IMPORTANT READ! Hi! I made this video voluntarily to help a lot of musicians with the affordable service of Soundrop! I didn't get hired to make this, I don't work there so I can't help with specific support problems, but as you can see from the comments, I'm happy to try! Remember to pay it forward, share the tutorial if someone needs help getting their music distributed, and feel free to tag into the comments if you know the answers! This guide is also older and SD has grown and changed small aspects of their licensing guidelines, so always check their FAQs! If you enjoy video games or progressive metal, I appreciate checking out any of my music videos as well.
I have uploaded an album 16 Jun 2023 (Soundrop). It has not been released. They don't answer the chat or email anymore. Do you know how that happens? This video was helpful for me btw ;)
I'm glad the video was helpful! Without knowing the full details I can't be sure, but basically the staff has gone through a huge reduction just as most people in the US have experienced layoffs around them, so they've been doing their best to catch up. Up. Chat was disabled while they catch up, but you should be able to hear back from a support email. Assuming your music is cleared for licensing, it should be up within about one month or four business weeks at the latest
That's such awesome news, it's exactly why I felt like making such a lengthy guide! Hope it goes through well and you start your journey of licensed music!
Came back to this vid as I was in the process of prepping a cover for distribution. I realized the track would most likely count as derivative work (adding original lyrics to a vgm track, which certainly alters the fundamental character). This helped me get a better understanding of the grey area. Thanks for this resource!
I'm super glad it worked out as a resource! As disappointing as it is we can't easily work on derivative works as artists, it might open up the conversation and eventually maybe they'll have a website to apply for making em!
Hi! Had a question about linking to the audio only release. I have some covers I'd like to submit from Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64. I see on VGMdb and other sites that they had official releases but they aren't uploaded anywhere on streaming services or digital stores that I know of. Is it possible to license them still in that case? (I feel like it has to be possible as Soundrop has Ocarina of Time used as an example in their FAQs but not sure how to do ot properly!) Thanks so much!
Very helpful guide. just wanna ask are we allowed to use the official instrumental for our cover songs? or do we have to produce a new instrumental? Thank you!
Thank you! You must always own 100% of the music that you are selling, so you have to produce an instrumental unless you get explicit permission from the song's copyright holder. Many vocalists collaborate with instrumentalists or even commission some to get cover music out, and sometimes instrumental cover artists will even let vocalists sing over their older works for a revenue split share
Can I choose Anime as genre for anime covers or only official anime music can pick that genre? Will Spotify and Apple Music reject the anime covers if their genre is anime?
Hi! I believe I shared some thoughts on this question on Reddit as well, but I checked with another power user of Soundrop and they confirmed you can choose anime as your genre. Soundrop is in charge of approving/rejecting your submissions, but there is no explicit rule against labeling your covers as anime. The same user used both Anime and Metal as their genres of choice.
@@RoPanuganti What a relief! A guy scared me today by saying Apple 'n' Spotify would reject my covers just because I chose anime as thier genre. Now the only thing that worries me is that (for 2 covers of the EP) I didn't put (FROM "x"), I only put ("x") in the titles because I know people will understand what the source material is without the FROM, the title also becomes shorter and cleaner. If Soundrop rejects the titles, I'll have to put From. Thank you very much for the quick clarification ^^
@@RoPanuganti Hi, I've just noticed Soundrop has changed its licenses to just American territory... What now? I've just paid for a new album, will it only appear in American streaming sites even though I've chosen a worldwide release? If it gets a worldwide release, will the album get removed from other countries??? I'm worried :(
@@AntoniusTertius no problems, it just means you can only license music that has been released in the United States so that they can properly find the copyright owner for paying royalties.
@@RoPanuganti But Soundrop now states "If you wish to distribute worldwide, you are responsible for obtaining additional custom licensing agreements with the copyright holders beyond the required licenses obtained through Soundrop." What now? :(
Hi, Ro! I would like to know why on some covers the original composer also appears as a primary artist? For example: "Song of Storms" listed on the cover artist's spotify page but also on Koji Kondo's. Any tip?
Great question Silvano! This is because the cover artist put the composer there, which is not of course the right thing to do - there is a separate way to credit the artist. Soundrop would not allow this, but the cover artist may have used a different distributor from Soundrop.
@@svpagliuca you can indicate if the release is a classical composition and again it will have a separate area for composer. Primary artists generally are for the performer(s)
Hi! I have a question. I don't have a Spotify artist profile, I have my personal one. The other day I uploaded for the first time an EP in Soundrop and when I arrived to the option "is a new artist to be listed on Spotify" or " is an existing artist listed on Spotify", as you can see at 28:18 in the video, I clicked on the first option. That this means Soundrop will create a Spotify artist page for me or I have to do it by myself? I would like to have this album in my "future" Spotify artist page of course. Thank you very much for your video, it was very helpful!
Hey Isaac! Your question, if there is one, is actually answered - you will indeed get a new artist page created on Spotify once your release is approved, licensed if it's a cover, sent to stores, and stores approve and post it. You'll end up having an artist page that you can also claim through artists.spotify and customize, add pictures etc, and of course from here out you can type it into the "Artist Field" in Soundrop to have it go to the same page. There's even a unique artistt code for your new Spotify Artist page, and at the end of the Soundrop submission page you can check this id to be sure it's 100% the right one!
You're welcome! The music goes out worldwide and they support tons of stores in a lot of different countries, with many more being added here and there. Most nations with a larger digital music streaming service will be able to access Soundrop, or most distributor's music!
Hey man!! Just rewatching this video again. I’m torn right now with trying to find a good distributor for my bands. I want to do some covers for both bands I have as well as originals. Would you say that Soundrop is possibly better than Distrokid?? I guess with the recent price hike and extra fees with Distrokid, I want to maybe be able to keep my songs up for both of my bands and it not get taken down no matter what. I have one cover released through Soundrop and the only thing that I have had an issue with was that it didn’t get linked to my official artist channel that I already have on UA-cam. Any thoughts on this? Also do you think that the 15% commission with soundrop is worth it to have originals on this platform?
Hey, thanks for reaching out! There's a few things to consider here, but by far the customer support has been abysmal from DK, so that automatically changed my mind. From a cost perspective, the 15% commission can appear steep, but it also incentivizes the platform to actually work for artists. With DK, they tend to sneak in a lot of extra fees for things like content ID and they don't necessarily work all the time... A lot of my friends with huge followings also made the switch to avoid that. When you use Soundrop they have no say on UA-cam and the Artist channel connections, so that's probably an issue with UA-cam I should learn more about. Mine have worked out well, but I know I had a UA-cam Artist channel for a while and 1 artist account on SD. I deleted my DistroKid which might have helped the UA-cam stuff! My last piece of advice, no matter what distributor works for your situation, you can always migrate to Soundrop as long as you keep the UPC for the songs. It can even help keep the same stats and everything.
@@RoPanuganti thank you for the reply. Using Soundrop for all my releases has been on my mind lately. Along with Landr. Both Soundrop and Landr really have great cover song licensing. I may be making the switch based off this.
Thank you so much Ro for the complete guide,but there's something still bothers me. This is an original mellow song but I exracted only the original vocals from that original song, I made my own version of it into an alternative rock reggae version. I do all the instruments recorded, mixed and mastered exept the original vocals which is extracted from the original song. Do soundrop will allow this one? since the vocals I think is considered as a sample which is extracted from the original song. I made my own version of it entirely all the instruments into an alternative rock reggae excep the original vocals extracted. Do soundrop will consider or allow this one? thank you so much.
Hey, thank you very much for the kind words. Unfortunately, if you are not creating 100% of the music, or collaborating with someone else, then this is considered a remix and it's not going to go through. You can always reach out to the original artist to see if they would like to collaborate, or if the original artist has shared the vocals of the song as a Creative Commons license where you may use their work without credit, you would be okay. I know there's a lot of great music out there created by remixing different works but unfortunately that's a very complex area of music and distributors want to be sure they can follow the law and fairly credit and pay everyone
@@RoPanuganti , thank you so much Ro, I must have to re-create this one 100% the whole mix, thank you so much for leading us song cover creators to the right path, I would really love to do more cover songs just knowing that we can protect our work.. thank you so much for this..😁😁🤘🤘🔥🔥🔥🔥
Absolutely! Should you choose to use two different distributors, there's no problems as long as you use the same name. I have a few friends that used to use DK for originals only and Soundrop for licensing covers, which can be a bit easier financially!
So, I'm following along and doing all the things, but, it won't let me play back my song. It shows it as being 0:00/0:00 and the play button doesn't do anything. Any idea what that could be?
That sounds like an issue they're having with the browser, you should be able to verify. Your song is imported by saving your release and not continuing to pay for the distribution. A lot of artists have had this happen
@RoPanuganti Thanks for the input. I'll check it again later and see if it was just a browser flook or something as you said. I haven't set it for release yet so I should be able to edit anything if needed. Much appreciated 🙏
So there's a few different parts to this question, but very very important to distinguish here! You can definitely submit music and not enable Content ID, which is perfect if you don't want folks to be automatically claimed for original music. However, and this is specifically a UA-cam problem, any cover being used in a video can still potentially be claimed due to UA-cam reaching out to PRO companies to properly pay its own required royalties. If it can't find the correct song, it'll use a cover of it and tentatively claim the video. So in short, content Id is a complex problem on UA-cam and not Soundrop.
One time for any song release just as the site says. There's no recurring fee to keep music on stores, but Soundrop will instead take a small cut of royalties.
So if I play an instrumental version of the song( about 90% of what I would.do would be worship songs). If I play an instrumental, like piano only no singing and then do a.lyric video, is thst considered a remix? Or would thst go through?
This is very specifically for audio distribution, so if the song hss been released before as an instrumental and then once with lyrics, you won't encounter this issue when distributing through Soundrop.
I have a question that doesn't seem to be covered by Soundrop or any similar services: I have an existing channel where I post all sorts of content - videos essays, memes, music, etc - and I wish to start uploading covers to this channel as well. It is not an official artist channel so I would not be uploading anything through UA-cam Music, just regular old UA-cam. Is there a way to obtain mechanical licenses for covering songs that I can apply to my UA-cam videos - like a platform that works with UA-cam or at least makes this possible? What I mean is, if I have a cover video up on my channel, how do I get a mechanical license to allow me to do that? How would mechanical royalties be tracked? How could I show that I had the license in case of a copyright strike? Does everyone who posts covers on UA-cam do it through UA-cam Music? Is that my only option? Is that what you do? I'm not concerned with getting a sync license, that's a completely different issue. I just want to know how to get a mechanical license that can be applied to a regular UA-cam video/track mechanical royalties made on that video or at least be showcased when defending a copyright strike. I know this video is a year old, but thanks so much if you see this! Edit: Is none of this necessary because UA-cam as a DSP pays blanket mechanical royalties through the MLC? Do I even need a mech license for regular UA-cam?
I think I understand what your situation is, and there are definitely a lot of channels like yours that include different kinds of videos and not necessarily cover music videos. However, you do seem to know about sync licenses which are exactly what you need. Sync licenses are not compulsory, so we don't automatically get them without permission, and are specifically for UA-cam or any audiovisual medium so you need those permissions to legally use a copyrighted song/piece in a video, UA-cam specifically. Soundrop happens to distribute to UA-cam Music, yes, but this is purely for music listening with album art so your mechanical licenses with them will okay that Since we have to get these licenses and they aren't compulsory, you might have figured that this is essentially impossible for almost everyone outside of huge companies, collaborations, or indie games sometimes. I have maybe 2 sync licenses acquired for my channel. The reality is that while sync licenses are clearly required legally, not only are they extremely uncommon or impossible to obtain, but even game companies don't seem to know about this or mind us uploading cover videos properly. All of your royalties obtained are going through Google and AdSense so they seemingly will withhold that if a copyright owner were upset by the lack of licenses, but considering even Nintendo has shared cover videos and fan works on their channels. I think this is unlikely. A very lengthy answer for your excellent question, but unfortunately it just means that at any point we could have cover videos taken down or copyright claims and the humongous cover scene on UA-cam just takes a calculated risk. When it comes to music royalties on streaming platforms and Bandcamp, fortunately you can be secured in your licensing and properly pay those composers.
@@RoPanugantiThanks for replying! I didn't think you would on such an old video haha. I get the whole thing with sync licenses. That's a whole other can of worms I'm not even worrying about right now. What I'm confused about is the MECHANICAL licenses. For UA-cam covers (as far as I know) you need a sync license AND a mechanical license, and I can't figure out how to get the mechanical license 😅 Everywhere I look, people say I can get a mechanical license through other services (like DistroKid, or Harry Fox directly, etc), as this is what you do for other platforms like Spotify and UA-cam music. And everyone says this will work for UA-cam too, but they're all super vague about it. I'll use Spotify and DistroKid as examples: Uploading a cover song to Spotify through DistroKid charges an additional fee ($12/yr) to obtain and manage the mechanical licenses necessary for legally releasing the AUDIO portion of a cover of a song (using the intellectual property of lyrics, melody, etc for the AUDIO portion of my cover). They then track what you make from streaming that cover and pay the corresponding royalties to the rightsholders. There are many similar services that work for several different platforms, but I've come across NONE that do this for UA-cam. So, my question is this: Is there any way to obtain a MECHANICAL license for a song in order to cover it on UA-cam and manage the royalties to be paid based on the number of views? Everywhere I look, they say, "get a mechanical license," but they never explain how to apply it to UA-cam... Have you ever gotten a mechanical license for any of your covers, or do you just post them and hope they don't get taken down? I understand that most people don't get any of the required licenses and just rely on content id to sort out monetization and royalties; but if I can somehow get a mechanical license for a song that I'm covering, I would like to in order to not risk getting a strike. Again, I'm not concerned with sync licenses right now at all - I'll deal with that later. For now, I just want the mechanical ones... Thank you so much for taking the time out to read this and respond. I know it's super long so I really appreciate it! 😅 It's invaluable to have an inside perspective from an already established creator!!! Thank you!
@@iDunnoMan9000 as far as my experience and understanding goes, there is no way to get a mechanical license for UA-cam because they're only used in audio formats. The synchronization license is the only kind of license we can acquire, and as I mentioned, very few people have ever gotten them for their music videos. We unfortunately operate at a risk that any copyright holder will ask them to be taken down but this has almost never happened to my knowledge. That said, UA-cam/Google will accrue ad revenue which they collect and pay to UA-cam Partners.. that money should naturally go to those composers/copyright holders as well but Google hasn't implemented a simple system for this either.
@@RoPanuganti Okay cool. Well that's a bit of a shame haha. Thank you so much for your insight though! I really appreciate the replies!!! On a side note, I'm looking into a platform called "We Are The Hits" that's supposed to help deal with revenue splitting, and sort of giving a "heads up" that you're covering a song on UA-cam. If you haven't heard of it, you should check it out cuz it seems kinda cool. I don't know everything about it yet and I don't think it has anything to do with licensing, but it works directly with UA-cam and might be worth taking a look at. Idk... Anyway, thanks again for the replies and for this outstanding video! And I'm loving the covers man! Keep up the great stuff!
Hi there, I uploaded a cover song for distribution on sound drop. It has been approved for Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Tiktok but isn't on Spotify or iTunes yet and it's been over a week. How long does this process typically take pls?
It can take at least 2 business weeks (excluding weekend), and that is because Spotify and iTunes and many stores have their own processing times of 2-3 business days at least. With cover music it takes longer because the original song's copyright holder needs to be informed of your cover. All this information is also available on Soundrop's FAQs in case you need more details!
@@RoPanuganti Thanks for the prompt response. In the distribution dashboard, it doesn't show Spotify or iTunes under the processing, licensing, in delivery, errors, live or takedown tabs. Is this normal?
@@TukeMorgan unfortunately I'm not sure. I don't work for the company so I don't always recognize some of the bugs. But, if you still have not seen your music released after two full business weeks, it's not a bad idea to check their support website and see if the song you released qualified for licensing.
I'm kinda confused, cause in the video, you used Earthbound as an example, but this never got an official soundtrack release...how would you go about getting a license for something like this?
So Earthbound is a unique exception, you can find its soundtrack on VGMdB with an imported CD and USD price! You can also refer to official posts (not ESL Requests) on EasySongLicensing database. I wish we had a single universal confirmation site, but for now your best bet is checking these sites and asking other cover artist communities what has been safe to license so far.
@@RoPanuganti I know this is an old comment, but do you remember what you put for the original audio-only release field? I'm trying to upload a cover of an Earthbound song but cannot find this (the song is listed on EasySong though).
For those, I tend to include the EasySongLicensing database link as well as the VGMDB link if I know that album is licensible. For Earthbound I had used this one vgmdb.net/album/800@@herooftrains5891
@@RoPanuganti Okay, thank you! I used something similar from VGMdb and also provided the Easy Song ID. We’ll see if that works. Thanks for the video and reply!
So if I decide I want to make a cover of some existing song, all I have to do is make the cover, go through the process of putting it on Soundrop, and then they'll handle the licensing? Is there a way to check ahead of time that I'll be able to get a license, or would I just have to wait for Soundrop to get back to me with approval or denial?
Exactly! I covered in this video how you can check that you're able to get a license, but you will also be able to get a refund in the event you try to cover a song that just isn't available for licensing. Specifically with video game music, which is my specialty, you need to make sure that the soundtrack has been released in the United States officially using a website like VGMDb.net or you can use Easy song licensing database. The only challenges are usually older games, products from Nintendo or other non-US companies, and of course plenty of modern games that don't put their OSTs out. Now if you're covering bands and contemporary music, usually those are pretty safe as long as those artists published it.
@@RoPanuganti So do you have to actually just make and upload your cover and hope you'll be able to get through the licensing process, or is there a way to check ahead of time? Would be really upsetting to produce a song and then be told you actually can't.
@@rhettorical the way to check ahead is how I explained, buy verifying the song had been released officially in the US. Worse case you can message their support email or socials to ask about specific songs. Both of these methods have been sufficient for myself and dozens of others, and if you do submit and the song is not licensible you're able to refund it anyway
If derivative works ARE being uploaded to Soundrop (translations with lyrics matching same beat as original lyrics, same melody) - why is the mechanical license approved? Does Soundrop check this or not?
Great question, and I can't always speak to how things get through. There are thousands of artists submitting music and I can't imagine every single one gets thoroughly vetted, that would probably be impossible. The licensing process as I understand it is a little simple, they check the information you provide and send a notice of intent to the copyright holder that you're going to make a cover. That notice basically is a courtesy, since we have implicit permission to cover anything in the US this way and there's mostly no reason you won't get a license. I'm sure over time or if the music seems likely to have issues it'll get flagged and manually reviewed
@@RoPanuganti Thanks for answering! Also, once a work gets a license, is it possible to relicense it in the case one feels it was given the wrong license? Like, send it through a different distributor like Easy Song?
@@michellenoirstudios you can revoke distribution, or you can also use separately ESL or any other service to license it for bandcamp (the main reason I would use ESL for example!). The goal is to get your music out to as many platforms as possible, and protect it by following all these rules by paying royalties after all
@@RoPanuganti Cool! Is revoking distribution the same as taking down the piece of work through the distributor and using another distributor to release it under a different license?
@@RoPanuganti Heh, good call. There are changes alright. A lack of service and lack of human support. No one big is catching up to the current issues that Soundrop is having. Maybe that'll change in a few months. Check out the reviews for Soundrop...it is TANKING.
What about synchronization licenses? I use Soundrop but I want to upload my own video. Who handles synchronization license? Compulsory License doesn't handle me making my own video with the audio.
Excellent question! Unfortunately, that would be under the category of reaching out to the copyright holder. There aren't that many services that truly offer synchronization licenses, mostly because it's probably not common for people to want one. You're absolutely right that a compulsory license isn't enough for making cover music videos. I would love to see every major video game company, film company and otherwise music label have a way to submit requests for a synchronization license, but it seems like they're extremely expensive the few times they are offered (like for bands and labels, movies, etc). For a reasonable comparison, I have obtained maybe two or three synchronization licenses in my 11 years on UA-cam!
@@RoPanuganti Please explain how are they doing it? So many artist do covers of other people's songs, like the meditation /prayer worship channels do so many songs week after week. How are the getting rights to do it?
@@Diamond88keyz sure, I'll do my best guess as to how this works! Simply put, like myself. A lot of us just want to share our musicianship and skill, but connect to others who are familiar with music that already exists.. UA-cam doesn't stop you from uploading cover music, it's completely up to the owner of the music to request a cover video to be taken down. If it does not have a synchronization license. This is kind of gray area because you don't see many people taking down cover music, it might be bad PR or just too much work. Thousands of artists create cover music videos including me, with the hopes that we don't receive takedowns.
I may have answered this in the video, but a remix is almost always not going to be allowed on distribution. If we're talking remix, as in taking another song that's already been published by someone else and changing the sections, performing on top of it, or similar, you would need their explicit permission provided to Soundrop support since you're largely using copyrighted recordings. Hopefully that makes sense!
Weird Al always gets permission from the artists that he's parodying, even if legally he doesn't need to for parody works, just to be on the safe side.
As I brushed over in the video and even in the comments, this is always the first example we see. The reality is, parody law is debated in courts and Weird Al is asking permission to be absolutely certain he can do this and, as I understand it, out of politeness which is awesome. If you create a parody and avoid getting permission (a derivative work as I mention), if your distributor accepts it for any reason you could still be liable. The question is if us DIY musicians can afford to debate it in court, or if we should ask for permission or work on other things.
Until Tipper Gore you didn't need to worry about explicit language. This was very informative. Sounds like a bunch of red tape to me but you seem to have been able to get through it. Didn't know any of what you have to go through to put together a song someone else holds the copyrights to. Doesn't that ever make you want to go with original. The talent is surely within you and your friends
I'm glad you found it informative then! It does seem like a lot of work, particularly because these laws were established almost 100 years ago and have only been refined, usually to protect copyright and all. It does certainly reinforce me writing my own music, but it is far easier to get an audience performing songs people know.. so a bit of a rock and hard place at times.
@@RoPanugantiTo me it's all new ,fresh, and on point. I don't game . I've never been a gamer. I enjoy the way you and your friends put together these projects. Glad you're doing this
I'm actually really happy that the Explicit label exists so I know what music I can't play around my mom. But like he alluded to in the video, the label is sometimes seen as a badge of honor. Artists used to love slapping that "Warning: Explicit Lyrics" sticker on their albums because there was tangible evidence that it actually increased sales.
IMPORTANT READ! Hi! I made this video voluntarily to help a lot of musicians with the affordable service of Soundrop! I didn't get hired to make this, I don't work there so I can't help with specific support problems, but as you can see from the comments, I'm happy to try! Remember to pay it forward, share the tutorial if someone needs help getting their music distributed, and feel free to tag into the comments if you know the answers! This guide is also older and SD has grown and changed small aspects of their licensing guidelines, so always check their FAQs!
If you enjoy video games or progressive metal, I appreciate checking out any of my music videos as well.
I have uploaded an album 16 Jun 2023 (Soundrop). It has not been released. They don't answer the chat or email anymore. Do you know how that happens? This video was helpful for me btw ;)
I'm glad the video was helpful! Without knowing the full details I can't be sure, but basically the staff has gone through a huge reduction just as most people in the US have experienced layoffs around them, so they've been doing their best to catch up. Up. Chat was disabled while they catch up, but you should be able to hear back from a support email. Assuming your music is cleared for licensing, it should be up within about one month or four business weeks at the latest
Just submitted my first track to Soundrop, and this guide has been such a great help!
Thank you so much, Ro!
That's such awesome news, it's exactly why I felt like making such a lengthy guide! Hope it goes through well and you start your journey of licensed music!
I just heard your music and I love the sound! I may not know what youre saying but the feel of the music just made me feel great!❤❤❤❤❤
This is unbelievable, thank you so much for this Ro! SUCH an enormous help. And your sense of humour makes this a super easy watch too!
Thank you so much, I know a lot of this information might one day change but I'm happy to provide it in a fun format!
I had this video bookmarked but I needed that last tweet to finally watch it lmao!! Thanks for the advice!
I'm glad you checked it out!! Best of luck and throw any questions here!
Thanks for the video!! Well done and very useful 💪🏾🎶😃
You're welcome!
Thank you so much for making this video! 😊🙏
You're welcome!
Hey man, this was super helpful, thanks!
Glad I could assist!
Came back to this vid as I was in the process of prepping a cover for distribution. I realized the track would most likely count as derivative work (adding original lyrics to a vgm track, which certainly alters the fundamental character). This helped me get a better understanding of the grey area. Thanks for this resource!
I'm super glad it worked out as a resource! As disappointing as it is we can't easily work on derivative works as artists, it might open up the conversation and eventually maybe they'll have a website to apply for making em!
VERY GREAT VIDEO!
Epic endorse!!
Hi! Had a question about linking to the audio only release. I have some covers I'd like to submit from Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64. I see on VGMdb and other sites that they had official releases but they aren't uploaded anywhere on streaming services or digital stores that I know of. Is it possible to license them still in that case?
(I feel like it has to be possible as Soundrop has Ocarina of Time used as an example in their FAQs but not sure how to do ot properly!) Thanks so much!
ro making the content we all need!!
Very helpful guide. just wanna ask are we allowed to use the official instrumental for our cover songs? or do we have to produce a new instrumental? Thank you!
Thank you! You must always own 100% of the music that you are selling, so you have to produce an instrumental unless you get explicit permission from the song's copyright holder. Many vocalists collaborate with instrumentalists or even commission some to get cover music out, and sometimes instrumental cover artists will even let vocalists sing over their older works for a revenue split share
So good
Can I choose Anime as genre for anime covers or only official anime music can pick that genre?
Will Spotify and Apple Music reject the anime covers if their genre is anime?
Hi! I believe I shared some thoughts on this question on Reddit as well, but I checked with another power user of Soundrop and they confirmed you can choose anime as your genre. Soundrop is in charge of approving/rejecting your submissions, but there is no explicit rule against labeling your covers as anime. The same user used both Anime and Metal as their genres of choice.
@@RoPanuganti What a relief! A guy scared me today by saying Apple 'n' Spotify would reject my covers just because I chose anime as thier genre. Now the only thing that worries me is that (for 2 covers of the EP) I didn't put (FROM "x"), I only put ("x") in the titles because I know people will understand what the source material is without the FROM, the title also becomes shorter and cleaner. If Soundrop rejects the titles, I'll have to put From.
Thank you very much for the quick clarification ^^
@@RoPanuganti Hi, I've just noticed Soundrop has changed its licenses to just American territory... What now? I've just paid for a new album, will it only appear in American streaming sites even though I've chosen a worldwide release? If it gets a worldwide release, will the album get removed from other countries??? I'm worried :(
@@AntoniusTertius no problems, it just means you can only license music that has been released in the United States so that they can properly find the copyright owner for paying royalties.
@@RoPanuganti But Soundrop now states "If you wish to distribute worldwide, you are responsible for obtaining additional custom licensing agreements with the copyright holders beyond the required licenses obtained through Soundrop." What now? :(
Hi, Ro!
I would like to know why on some covers the original composer also appears as a primary artist?
For example: "Song of Storms" listed on the cover artist's spotify page but also on Koji Kondo's.
Any tip?
Great question Silvano! This is because the cover artist put the composer there, which is not of course the right thing to do - there is a separate way to credit the artist. Soundrop would not allow this, but the cover artist may have used a different distributor from Soundrop.
@@RoPanuganti thanks for repyling so fast! And what if the cover is a "classical version"? Should the composer also be credited as a primary artist?
@@svpagliuca you can indicate if the release is a classical composition and again it will have a separate area for composer. Primary artists generally are for the performer(s)
Hi! I have a question.
I don't have a Spotify artist profile, I have my personal one. The other day I uploaded for the first time an EP in Soundrop and when I arrived to the option "is a new artist to be listed on Spotify" or " is an existing artist listed on Spotify", as you can see at 28:18 in the video, I clicked on the first option.
That this means Soundrop will create a Spotify artist page for me or I have to do it by myself?
I would like to have this album in my "future" Spotify artist page of course.
Thank you very much for your video, it was very helpful!
Hey Isaac! Your question, if there is one, is actually answered - you will indeed get a new artist page created on Spotify once your release is approved, licensed if it's a cover, sent to stores, and stores approve and post it. You'll end up having an artist page that you can also claim through artists.spotify and customize, add pictures etc, and of course from here out you can type it into the "Artist Field" in Soundrop to have it go to the same page.
There's even a unique artistt code for your new Spotify Artist page, and at the end of the Soundrop submission page you can check this id to be sure it's 100% the right one!
@@RoPanuganti that's great, thank you very much!! ^^
Hi Ro, thanks for the video! On Soundrop do you distribute your music worldwide or only in the US?
You're welcome! The music goes out worldwide and they support tons of stores in a lot of different countries, with many more being added here and there. Most nations with a larger digital music streaming service will be able to access Soundrop, or most distributor's music!
@@RoPanuganti Ah I see, thanks!
@@VGMDogg They distribute worldwide, but now Soundrop only gets cover licenses for USA territory, I don't recall being like that months ago...
Hey man!! Just rewatching this video again. I’m torn right now with trying to find a good distributor for my bands. I want to do some covers for both bands I have as well as originals. Would you say that Soundrop is possibly better than Distrokid?? I guess with the recent price hike and extra fees with Distrokid, I want to maybe be able to keep my songs up for both of my bands and it not get taken down no matter what. I have one cover released through Soundrop and the only thing that I have had an issue with was that it didn’t get linked to my official artist channel that I already have on UA-cam. Any thoughts on this? Also do you think that the 15% commission with soundrop is worth it to have originals on this platform?
Hey, thanks for reaching out! There's a few things to consider here, but by far the customer support has been abysmal from DK, so that automatically changed my mind. From a cost perspective, the 15% commission can appear steep, but it also incentivizes the platform to actually work for artists. With DK, they tend to sneak in a lot of extra fees for things like content ID and they don't necessarily work all the time... A lot of my friends with huge followings also made the switch to avoid that.
When you use Soundrop they have no say on UA-cam and the Artist channel connections, so that's probably an issue with UA-cam I should learn more about. Mine have worked out well, but I know I had a UA-cam Artist channel for a while and 1 artist account on SD. I deleted my DistroKid which might have helped the UA-cam stuff!
My last piece of advice, no matter what distributor works for your situation, you can always migrate to Soundrop as long as you keep the UPC for the songs. It can even help keep the same stats and everything.
@@RoPanuganti thank you for the reply. Using Soundrop for all my releases has been on my mind lately. Along with Landr. Both Soundrop and Landr really have great cover song licensing. I may be making the switch based off this.
Thank you so much Ro for the complete guide,but there's something still bothers me. This is an original mellow song but I exracted only the original vocals from that original song, I made my own version of it into an alternative rock reggae version. I do all the instruments recorded, mixed and mastered exept the original vocals which is extracted from the original song. Do soundrop will allow this one? since the vocals I think is considered as a sample which is extracted from the original song. I made my own version of it entirely all the instruments into an alternative rock reggae excep the original vocals extracted. Do soundrop will consider or allow this one? thank you so much.
Hey, thank you very much for the kind words. Unfortunately, if you are not creating 100% of the music, or collaborating with someone else, then this is considered a remix and it's not going to go through. You can always reach out to the original artist to see if they would like to collaborate, or if the original artist has shared the vocals of the song as a Creative Commons license where you may use their work without credit, you would be okay.
I know there's a lot of great music out there created by remixing different works but unfortunately that's a very complex area of music and distributors want to be sure they can follow the law and fairly credit and pay everyone
@@RoPanuganti , thank you so much Ro, I must have to re-create this one 100% the whole mix, thank you so much for leading us song cover creators to the right path, I would really love to do more cover songs just knowing that we can protect our work.. thank you so much for this..😁😁🤘🤘🔥🔥🔥🔥
So if I already use Distrokid for my original works, could I use soundrop to distribute cover songs under the same band name with little to no issue??
Absolutely! Should you choose to use two different distributors, there's no problems as long as you use the same name. I have a few friends that used to use DK for originals only and Soundrop for licensing covers, which can be a bit easier financially!
@@RoPanuganti Good to know!
So, I'm following along and doing all the things, but, it won't let me play back my song. It shows it as being 0:00/0:00 and the play button doesn't do anything. Any idea what that could be?
That sounds like an issue they're having with the browser, you should be able to verify. Your song is imported by saving your release and not continuing to pay for the distribution. A lot of artists have had this happen
@RoPanuganti Thanks for the input. I'll check it again later and see if it was just a browser flook or something as you said. I haven't set it for release yet so I should be able to edit anything if needed. Much appreciated 🙏
Does sound drop allow for publishing something that is copyright free so creators can use it on youtube without getting claimed by content ID?
So there's a few different parts to this question, but very very important to distinguish here! You can definitely submit music and not enable Content ID, which is perfect if you don't want folks to be automatically claimed for original music. However, and this is specifically a UA-cam problem, any cover being used in a video can still potentially be claimed due to UA-cam reaching out to PRO companies to properly pay its own required royalties. If it can't find the correct song, it'll use a cover of it and tentatively claim the video.
So in short, content Id is a complex problem on UA-cam and not Soundrop.
Have I to pay just one time? Or there’s an anual payment for make my cover stay on the platforms? Thanks
One time for any song release just as the site says. There's no recurring fee to keep music on stores, but Soundrop will instead take a small cut of royalties.
So if I play an instrumental version of the song( about 90% of what I would.do would be worship songs). If I play an instrumental, like piano only no singing and then do a.lyric video, is thst considered a remix? Or would thst go through?
I usually. Play the melody, as written or very close to it, but then everything in my left hand/ the accompaniment I make up as I go
This is very specifically for audio distribution, so if the song hss been released before as an instrumental and then once with lyrics, you won't encounter this issue when distributing through Soundrop.
I have a question that doesn't seem to be covered by Soundrop or any similar services:
I have an existing channel where I post all sorts of content - videos essays, memes, music, etc - and I wish to start uploading covers to this channel as well.
It is not an official artist channel so I would not be uploading anything through UA-cam Music, just regular old UA-cam.
Is there a way to obtain mechanical licenses for covering songs that I can apply to my UA-cam videos - like a platform that works with UA-cam or at least makes this possible?
What I mean is, if I have a cover video up on my channel, how do I get a mechanical license to allow me to do that? How would mechanical royalties be tracked? How could I show that I had the license in case of a copyright strike? Does everyone who posts covers on UA-cam do it through UA-cam Music? Is that my only option? Is that what you do?
I'm not concerned with getting a sync license, that's a completely different issue. I just want to know how to get a mechanical license that can be applied to a regular UA-cam video/track mechanical royalties made on that video or at least be showcased when defending a copyright strike.
I know this video is a year old, but thanks so much if you see this!
Edit: Is none of this necessary because UA-cam as a DSP pays blanket mechanical royalties through the MLC? Do I even need a mech license for regular UA-cam?
I think I understand what your situation is, and there are definitely a lot of channels like yours that include different kinds of videos and not necessarily cover music videos. However, you do seem to know about sync licenses which are exactly what you need. Sync licenses are not compulsory, so we don't automatically get them without permission, and are specifically for UA-cam or any audiovisual medium so you need those permissions to legally use a copyrighted song/piece in a video, UA-cam specifically. Soundrop happens to distribute to UA-cam Music, yes, but this is purely for music listening with album art so your mechanical licenses with them will okay that
Since we have to get these licenses and they aren't compulsory, you might have figured that this is essentially impossible for almost everyone outside of huge companies, collaborations, or indie games sometimes. I have maybe 2 sync licenses acquired for my channel.
The reality is that while sync licenses are clearly required legally, not only are they extremely uncommon or impossible to obtain, but even game companies don't seem to know about this or mind us uploading cover videos properly. All of your royalties obtained are going through Google and AdSense so they seemingly will withhold that if a copyright owner were upset by the lack of licenses, but considering even Nintendo has shared cover videos and fan works on their channels. I think this is unlikely. A very lengthy answer for your excellent question, but unfortunately it just means that at any point we could have cover videos taken down or copyright claims and the humongous cover scene on UA-cam just takes a calculated risk. When it comes to music royalties on streaming platforms and Bandcamp, fortunately you can be secured in your licensing and properly pay those composers.
@@RoPanugantiThanks for replying! I didn't think you would on such an old video haha.
I get the whole thing with sync licenses. That's a whole other can of worms I'm not even worrying about right now.
What I'm confused about is the MECHANICAL licenses.
For UA-cam covers (as far as I know) you need a sync license AND a mechanical license, and I can't figure out how to get the mechanical license 😅
Everywhere I look, people say I can get a mechanical license through other services (like DistroKid, or Harry Fox directly, etc), as this is what you do for other platforms like Spotify and UA-cam music. And everyone says this will work for UA-cam too, but they're all super vague about it.
I'll use Spotify and DistroKid as examples:
Uploading a cover song to Spotify through DistroKid charges an additional fee ($12/yr) to obtain and manage the mechanical licenses necessary for legally releasing the AUDIO portion of a cover of a song (using the intellectual property of lyrics, melody, etc for the AUDIO portion of my cover). They then track what you make from streaming that cover and pay the corresponding royalties to the rightsholders.
There are many similar services that work for several different platforms, but I've come across NONE that do this for UA-cam.
So, my question is this:
Is there any way to obtain a MECHANICAL license for a song in order to cover it on UA-cam and manage the royalties to be paid based on the number of views?
Everywhere I look, they say, "get a mechanical license," but they never explain how to apply it to UA-cam...
Have you ever gotten a mechanical license for any of your covers, or do you just post them and hope they don't get taken down?
I understand that most people don't get any of the required licenses and just rely on content id to sort out monetization and royalties; but if I can somehow get a mechanical license for a song that I'm covering, I would like to in order to not risk getting a strike.
Again, I'm not concerned with sync licenses right now at all - I'll deal with that later. For now, I just want the mechanical ones...
Thank you so much for taking the time out to read this and respond. I know it's super long so I really appreciate it! 😅
It's invaluable to have an inside perspective from an already established creator!!! Thank you!
@@iDunnoMan9000 as far as my experience and understanding goes, there is no way to get a mechanical license for UA-cam because they're only used in audio formats. The synchronization license is the only kind of license we can acquire, and as I mentioned, very few people have ever gotten them for their music videos. We unfortunately operate at a risk that any copyright holder will ask them to be taken down but this has almost never happened to my knowledge. That said, UA-cam/Google will accrue ad revenue which they collect and pay to UA-cam Partners.. that money should naturally go to those composers/copyright holders as well but Google hasn't implemented a simple system for this either.
@@RoPanuganti Okay cool. Well that's a bit of a shame haha.
Thank you so much for your insight though! I really appreciate the replies!!!
On a side note, I'm looking into a platform called "We Are The Hits" that's supposed to help deal with revenue splitting, and sort of giving a "heads up" that you're covering a song on UA-cam. If you haven't heard of it, you should check it out cuz it seems kinda cool. I don't know everything about it yet and I don't think it has anything to do with licensing, but it works directly with UA-cam and might be worth taking a look at. Idk...
Anyway, thanks again for the replies and for this outstanding video! And I'm loving the covers man! Keep up the great stuff!
Hi there, I uploaded a cover song for distribution on sound drop. It has been approved for Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Tiktok but isn't on Spotify or iTunes yet and it's been over a week. How long does this process typically take pls?
It can take at least 2 business weeks (excluding weekend), and that is because Spotify and iTunes and many stores have their own processing times of 2-3 business days at least. With cover music it takes longer because the original song's copyright holder needs to be informed of your cover. All this information is also available on Soundrop's FAQs in case you need more details!
@@RoPanuganti Thanks for the prompt response. In the distribution dashboard, it doesn't show Spotify or iTunes under the processing, licensing, in delivery, errors, live or takedown tabs. Is this normal?
@@TukeMorgan unfortunately I'm not sure. I don't work for the company so I don't always recognize some of the bugs. But, if you still have not seen your music released after two full business weeks, it's not a bad idea to check their support website and see if the song you released qualified for licensing.
I'm kinda confused, cause in the video, you used Earthbound as an example, but this never got an official soundtrack release...how would you go about getting a license for something like this?
So Earthbound is a unique exception, you can find its soundtrack on VGMdB with an imported CD and USD price! You can also refer to official posts (not ESL Requests) on EasySongLicensing database. I wish we had a single universal confirmation site, but for now your best bet is checking these sites and asking other cover artist communities what has been safe to license so far.
@@RoPanuganti I know this is an old comment, but do you remember what you put for the original audio-only release field? I'm trying to upload a cover of an Earthbound song but cannot find this (the song is listed on EasySong though).
For those, I tend to include the EasySongLicensing database link as well as the VGMDB link if I know that album is licensible. For Earthbound I had used this one vgmdb.net/album/800@@herooftrains5891
@@RoPanuganti Okay, thank you! I used something similar from VGMdb and also provided the Easy Song ID. We’ll see if that works. Thanks for the video and reply!
So if I decide I want to make a cover of some existing song, all I have to do is make the cover, go through the process of putting it on Soundrop, and then they'll handle the licensing? Is there a way to check ahead of time that I'll be able to get a license, or would I just have to wait for Soundrop to get back to me with approval or denial?
Exactly! I covered in this video how you can check that you're able to get a license, but you will also be able to get a refund in the event you try to cover a song that just isn't available for licensing. Specifically with video game music, which is my specialty, you need to make sure that the soundtrack has been released in the United States officially using a website like VGMDb.net or you can use Easy song licensing database.
The only challenges are usually older games, products from Nintendo or other non-US companies, and of course plenty of modern games that don't put their OSTs out. Now if you're covering bands and contemporary music, usually those are pretty safe as long as those artists published it.
@@RoPanuganti So do you have to actually just make and upload your cover and hope you'll be able to get through the licensing process, or is there a way to check ahead of time? Would be really upsetting to produce a song and then be told you actually can't.
@@rhettorical the way to check ahead is how I explained, buy verifying the song had been released officially in the US. Worse case you can message their support email or socials to ask about specific songs. Both of these methods have been sufficient for myself and dozens of others, and if you do submit and the song is not licensible you're able to refund it anyway
If derivative works ARE being uploaded to Soundrop (translations with lyrics matching same beat as original lyrics, same melody) - why is the mechanical license approved? Does Soundrop check this or not?
Great question, and I can't always speak to how things get through. There are thousands of artists submitting music and I can't imagine every single one gets thoroughly vetted, that would probably be impossible. The licensing process as I understand it is a little simple, they check the information you provide and send a notice of intent to the copyright holder that you're going to make a cover. That notice basically is a courtesy, since we have implicit permission to cover anything in the US this way and there's mostly no reason you won't get a license. I'm sure over time or if the music seems likely to have issues it'll get flagged and manually reviewed
@@RoPanuganti Thanks for answering!
Also, once a work gets a license, is it possible to relicense it in the case one feels it was given the wrong license? Like, send it through a different distributor like Easy Song?
@@michellenoirstudios you can revoke distribution, or you can also use separately ESL or any other service to license it for bandcamp (the main reason I would use ESL for example!). The goal is to get your music out to as many platforms as possible, and protect it by following all these rules by paying royalties after all
@@RoPanuganti Cool! Is revoking distribution the same as taking down the piece of work through the distributor and using another distributor to release it under a different license?
@@michellenoirstudios yep same exact procedure and policies.
I do not see current videos for Soundrop in 2023. Why?
Hello! I made this video in 2022 so I marked it in the title, in case there are changes to the service. As of right now this video should be accurate!
@@RoPanuganti Heh, good call. There are changes alright. A lack of service and lack of human support. No one big is catching up to the current issues that Soundrop is having. Maybe that'll change in a few months. Check out the reviews for Soundrop...it is TANKING.
What about synchronization licenses? I use Soundrop but I want to upload my own video. Who handles synchronization license?
Compulsory License doesn't handle me making my own video with the audio.
Excellent question! Unfortunately, that would be under the category of reaching out to the copyright holder. There aren't that many services that truly offer synchronization licenses, mostly because it's probably not common for people to want one. You're absolutely right that a compulsory license isn't enough for making cover music videos.
I would love to see every major video game company, film company and otherwise music label have a way to submit requests for a synchronization license, but it seems like they're extremely expensive the few times they are offered (like for bands and labels, movies, etc). For a reasonable comparison, I have obtained maybe two or three synchronization licenses in my 11 years on UA-cam!
@@RoPanuganti Please explain how are they doing it? So many artist do covers of other people's songs, like the meditation /prayer worship channels do so many songs week after week. How are the getting rights to do it?
@@Diamond88keyz sure, I'll do my best guess as to how this works! Simply put, like myself. A lot of us just want to share our musicianship and skill, but connect to others who are familiar with music that already exists.. UA-cam doesn't stop you from uploading cover music, it's completely up to the owner of the music to request a cover video to be taken down. If it does not have a synchronization license. This is kind of gray area because you don't see many people taking down cover music, it might be bad PR or just too much work. Thousands of artists create cover music videos including me, with the hopes that we don't receive takedowns.
Is it allowed to pay the $0.99 via Paypal?
I believe they accept PayPal now, a very recent change!
@@RoPanuganti Got it. Thanks!
What if…it’s a remix? 😳
I may have answered this in the video, but a remix is almost always not going to be allowed on distribution. If we're talking remix, as in taking another song that's already been published by someone else and changing the sections, performing on top of it, or similar, you would need their explicit permission provided to Soundrop support since you're largely using copyrighted recordings. Hopefully that makes sense!
@@RoPanuganti Yep. My use case is typically different any way; I do trailerizations for movies. :)
Weird Al always gets permission from the artists that he's parodying, even if legally he doesn't need to for parody works, just to be on the safe side.
As I brushed over in the video and even in the comments, this is always the first example we see. The reality is, parody law is debated in courts and Weird Al is asking permission to be absolutely certain he can do this and, as I understand it, out of politeness which is awesome. If you create a parody and avoid getting permission (a derivative work as I mention), if your distributor accepts it for any reason you could still be liable. The question is if us DIY musicians can afford to debate it in court, or if we should ask for permission or work on other things.
Until Tipper Gore you didn't need to worry about explicit language. This was very informative. Sounds like a bunch of red tape to me but you seem to have been able to get through it. Didn't know any of what you have to go through to put together a song someone else holds the copyrights to. Doesn't that ever make you want to go with original. The talent is surely within you and your friends
I'm glad you found it informative then! It does seem like a lot of work, particularly because these laws were established almost 100 years ago and have only been refined, usually to protect copyright and all. It does certainly reinforce me writing my own music, but it is far easier to get an audience performing songs people know.. so a bit of a rock and hard place at times.
@@RoPanugantiTo me it's all new ,fresh, and on point. I don't game . I've never been a gamer. I enjoy the way you and your friends put together these projects. Glad you're doing this
I'm actually really happy that the Explicit label exists so I know what music I can't play around my mom. But like he alluded to in the video, the label is sometimes seen as a badge of honor. Artists used to love slapping that "Warning: Explicit Lyrics" sticker on their albums because there was tangible evidence that it actually increased sales.