Here at Identity Music, we love hearing covers!

Where would we be without the work of other inspiring musicians before us? Every artist, track and album - past and present - shapes the path for future musicians, and the songs we know and love today are often inspired by the work of preceding artists.

Cover Song - an interpretation of a song, performed by someone other than the original artist.

You are free to distribute covers that do not contain samples of the original recording with Identity Music. We use the MLC (mechanical licensing collective) who work directly with the DSPs in the majority of territories (excluding Mexico, Canada, India and Pakistan) to ensure that everybody - including yourself and the original artist - gets what they are owed. There are no additional fees from us here, but the MLC takes a small cut per stream for the original artist.

If covers, remixes, mixtapes and mashups include samples of a recording you did not record yourself, you MUST have a licence from the owner of that original recording in order to distribute these releases.

Unfortunately, the MLC does not operate in these territories and a separate mechanical licence will need to be obtained if you would like to distribute your cover to these countries. Outside of these territories, a separate mechanical licence is not required.

Not yet! Soon we’ll be able to take care of licensing for covers and remixes for you as part of separate publishing deals but until then, this isn’t something we are able to provide.

No! At Identity Music, this is included as part of our agreements.

Cover songs should NOT include the original performing artist in the track title or artist field. Please see below an example of the incorrect and correct way of entering the title for a Cover song:

If you have any further questions about this please do contact the Client management team and they will be able to show you in further detail. Or by clicking on the support chat button on the website. (Video below to show how):
​