There have been multiple incidents of high profile copyright cases that has left new upcoming musicians pondering how to cover a song or legally record and perform covers of other Artist’s songs. Covering a song is actually quite straightforward, not like complicated music imitations.
A music “Cover” is essentially a new way of performing a previously recorded song originally composed and performed by someone else with the melody being the same.
But after all of this, there are regulations about covering a song.
The regulating system is called compulsory licensing. Anyone can cover anyone else’s song, but you will have to pay a royalty to the song’s creator. In these digital times, we have seen a lot of artists getting a lot of attention for their song covers especially on youtube.
If you’re reading this, chances are you are also trying to do the same. You are looking to get your own music noticed by recording cover songs and getting them noticed. This strategy of making song covers has worked for a lot of artists. To cover a song you need to keep a few things in mind
- Choose your song well : Dont be overly selective, rather something which people know and they are looking for it. The whole trick is to not go into too much extreme and cover obscure songs which nobody has heard of, you may do it for fun but no. Remember the songs you pick do matter
- Re-imagine the song as your own: When covering a song a trick is to bring your personality to the song. This is something which you will have to think while making a cover version of the song. The point being said here is to apply your own creativity to your music and craft, even though the song should still be recognisable. There is still plenty of room to bring in your own ideas to it.
- Pre- Recording Research: There is evidently quite a stiff competition here, although you can take a pick any song there would be tons of people who have covered it already.
But would you want to throw yourself in the ring with other SoundCloud and YouTube Pros ? Besides, it is not rocket science doing a research , you can go to the site you want to target uploading your cover and see how many people have already covered the song. If you listen to a few of them you will be able to make it better, - Use HQ Audio & Video : Primary ingredient to a successful cover song is the audio and video quality. Getting listeners is already a humongous task , so you ought to make the best impression about it. Dont just create them for the sake of creating them, create them as if you’d use them to stand out. Bring high quality audio , video and brew your own creativity with it.
- Stick with the plan : There is a reason you do not see too many artists gaining fame by covering songs , you have to build a regular publishing plan like once a week , the secret to gaining huge following is the consistency which you would have to keep.
If you do plan to make covers to gain exposure you would have to pay the mechanical royalties and you also ought to have the publishing rights. This isnt as complciatede as it may sound to you rather quite simple, so lets begin now.