Do You Have to Pay Royalties to Cover a Song?

In almost every case, yes — if you want to know whether you have to pay royalties to cover a song, the short answer is that federal copyright law gives the songwriter and publisher control over recordings and performances of their composition, so you owe royalties whenever you reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, or sync that song to video. What saves cover artists from having to beg permission is the compulsory mechanical license: once a song has been released, anyone can record their own version by following a set process and paying a statutory rate, and the copyright owner cannot refuse.¹

What you actually owe, and to whom, depends on how the cover will be used. Recording it for release is one thing. Playing it live is another. Putting it on YouTube with video is a third, and that one has no shortcut.

Which Royalties You Owe

Three different royalties can attach to a cover song, each tied to a different exclusive right that Congress grants copyright owners.²

Mechanical royalties are owed whenever a song is reproduced and distributed. That covers vinyl, CDs, cassettes, digital downloads, and interactive streams. If someone can hear a copy of your cover, a mechanical royalty is owed on it.

Performance royalties are owed whenever a song is played publicly: live at a venue, on the radio, on television, or through a streaming service. A single stream actually triggers both a mechanical royalty (for the reproduction) and a performance royalty (for the transmission).

Synchronization royalties are owed whenever a song is paired with visual content — a film, TV show, commercial, video game, TikTok clip, or YouTube video with footage. Sync is the one category with no compulsory shortcut. You have to negotiate directly with the publisher, who can say no or name any price.

The Compulsory Mechanical License

The compulsory mechanical license is what makes cover songs practical. Once a songwriter has released a recording of their song to the public, anyone else can record and distribute their own version by following the federal process and paying the statutory royalty. You do not need permission. You do need the license.¹

A few conditions come with it. The song must already have been distributed to the public with the copyright owner’s consent, so you cannot use the compulsory license to make the first-ever recording of an unpublished composition. You have to record your own performance rather than lifting audio from an existing recording. Payments are due monthly to the copyright holder.

The license only covers audio. The moment you attach video, you leave compulsory territory and need a sync license.

How Far You Can Change the Song

The compulsory license lets you adapt the song to your style, but it draws a line: your arrangement cannot change the basic melody or fundamental character of the work.¹ Slowing a rock song into an acoustic ballad, shifting keys, changing instrumentation — all fine. Rewriting the melody, changing the lyrics, or reworking the song so heavily that it becomes something new is a derivative work, and creating a derivative work without authorization is infringement.³ Mashups and radical reimaginings need direct clearance from the publisher.

How to Get the License

Where you obtain the mechanical license depends on the format.

Streaming and Downloads

For interactive streams and digital downloads, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) administers a blanket compulsory license created by the Music Modernization Act. Services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music hold blanket licenses through the MLC, which then pays songwriters and publishers.⁴

If you release your cover through a digital distributor such as DistroKid, TuneCore, or CD Baby, the distributor typically handles the mechanical license as part of its service. Read the terms before assuming so, because some charge an extra fee for covers and some require you to obtain the license on your own.

CDs, Vinyl, and Cassettes

For physical formats, the Harry Fox Agency is still a primary source. Its Songfile service handles smaller runs of up to 2,500 units, with full licensing services available for larger pressings.⁵

What You’ll Pay in 2026

The Copyright Royalty Board sets the statutory mechanical rate for physical copies and permanent downloads. The base rate under the Phonorecords IV determination is 12 cents per song, or 2.31 cents per minute for songs over five minutes, adjusted annually for inflation.⁶ The 2025 adjusted rates were 12.7 cents per song and 2.45 cents per minute.⁷ In 2026 the rates rise to 13.1 cents per song and 2.52 cents per minute.

A concrete example: pressing 1,000 copies of an album containing 10 cover songs costs $1,310 in mechanical royalties alone at the 2026 rate, before manufacturing, artwork, or distribution. Larger runs scale straight up from there.

Streaming mechanicals work differently. Rather than a fixed per-play amount, interactive streaming rates come out to a fraction of a cent per stream, which is why streaming income for songwriters lags so far behind physical and download sales.

Performing Covers Live

Performance royalties are collected by Performing Rights Organizations. In the U.S., the three main PROs are ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. They issue blanket licenses to venues, broadcasters, and platforms and then pay their member songwriters and publishers.⁸

The obligation to hold a performance license sits with the business playing the music, not the musician performing it. A bar hosting a cover band, a radio station airing a cover, and a streaming service transmitting one all pay PRO blanket fees. If you are gigging covers at a licensed venue, you do not need your own performance license for that show.

Livestreaming Is Different

Streaming yourself performing covers on Twitch or YouTube is another matter. On those platforms you are the broadcaster, and Twitch does not carry blanket PRO licenses covering every song its streamers play. A copyright owner can send a DMCA takedown, which puts a strike on your channel, and three strikes can end the account.⁹

When You Add Video, You Need a Sync License

Any time your cover accompanies visual content, you need a synchronization license. That means music videos, YouTube uploads with footage, TikToks, Reels, film placements, TV scenes, and video game soundtracks all require sync clearance.²

There is no compulsory sync license. You negotiate with the publisher, and rates swing wildly with the song’s popularity, how long the music plays, and where the content will run. A well-known song in a national commercial can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. A lesser-known song in a small YouTube video might cost a few hundred.

YouTube and TikTok Workarounds

YouTube’s Content ID system offers a practical path for cover songs. When you upload a cover, Content ID can detect the underlying composition and flag the video. Instead of taking it down, publishers often choose to monetize it by placing ads. If you are in the YouTube Partner Program, you can enable revenue sharing on an eligible cover video and split the ad income with the publisher.¹⁰ Not every song qualifies. Some publishers block covers entirely or restrict them by region.

TikTok holds music licenses that cover personal, non-commercial use of songs in its library, but those licenses do not extend to commercial content promoting a brand or product. Promotional posts require you to confirm you have independently secured the music rights.¹¹

What About Fair Use and Public Domain

A common assumption is that covering a song counts as fair use. It almost never does. A cover reproduces the melody, lyrics, and structure of the original, which is the opposite of what courts look for in a fair use analysis. It isn’t transformative — you are performing the same song, not commenting on it. And a popular cover competes directly with the original in the marketplace. Parody, where lyrics are rewritten to mock or comment on the original, is a separate legal category that courts have treated as transformative. A straightforward cover isn’t parody. The compulsory license exists precisely because Congress didn’t want to leave cover artists relying on fair use.

Public domain is the one place where the composition costs you nothing. Songs whose copyright has expired can be covered without paying any royalty on the underlying composition. As of 2026, musical compositions first published in the United States before 1931 are in the public domain, and another year rolls into the public domain each January 1.

Watch the distinction between the song and a specific recording of it. A composition from 1928 may be in the public domain, but a 1960 recording of that composition is still protected. Since you are making your own recording of your cover, that usually does not matter to you. If you plan to sample or reuse an old recording rather than perform your own, check the recording’s copyright status separately.

What Happens If You Skip the License

Distributing a cover without the required mechanical license is copyright infringement, and the penalties are steep even for small releases. A copyright owner does not have to prove lost sales to collect. Statutory damages under federal law run from $750 to $30,000 per work at the court’s discretion, rising to as much as $150,000 per work if the infringement was willful. If a court finds you genuinely had no reason to believe your use was infringing, the floor drops to $200 per work, but that is a hard argument when mechanical licensing is well known and easy to obtain.¹²

On digital platforms, the faster consequence is a DMCA takedown. Your track or video comes down, and repeated strikes can end the account. Three copyright strikes on Twitch cost you the channel.⁹ YouTube works the same way, and losing a channel means losing the subscriber base, the archive, and any monetization you had built. Set against those risks, the license fees are small.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 115 – Scope of Exclusive Rights in Nondramatic Musical Works
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 106 – Exclusive Rights in Copyrighted Works
3
U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright in Derivative Works and Compilations
4
U.S. Copyright Office. Frequently Asked Questions on the Designation of the Mechanical Licensing Collective and the Digital Licensee Coordinator
5
The Harry Fox Agency. License Music
6
Federal Register. Determination of Rates and Terms for Making and Distributing Phonorecords (Phonorecords IV)
7
Federal Register. Cost of Living Adjustment to Royalty Rates and Terms for Making and Distributing Phonorecords
8
Pay for Play. 27 Performance Rights
9
Twitch Help. DMCA and Copyright FAQs
10
Google Help. Monetizing Eligible Cover Videos – YouTube Help
11
TikTok. Commercial Use of Music on TikTok
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits