Copyright and content rights
What rights you need before releasing music: recordings, compositions, samples, cover songs, and artwork, plus how disputes and takedowns work.
You may only submit or distribute content you hold the rights to, for the territories and stores you are delivering to. Getting this wrong does not just affect one release: it can put your whole catalog and your earnings at risk.
Two separate rights, always
Almost every rights problem comes from confusing these:
| What it is | Who usually holds it | |
|---|---|---|
| The recording | The specific audio you made | You, your label, or whoever paid for the session |
| The composition | The song itself, melody and lyrics | The songwriters and their publishers |
Writing the song does not automatically give you the recording rights if someone else made the record. Recording the song yourself does not give you the composition rights. You need both cleared.
Everything else to confirm
- Every performance included in the recording, including session musicians and featured vocalists.
- Samples, beats, loops, interpolations, translations, adaptations, and remixes.
- Artwork, photography, typefaces, and logos, including stock licensing terms.
- Artist names, contributor credits, label names, and any third-party identifiers you enter.
A purchased beat is licensed, not owned, and the terms of that license decide what you may do with it. Read them before you distribute.
Cover songs
Recording your own performance of someone else's song still requires a license for the composition, and the rules differ by territory.
A cover-song license does not automatically cover:
- Samples taken from the original recording.
- Remixes or reworkings that change the composition.
- Translations or adapted lyrics.
- Soundalike recordings intended to pass as the original.
- Video use, which is licensed separately.
- Every territory and every store.
Enter the original writers accurately. Crediting yourself as the writer of someone else's song is one of the fastest ways to get a release pulled and an account reviewed.
Disputes and takedowns
If you need to raise or answer a claim, gather this first:
- The exact recording, identified by ISRC, and the release by UPC.
- Public URLs where the content appears.
- Ownership evidence: contracts, splits, license agreements, session agreements.
- Relevant dates, including when the recording was made and first released.
Use the correct support route, and share only material you are entitled to disclose.
SpaceMedia may restrict, reject, or remove content while a credible ownership, infringement, fraud, or safety concern is reviewed. That is not a judgment against you; it limits harm while the facts are established.
A takedown request begins downstream processing. It does not remove content instantly or simultaneously everywhere. Stores, caches, user libraries, and territories all clear at their own pace. See Rights and takedowns for the artist-side process.
Common questions
I made the beat and the vocals. Do I own everything? If nobody else performed, wrote, or produced any part of it, and you own the artwork, then yes. Add a single collaborator and you have splits to agree in writing.
Can I release a cover without a license if I credit the writer? No. Crediting is not licensing. They are separate obligations.
Someone released my song. What now? Collect the evidence listed above and raise it through the support route for your account. Do not upload a duplicate to compete with it.
This page is operational guidance, not legal advice. Where rights are genuinely uncertain, get qualified legal advice before releasing rather than after.