How to release a holiday cover song

'Tis nearly the season to put your spin on a holiday classic. Here’s how to easily (and legally) release a holiday cover song. 

We’ll handle the paperwork so you can focus on the music. Don’t let Mariah have all the fun.

How to release a cover song

We make it simple and handle all the boring legal stuff. You just:

1. Sign in to your DistroKid account. Don’t have one? Sign up.
2. Upload your cover like any other release. But when we ask for the songwriter, select “another artist wrote it (it's a cover song).” (This adds a cover song license to your release.)
3. That’s it! We'll handle the paperwork and pay the legally mandated fee to the original songwriter. You keep the rest of your earnings.

When to upload

Streaming services get a lot of music around the holidays, so it’s best to upload early. 

We recommend uploading your release by mid-November for it to hit streaming services by the start of December.

Holiday cover song inspiration

Need some ideas? Here’s what other artists on DistroKid covered the most in 2025 and 2024:

• “White Christmas” (DistroKid’s most popular holiday cover two years running)
• “Last Christmas”
• “The Christmas Song”
• “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

And here are a few other seasonal classics (if you ask us):

• “Christmas Rappin’” by Kurtis Blow
• “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses
• “River” by Joni Mitchell
• “The Chanukah Song” by Adam Sandler
• “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!” by Sufjan Stevens
• “2000 Miles” by The Pretenders
• “Hanukkah Dance” by Woody Guthrie
• “Not Another Christmas Song” by blink-182
• “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)” by The Ramones
• “8 Days of Christmas” by Destiny’s Child
• “Mistletoe” by Justin Bieber
• “Christmas in Hollis” by Run-D.M.C.

Let’s hear it

Submit your holiday cover song to our Spotify playlist. Covers by DistroKid members only. Sleigh bells welcome.

What counts as a cover (if you want the nitty gritty)

A cover song is a track you record using music originally released by someone else.

The song you're covering must meet these copyright requirements (this is a legal thing, not a DistroKid thing):

• It’s already been released in the United States 
• It doesn’t contain samples and isn’t a remix 
• It doesn’t contain audio you don’t own (from TV, movies, social media, video games, other songs, etc.)
• You didn’t change the basic melody or fundamental character of the song

Genre changes and embellishments for cover songs are totally okay (and encouraged—imagine a punk “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”). You can read more in our Help Center.

Bah humbug (jk).