Covering a Song

The rights to clear, the arrangement to change and the loudness not to copy

A cover is not a re-recording of the original. You are delivering your version, and legally you must separate two things: the song belongs to someone else, this recording belongs to you.

What you are delivering

A releasable recording — vocal, backing, mix — plus notes naming the writers and the licence you relied on. Rules differ by platform and territory; check the platform's actual requirements before release instead of trusting that "everyone uploads these".

Three steps

1. Decide key and arrangement first: change instrumentation, tempo or section order so this version has a reason to exist. 2. Record vocal and backing with the vocal on its own track, and keep the un-tuned take for comparison. 3. Mix to the platform's loudness target instead of copying the original master's level.

Pages and tools to use

• Cover versus copy — the boundaries between cover, arrangement and piracy.
• Vocal chain — name the problem before adding a stage; longer chains blunt consonants.
• Stem separation tools — fine as a reference backing, risky as a released one.
• Pitch correction — it moves glides, vibrato and formants, not just tuning.
• Master delivery formats — state format, sample rate, bit depth and true-peak margin once.

Acceptance checks

• A mono check does not collapse, and vocal and backing do not cancel each other.
• Loudness around −14 LUFS with true peak no higher than −1 dBTP.
• The release page credits writers and licence type, and one sentence says what this version changed.

Sources

• 本页为场景导航，链接目标为已发布条目（2026-10-31 核对）

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.