All you need to know about Music Covers: Forms,Legality and more

Music is seen as a tool for psychological and societal reform, and a food for the soul. Music has no doubt evolved into something big and profitable in these time, no doubt the recent rise in remaking and covers of songs. According to wikipedia, ‘a cover version, remake, cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by someone other than the original artist or composer of a previously recorded song.
Music covers dates back to the 90’s but then it had a slightly different purpose as it was done to rival or compete with a popular tunes. You can check about the history of music cover

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_version#History ..

well in recent times, we have other purposes amongst which are

1. As Tribute Acts and Cover Bands: Covers can be done as tribute to people or artists by bands, infact some bands dedicate their entire musical work life to doing covers and they most times target songs or artists that are popular or invoke, sometimes, they target artist that are already declining in popularity. I’m sure you would have heard of an ‘old school musical outing’ where some old classics are played, some times aesthetics are added to the original derivative of the song and this gives the song some more popularity. Covers most times gives more popularity to the original song and artist, i personally know of a song that used cover versions as it’s only promotion strategy and it did pay off well because he didn’t have money for promotions and adverts. Cover bands are seen in hotels, conferences, events and shows where they play according to the trend of that time, some very popular bands in Nigeria would include my favourite ‘Alternate Sound’, ‘Veentage band’ , ‘The Composers’ etc.
2. Revivalist Acts: This acts are for a totally different purpose, the bands here seek to bring back the the old classics to the younger generation that didn’t have the opportunity to hear those songs.
3. Commercial Acts: Some covers are done for commercial purposes. They are done to be sold either digitally or in CDs. If this is the case, then there is a legal side to this where the band or artist needs a copyright license from the original publisher or record label. Without the license, you can not post such contents in promotional sites like Spotify or Youtube, and even if you do, you will have to sign a royalty deal with the publisher to give a particular amount to them, the amount is 9.1 cent (#2.4 naira) per download. Getting a license is now very easy infact, some sites can help you get the publisher and do the deal, for example the Harry Fox Agency can do that for you. You will obtain a mechanical license to record the song, and if you want to do a video alongside, you will need a synchronization license too. Some good news is that Youtube and some other big content promoters make deals with the copyright owners to get Ad revenue from the content promoters when ever their unlicensed content is used.
   Copyrights are reserved and it solely depends on the original publisher.there is a legal exemption called ‘Fair Use’, this reduces or eliminates the copyright protection on the song, you can check it out to see how it is done, Some really don’t care but others can go all the way to fight you for it and you might end up loosing your Youtube channel and other media platforms. There is such a thing as Entertainment Law so you know.
4. Personal Musical Pleasure Acts: This is where a lot of us fall under, it involves take up a song and do a remake for friends, families and viewers whether for some musical aesthetics or for religious purposes. Doing a cover this way exempts you from legal prosecutions as you are not going against any law, but the artist still hold the right to ask for a withdrawal of the cover if he deems fit and this is only if he/she has a legal copyright. There are some characteristics that makes a cover fall under this category, they are:

• i). Credits: It is important to give credit to the original publisher of the song. You must write out the original title name and artist name, if you change the title, it is assumed that you have done another song and this can go really bad in a legal ground as it is seen as a copyright violation affairs. Do well to spell out the name of the artist and original title of the song.
• ii). Indicate that it is a cover: You must indicate that it is a cover and not an original. Not everybody must have heard the song don’t assume people already know it’s a cover.
• iii). Must not be sold either online or offline:
  I’m sure this article has helped you, now let’s make more covers with an enlightened mind, remember ignorance is never an excuse. Drop questions in the comments session and claps if you find this worth while.