Interesting Info
DISCLAIMER – WE ARE NOT LAWYERS – THIS IS WHAT CHAT GPT TOLD US when she shared our first cover license agreement with CHAT and asked if we can post music videos on youtube.
Short answer: this letter means the mechanical license does NOT give you the right to put the song in a YouTube video.
But there’s an important exception that applies to your own recordings on your own YouTube channel. I’ll break it down cleanly.
What this letter DOES give you
This confirmation means DistroKid has secured (or is securing):
✅ Mechanical licenses under U.S. Copyright law (Section 115)
✅ The right to record and distribute audio-only versions of the song
✅ Digital distribution to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, etc.
✅ DistroKid will handle publishing royalties for those audio distributions
This covers:
Streaming
Downloads
Audio-only releases
What the letter EXPLICITLY does NOT grant
This line is the key one:
“Your authorization … does not include the right to … synchronize the Composition(s) to visual media … or create a derivative work…”
“Synchronize to visual media” = putting the song under video.
That means:
❌ No automatic sync rights
❌ No license to use the composition in videos by default
So can you do YouTube videos or not?
✅ YES — for THIS specific scenario
You CAN upload YouTube videos using your own recordings if:
You are the one who recorded the audio
The video is uploaded to your own YouTube channel
The video is essentially a music video, lyric video, visualizer, or performance
You are not licensing the video to third parties
You are not selling the video as a sync product
This is why:
YouTube operates under platform-wide sync + performance licenses
The composition owner gets paid via Content ID / YouTube’s systems
This is standard practice for cover songs on YouTube
This is why millions of cover videos exist legally.
❌ When you WOULD need additional permission
You cannot do the following without a direct sync license from the publisher:
Use the song in:
Ads
Commercial brand videos
Film / TV
Video games
Client work
Paid promotional videos for others
License the video to someone else
Sell the video as a product
Place the song under unrelated visuals (montages, narratives, commercials)
That’s what the letter is warning about.
Why DistroKid includes this language
This letter is boilerplate legal protection, not a YouTube ban.
DistroKid is saying:
“We licensed audio distribution”
“We did NOT grant you full sync rights everywhere”
“If you do commercial sync, that’s on you”
This is standard for every cover song distributed by every distributor.
Practical rule you can safely follow
You are safe to:
Upload official music videos
Upload lyric videos
Upload visualizers
Upload live performances
Upload Shorts and clips
Monetize on YouTube (publisher takes their share)
You are NOT safe to:
License the song to brands
Put it in ads
Use it in films or client projects
One-sentence answer
Yes, you can put your recordings in YouTube videos on your own channel, but the mechanical license does not give you the right to commercial sync outside YouTube.