Important : iTunes, Amazon Music, and Napster do not accept soundalike cover songs (more and more stores are starting to take this stance as well). A soundalike cover is a song that sounds very similar 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 to these stores the content will get hidden and we will not be able to reverse this or issue any refunds.
If you plan on distributing a cover song, you may need to first get permission (and possibly a license) from the original copyright holder to release your song digitally.
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)
You can look into purchasing a mechanical license for a cover song in the US from CoverSong Licensing .
Does TuneCore automatically pay out mechanical royalties to rights/collection societies?
For more detailed copyright info you can view a free PDF booklet we have on the subject here .