Versions, karaokes, tributes, parodies and covers

• Versions, karaokes, tributes, parodies, orgels and covers

1. Versions. To indicate that a Version track is different from the original, please use the corresponding field for this purpose.  

• Version information will not be accepted as a part of a title. Except from “palos” (flamenco) and popular dances of the XXth century (like tango or vals), which must be indicated between parenthesis after the main title.
• The information should follow the standard spelling, without abbreviations, and make a proper use of capitalization.

2. Name of the original artist on parody, version, karaoke, tribute and cover tracks or albums. For parodies, karaokes, tributes and cover albums, the name of the original artist must not be displayed in any artist field.

3. Name of the original artist in the track or album titles. The titles included in a cover or tribute album must not make any reference to the original artist. Do not use phrases such as: “Original Performed by”, “In the Style of”, “Tribute to”, “Cover of” or similar.

4. Deceptive or misleading information. Tribute or cover albums must not be deceptive or misleading. Do not use genres, popular song lyrics or the original artist names as the album title, track title or artist for karaoke.

Content that is considered deceptive or misleading will not be accepted and distributed.

5. Information of karaoke version. The karaoke albums or tracks must be indicated with the expression “Karaoke Version” in the corresponding field.

• The primary genre must also be set as “Karaoke”, while the secondary one must show the main style of the song or the release.
• The original composers or artists can not appear in any part of the metadata.
• If the tracks are instrumental, the language introduce at the track level must be “no linguistic content”, while the one selected for the album must be the one of the metadata.

6. Sound-alikes and unauthorized remixes. Sound-alikes (cover songs that sound like copies of the original) or unauthorized remixes with deceptive or misleading audio will not be distributed.

7. Cover licenses. In some cases, you may need a license to distribute a cover, as the work covered can be protected by Copyright laws.

• If your release is a version of a song registered in a Spanish-speaking or latin country (Southern Europe, South America and Central America, with the exception of Mexico), you only need to indicate the composers of the original track.

• If your release is a cover of a song registered in an Anglo-American country or by a Major (e.g. “Universal Music Latino”, “Sony Music Latino”, etc.), a mechanical license is required to distribute the new song.

This license is can be an authorization signed by the original rights owner or by a management society, who will allow you to use the work for commercial purposes.

You can obtain a license through different online services, as for example Easy Song Licensing.
Finding out who owns the rights has become a lot easier these days. There are organisations in each country to help to find out who the publishers are. In the US there is Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) and/or ASCAP to get the publisher’s information.Once you know who the publisher is, you can then apply for a mechanical licence.

• If the version or cover is from a territory that is not included above, please, contact our Support team for more information.

If the version modifies substantially the work, as a radical variation of the lyrics / musical content, you must present a more specific rights owner permission to distribute the content. The documentation reported has to be contrastable and true.

Please, do not mix up the terms “Version” or “Cover” with “Remix”. If you do a remix or you are using any recording samples that belong to another artist, an authorization from the original master’s owner must be requested.

8. Continuous mixes and DJ sets. DJ sets (with own or other artists tracks) and continuous mixes (that is, putting all the tracks of an album together in a single track creating a continuous mix) are not allowed.

• Prices, release date and licenses

1. Category prices. You must choose a price category from one of four price categories. This does not ensure an identical price in all channels, since they have the right to determine the final price of an product, depending on the territory and currency of a sale. The categories are indicative of the range of price you desire for each album individually.

The price categories (in the platform) are:

• Budget: equivalent to an economic or the most affordable price.
• Mid: equivalent to a standard or common prince in each channel.
• Full: equivalent to a higher or more expensive than the standard price.
• Premium: equivalent to the more expensive price.

2. Release dates. Depending on the date indicated in this section, the album will be published in the channels sooner or later. If the album is distributed previously to the release date, it will not be made public until the date indicated before the distribution. If the album is distributed after the release date, it will be directly published within the 2 to 10 work days, from its distribution.

3. License. You can choose between two main types of license, these are: Copyright or Creative Commons. Copyright ensure a full protection of all intellectual rights for each rights’ owner or holder, while Creative Commons has several types of licenses for different types of interests. For more information, go to: http://creativecommons.org/. For publication of an album, it’s required to indicate:

• (C) or © The Copyright owner or holder, who is generally the author of the work.
• (P) or ℗The sound recording owner or Publishing right’s holder, who is generally the producer or record label.

In the case of groups or bands where rights are shared, the group or band name can be indicated in both cases mentioned above.

Please, keep in mind the License holder must be coincident between the “Licenses” tab and the license holder of each track of the release.

4. Territories. If you do not have publishing rights for all territories, or it is not of your interest the publication in all territories, you may indicate the desired territories in the “License” section in the platform.