Cover Mashup License

The short answer

Two cover licenses do not let you release a mashup. A cover license (also called a mechanical license) only covers a standard recording of one song, performed as that song. A mashup blends two or more songs into something new, which legally makes it a derivative work. For that you need direct permission from the publishers of every song in it. If you use any part of the original recordings, you also need a master use license from the label that owns each recording.

The common mistake

A lot of artists think this works: get a cover license for song A, get a cover license for song B, record both, blend them together, release. It does not.

Each cover license covers its own song, recorded as that song. Neither license lets you change the song's structure or combine it with another song. Two licenses for two separate covers do not add up to a license for a third, new work. The mashup is that new work, and nobody has given you permission for it yet.

What a cover license actually allows

In the US, a cover license comes from the compulsory mechanical license in Section 115 of the Copyright Act, which the U.S. Copyright Office explains in Circular 73. It lets you record and distribute your own version of a song. You may arrange it, but Section 115 limits this to what is "necessary to conform it to the style or manner of interpretation of the performance involved", and says the arrangement "shall not change the basic melody or fundamental character of the work."

A mashup does exactly that. It cuts songs apart, swaps sections, lays one melody or lyric over another, and creates a structure neither song had. That goes beyond what the cover license allows.

That makes a mashup a derivative work. Section 101 of the Copyright Act defines a derivative work as "a work based upon one or more preexisting works", including a "musical arrangement" or any other form "in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted." Under Section 106, preparing derivative works is an exclusive right of the copyright owner. The U.S. Copyright Office puts it plainly in Circular 14: "only the owner of copyright in a work has the right to prepare, or to authorize someone else to create, an adaptation of that work."

The recordings have their own owner. Under Section 114(b), the label that owns a recording controls versions in which its sounds are "rearranged, remixed, or otherwise altered in sequence or quality." So if your mashup uses any part of the original recordings, you need the label's permission as well. Distributors apply the same rules: Random Sounds, for example, states that mashups are not covers but derivative works, and need a license from the publishers of each original song.

Outside the US there is usually no compulsory license at all. In Germany, Section 23 of the Copyright Act (UrhG) says that arrangements and other transformations of a work, in particular of a melody, may only be published or exploited with the author's consent. GEMA confirms that it cannot grant this: such authorisations "can, however, not be issued by GEMA but only by the creator/rightsholder." The recording is protected separately: Section 85 UrhG gives the producer of a recording the exclusive right to reproduce it, and the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in Pelham (C-476/17, 2019) that even a short sample of a recording needs the producer's consent, unless it is changed so much that it can no longer be recognised.

What you actually need

Most songs have more than one writer, and often more than one publisher. Every owner of the song has to agree, unless one of them is allowed to license on behalf of the others.

What does not count as permission

• Two cover licenses from your distributor or a licensing service
• Crediting the original artists or writing "no copyright infringement intended"
• Keeping the mashup short, releasing it for free, or not monetizing it
• Changing the pitch or tempo so it sounds different

How to clear a cover mashup, step by step

1. Find the writers and publishers of every song you cover, for example in the repertoire search of ASCAP, BMI or GEMA.
2. Decide exactly what you are making: audio only or with a video, and where you want to release it.
3. Send each publisher a clear request: what the mashup is, where it will be released, for how long, and what you offer (a fee, a share of the income, or both).
4. Get written, signed approval from every publisher before you release anything.
5. Keep the signed paperwork. Distributors can ask for it before they deliver your release.

Using the original recordings instead of your own covers? Then the publishers are only half of it. You also need a master use license from the label that owns each recording, so every label has to approve too, in addition to every publisher.

How it works on Clearhly

Find each song on Clearhly and send its owners a request that describes your mashup and where you plan to release it. Negotiate the terms in one thread, both sides sign the license digitally, and you pay through the platform. Every cleared license gets a public clearance number, so you can show your distributor exactly what you are allowed to do. Clearhly is in private beta: join the waitlist for early access.

This page is general information, not legal advice.