The public domain may just be the gift that keeps on giving 🎁🎄

If you’re uploading your version of a song that another artist has already played, it will be classed as a cover, even at Christmas! If you change the lyrics, the style, the arrangement, or only use a small part of the song, we’ll still need to classify it as a cover and you must credit the original artist.

When creating a cover of a Christmas classic, we would recommend checking if the original is in the public domain.

You can find out by having a search through the list of Christmas songs in the public domain, which can be found here.

Works remain under copyright for 50-70 years after the original composer’s death, but please note that the year count does depend on the country. After this, works move into the public domain unless the copyright has been extended. If the track is in the public domain, store and territory restrictions no longer apply. Original composers must still be credited in the C line and the C line year must be the year in which the composition was composed.

If the original is not in the public domain, it’s likely still protected by copyright law. To learn more about how to distribute covers of copyright-protected tracks with RouteNote, please click here. If you need a mechanical license, then we’d suggest using Affordable Song Licensing to get one!

So, the good news is that you won’t need to purchase a mechanical license if you’re covering a song in the public domain! You also won’t need to exclude any stores or territories from your release.

Publishing Details

For the Publishing Details section of your release, if the track you’re covering is not in the public domain, you’ll need to list the original artist here.

If the track you’re covering is in the public domain, it can be sometimes be difficult to know the exact composer – so the choice is yours. You can either put the original composer if you know the name, or your own name, or you can put ‘Unknown‘ in the first name field and ‘Writer‘ in the last name fields, for ‘Unknown Writer’.

If you have any further queries, feel free to get in touch with us!

See also:
Can I use a sample in the public domain for my release?
Can I cover a song and use audio from the original track?
What should I put in the P line if my release is a cover?