yourself. You must have a license from the owner of that original recording to distribute these releases.

You cannot distribute any content through Symphonic if you do not have 100% of the rights to that content.

If you have any concerns that you may not have rights to any audio in a remix, mix tape, or mashup you're uploading, please do not upload the song(s) to Symphonic.