Cover songs in India: how to release a cover legally on Spotify, JioSaavn and YouTube

Every released song carries two copyrights. One is in the song itself: the lyrics and the music, owned by the lyricist and composer or, for most film songs, by the music label or publisher they assigned it to. The other is in the recording. Your cover is a new recording, and that part is yours, but it uses their lyrics and melody.

Selling or streaming your cover reproduces their song, so it needs their permission. Without it, the owner can claim the cover on YouTube, have it removed from the stores, and pursue the release. Indian music labels watch their catalogues closely, film songs above all.

This is the route almost every professional cover uses, because it is the only one stores and distributors can check.

1. Find the owner. Open the original song on Spotify or JioSaavn and read the (P) and (C) lines at the bottom of the release: for film and label songs they name the label. For independent songs, the songwriters themselves, or their publisher, own the song.
2. Write to the label's licensing or rights team. Say which song, your artist name, where you want to release (stores, YouTube, caller tunes), whether you change the lyrics or the arrangement, and how you will credit the writers.
3. Get the permission in writing: an agreement or a clear email that names the song, the platforms, the countries, the term and any fee or royalty share.
4. Credit the original composer and lyricist exactly as on the original release. On SUF, the composer and lyricist on a cover must be the original writers.
5. Keep the document. On SUF you upload it with the release when you mark the track as a cover.

Many labels license covers for a fee, a revenue share, or both, and some refuse for particular songs. A refusal means the cover cannot be released on stores; it does not stop you performing the song live.

Section 31C of the Copyright Act, 1957, added in 2012, lets anyone make a cover version of a song that has already been recorded with its owner's consent, without the owner's agreement, if every condition is met. In summary:

• Not until five calendar years have passed after the end of the year in which the first recording of the song was made.
• The cover must be in the same medium as the last recording, unless that medium is no longer in commercial use.
• Prior notice to the owner, with copies of all covers or labels you will use, given in advance as the Copyright Rules prescribe.
• Royalties paid to the owner in advance for every copy, at the rate fixed by the Commercial Court, with one royalty payable for a minimum of 50,000 copies of each work in each calendar year (the court can set a lower minimum for some languages).
• No change to the song, unless the owner made or consented to that change before, or it is technically necessary for the recording.
• Nothing on the packaging that could mislead people, no name or picture of any performer of an earlier recording or of the film, and a clear statement that it is a cover version made under Section 31C.
• Registers and accounts kept, and open to the owner for inspection.

Section 31C was built around copies: notices, advance royalties on a minimum number of copies, covers and labels. How it applies to streaming, where there are no copies or labels, is not settled, and you still owe the owner royalties in advance at a court-fixed rate. In practice, labels, stores and distributors in India accept a written licence, not a Section 31C notice, as proof that a cover is cleared.

If you want to try the statutory route for a song older than the five-year bar, get advice from a copyright lawyer first. This guide is general information, not legal advice. Read the Copyright Act's Chapter VI for the exact text.

International distributors sell cover song licences, but those are US mechanical licences for songs published in the United States. CD Baby states its cover licence works in the United States only, and TuneCore's India help centre says Indian and Bollywood covers need explicit permission from the label or publisher. A US licence bought for a Hindi film song does not give you rights from the Indian owner.

Even a licensed cover can be pulled when a rights holder disputes it. In October 2026, after Universal Music Group sued DistroKid, artists reported removals that included a cover the artist said he had licensed (Music Business Worldwide). The safest licence is the one from the song's actual owner, covering the platforms you release on.

On YouTube, many labels let covers of their songs stay up through Content ID: the cover is claimed, and the ad money goes to the owner, or the video is blocked. The cover survives, but it earns for the owner, not for you.

Spotify, JioSaavn, Apple Music and the other stores have no such claim-and-share system. A cover there needs its licence before release. A cover that has stayed up on YouTube for a year is not proof that you can put it on Spotify.

These are not covers. They use the original recording itself, so they need permission from the owner of the recording and of the song. 'No copyright' tutorials that change the speed, pitch or reverb do not get past Content ID, and the version is still the owner's music.

A slowed or lofi version of your own song is fine: it is your recording. Release it as its own version with its own ISRC, and say what it is in the title, for example Tera Naam (Slowed and Reverb).

A traditional bhajan, aarti or folk song whose words and tune are in the public domain needs no licence for the song, but a modern arrangement or composition of it may belong to someone, and another label's recording is always theirs. See devotional music distribution.

A version with new lyrics on an existing tune, or a translation of an existing song, still uses the owner's song and still needs permission.

When you submit a release, every track declares its song rights: original, cover, traditional or public domain, or remix. For a cover, you upload the licence or written permission from the song's owner, and the composer and lyricist on the track are the original writers. Covers never go on YouTube Content ID, because the song belongs to someone else.

Not sure whether your licence is enough? Send it to us before you book the release date. Read the FAQ on covers or the Hindi guide, cover song kaise release kare.