Your Release, Your Responsibility: The Rights You Need Before You Upload

When you upload a release, you are not just sending us a file. You are telling us, and every store it reaches, that you have the right to put that music out and earn money from it.

We deliver your music. Stores and platforms check it. But the one person who can actually know where every sound, every word and every image came from is you. That is why the responsibility for rights sits with the artist or label who submits the release, and it is why we want you to understand exactly what that responsibility covers.

This matters more than ever. Platforms are tightening their delivery standards, and some, starting with TikTok from 1 November 2026, are introducing financial penalties for content that breaks them. A problem that used to mean a rejected track can now also mean a real cost.

The One Rule Behind Everything

You need the right to use every part of your release. Not most of it. All of it.

You do not always have to own something to use it. A valid licence or written permission is enough. What you cannot do is use someone else's work and hope nobody notices. Content-identification systems compare every delivery against huge catalogues of existing recordings, so they usually do.

A release is made of more parts than people think. Each of these has an owner, and you need the right to each one:

• The recording itself (the master)
• The song: melody and lyrics (the composition)
• Every performer, featured artist, producer and session musician on it
• Any sample, loop or interpolation
• The artwork, including photos, fonts and logos
• Any name, face or voice of a real person

Cover Songs

Covers are allowed, and they are a great way to reach new listeners. But a cover has two sides, and only one of them is yours.

If you recorded the cover yourself, you own your recording. The song still belongs to its songwriters and publishers. To release it, you need a mechanical licence for the composition. Without it, the cover is not cleared, however good your performance is.

Three things a cover must never do:

• Use any part of the original recording. A cover is your own new performance, not an edit of the original
• Imitate the original artist's voice, with AI or otherwise. See our guide to AI and synthetic voices
• Present itself as the original. The title and artist fields must make clear it is your version

Samples, Loops and Interpolations

Taking a piece of someone else's recording, even two seconds, is sampling. Re-recording a recognisable melody or lyric from another song is interpolation. Both need permission from the people who own them.

Loop packs and sample libraries are not automatically safe. Read the licence. Many allow use in your own tracks but exclude some uses, require credit, or forbid releasing the loop with little added to it. If a loop is sold to thousands of producers, a track built mostly on that loop can also trigger content-identification claims against you.

Remixes, Edits and Mashups

A remix of someone else's song is a new version of their work. To release it, you need permission from whoever owns the original recording and the original song, usually in writing. An official remix is one that was commissioned or approved by them.

Mashups combine two or more existing recordings, so they need permission from every owner involved. In practice, that is almost never available, which is why unlicensed mashups and bootleg edits are among the most common reasons releases are rejected or removed.

Sped-Up, Slowed and Pitch-Shifted Versions

Sped-up, slowed + reverb, nightcore and pitch-shifted versions are hugely popular on short-form platforms. They are also exactly what platforms are now targeting.

The rule is simple. Changing the speed or pitch of a recording does not change who owns it. A sped-up version of someone else's track is still their track. You can only release it with their permission.

Your own music is different. If you own the master and the song, you are free to release sped-up or slowed versions of it. Label them clearly as versions (for example, “Sped Up” in the version field) and give each its own ISRC.

Speech, Recordings of Other People and Non-Musical Audio

Speeches, interviews, film and TV dialogue, podcasts, voice notes and recordings of people made without their knowledge all belong to someone, and the people in them have their own rights. Do not include them unless you have permission.

Platforms also restrict audio that is not really music: tracks that are mostly spoken word without being released as such, silence, noise, very short clips, or recordings hidden inside another track. If your release is spoken word, an audiobook or a meditation, tell us, so it is delivered to the right places in the right way.

Audio Quality

Every file you deliver should be finished and technically sound. Stores reject, and some now penalise, audio that is:

• Distorted or clipped
• Silent, or with long unintended silence
• Cut off, incomplete or with a broken ending
• A low-quality file, such as an MP3 converted to WAV

Artwork and Metadata

Your cover art needs the same clearance as your audio. A photo found online, a famous logo, a brand's design or a celebrity's face are not yours to use unless you have permission.

Metadata is part of the release too, and it must be accurate and honest:

• List only artists who actually perform on the track. Never add a famous name as “feat.” to attract listeners
• Do not use titles that pretend to be another artist's song
• Make sure credits, ISRC and UPC codes and release dates are correct
• Keep the artist name consistent across releases

AI-Made Music

Using AI is allowed. You must disclose it accurately when you submit the release, and you must never use AI to imitate a real artist's voice without their written authorisation. Our separate guide on AI and synthetic voices explains where the line sits.

If You Upload Music for Others

Labels, managers and anyone who submits releases on behalf of other artists carry the same responsibility, plus one more: you need valid authority from the artists you represent, and you are responsible for everything submitted through your account, including by your team members and sub-users.

If an artist on your roster sends you a track with an uncleared sample, the release is still yours to stop. Check what you receive before you submit it.

Keep Your Proof

If a store, a rights holder or our team questions a release, you may be asked to show that you have the rights. When there is an active rights, fraud or platform issue, you have 2 business days to provide the evidence you hold, unless a store sets a different deadline.

So keep these for every release:

• Contracts and split sheets with collaborators
• Licences for samples, loops, beats and covers
• Project files and stems
• Receipts for purchased beats or sound packs
• Sources and licences for artwork
• AI generation records, if you used AI

This Is Part of Your Agreement

Everything above is written into the Motiva Groove Distribution Services Agreement (Version 3.2). In clause 3.1 you confirm that you hold the rights needed for each release. Clause 3.4 lists the rights you must hold, including masters, compositions, mechanical rights, performers, samples, loops and interpolations, remixes and derivative works, cover recordings, artwork and names, voices and likenesses. Clause 3.8 makes you responsible for accurate metadata, and clause 3.10 covers evidence of rights. Clause 3.12 sets the technical quality requirements for delivered audio, clause 3.13 covers sped-up, slowed, edited and other altered versions, and clause 3.14 is the release responsibility confirmation you tick when you accept the Agreement, which applies to every release you submit.

Clause 3.2 and clause 3.11 cover submitting music for other artists and the people who act through your account.

What Happens When Rights Are Missing

We would rather be clear about the consequences than vague. A release without the right clearances can be rejected before delivery, removed after it goes live, or claimed by the rights holder, who may then collect the earnings.

Under the agreement, we may also:

• Hold the earnings of the affected release while a credible rights issue is checked (clause 6.1)
• Pass on documented third-party costs directly caused by unauthorised content, such as store reversals, chargebacks or charges for handling a violation (clause 6.5)
• Suspend the affected release or, in serious cases, the account (clause 15.4)

Before You Upload

Run through this for every release:

• Do I own or have a licence for every sound in this track?
• Is any part of it someone else's recording, even sped up, slowed or pitch-shifted?
• If it is a cover, do I have the mechanical licence for the song?
• Have all collaborators agreed to the release and the splits?
• Is the audio finished, with no clipping, distortion or unintended silence?
• Do I have the right to use the artwork?
• Are the artists, title and credits accurate and honest?
• Have I disclosed any AI use correctly?
• Could I show proof of all of this within 2 business days?

When in Doubt, Ask First

If you are not sure whether something is cleared, contact us before you submit it. A question in advance costs nothing. A rejected or removed release, and the cost that may now come with it, does.