(Free tool)
Answer a few questions about where you will release your cover and what you will do with it. You get the licences you need in plain English, and a cost estimate for a US mechanical licence.
Recording a cover takes an afternoon. Releasing it legally takes a few decisions that nobody tells you about. Whether you need a licence depends on whether it is streaming, a download you sell yourself, a CD, or a video, and on the country you release in.
Get it wrong and a track can be removed, a video claimed, or a release held. Change the lyrics, even to translate them, and the normal route stops working altogether and you need the publisher's permission.
Choose your country and tick what you plan to do. The checker returns only the steps that apply to you, each marked as needed, usually covered, or not needed, with the reason and the place to go.
If you plan to make CDs, vinyl or downloads in the US, it also works out the cost of the statutory mechanical licence for the number of copies and the track length, using the 2026 rate.
Choose the country where you will release it.
Tick every way you will use the cover.
Say whether you are changing the song, or whether it is in the public domain.
Read the steps, from most important to least.
Check with your distributor before you upload: they may license covers for you.
The 2026 US statutory mechanical rate is 13.1 cents per copy for songs up to five minutes, or 2.52 cents per minute (rounded up) for longer ones, whichever is more. That applies to physical copies and permanent downloads, not to streams, which follow a separate system.
Rules differ by country, and distributors add their own. Sold downloads, video and lyric changes are the areas where the answer most often depends on the details, so we say so when it does. This is general guidance, not legal advice.
Last checked:
People find this tool by searching for
(FAQ)
(Keep going)
Find the right performing rights society for where you live.
Use the toolSongwriter and master splits that add up to 100%, ready to sign.
Use the toolEvery place to register a song, by country, with progress you can print.
Use the toolMake sure the songwriters on your original releases are registered and paid, so covers of your work pay you too.
Tick everything you plan to do with it. The answer updates as you go.
Where will you release it?
What will you do with it?
Will you change the song?
The song is in the public domain
Its copyright has expired. Be sure before you tick this.
In the US, the streaming services hold a blanket licence run by The MLC, so streams there are generally covered and the songwriter is paid through that system. Your distributor may still ask you to declare the song as a cover, or offer its own cover licence for a fee, so follow its instructions.
Name the original writers on the release, never claim the composition as your own on your society account, and keep a copy of every licence or permission email. If a platform queries the release, those records settle it quickly.
General guidance, not legal advice. Rules differ by country and change over time. The US rate shown is the 2026 rate set by the Copyright Royalty Board.
