A purchase of a cover song license in DistroKid is required because there is a law in the United States that dictates how earnings from cover songs need to be shared with the original songwriter. If you're interested in the details, click here.

DistroKid makes uploading cover songs easy. Each time you upload a song to DistroKid, you'll see an option to specify whether you wrote the song (an "original"), or if someone else wrote it (a "cover song").

To upload a cover song, choose "Another artist wrote it (it's a cover song)" on the upload form under "Songwriter / Cover Song." DistroKid will automatically deduct the legally-mandated fee of 12.7¢ per song sold in the U.S. from your earnings and send it to HFA, who sends it to the original songwriter. You'll get 100% of the rest.

Please note that DistroKid licenses apply only to content directly distributed by DistroKid, and cannot be used for any purposes outside of DistroKid. In addition, releases containing cover songs will not be available for sale in India, Pakistan, Mexico, or Canada, but will be available for streaming in those countries.

Uploading the Same Cover Song in More than One Release

You must purchase a DistroKid cover license each and every time you upload a cover song to DistroKid. For example, if you upload the same cover song twice, you need to select the "Cover Song" option both times, essentially buying two licenses. That's how our system knows to deduct the songwriter's share of earnings from your earnings (for both uploads of that song, in this example).