The artists who have a cover song on their
album are selling the best, all-around. Of course! Most of these
programs have a SONG-BASED SEARCH, so people go to iTunes or Rhapsody
or Napster and search for their favorite SONG - and in the search
results, they probably see their favorite artist on top, but then
they see a few below it that they've never seen before! They click
into the song, like this new version, and then click into the
artist's full album, to see what else this artist has to offer.

EXAMPLE:
Someone using iTunes remembers the song "Wonderwall" by Oasis from
1996. They go to search for it. Oasis comes up as the 1st result,
but right below that is a version of the song from an artist named
Melissa Rebronja. Who's Melissa Rebronja? They click and listen.
Pretty cool! They click her name to find out more about her, and
they start to browse around her whole album, like what they hear, and
buy the whole album. Now they're a fan of her music. All because
she did her own version of a popular song. (To hear for yourself,
go to http://cdbaby.com/cd/melissar )

So now, I'm advising musicians to do a creative cover song on their
next album. Find something that hasn't been done TOO much.
(Example: CD Baby has 762 versions of "Amazing Grace". Really!) Find
something that you can add your unique twist to. Then make sure to
include it on a full-length album, so that people who discover you by
that song can get turned on to your own music, and buy the whole
collection.

(Also, make sure to get your permissions and pay your license at
Harry Fox, first! Bookmark this:
http://www.songfile.com/limited_license_search.html and this:
http://cdbaby.net/dd/?f=8 )

oh,

Make sure you pay the licensing fee. Or end up in court, your choice.

or just avoid riaa music altogether

i can't wait to put out my covers of i'll see you in my dreams and autumn leaves on an album, i'll just rename them to i'll see you in autumn and in my dreams. No one will ever know and i'll make billions! RIAA HERE I COME

lol, I am guilty of having shared Electric Gypsy covers via p2p in the past. Won't rule out doing it in the future either.

As far as putting a cover on a CD (or if we ever decide to sell a download of a song we cover) rest assured that we WILL pay the copyright holder for the rights, either direct to the songwriter, or via the Harry Fox Agency. (In fact, we already license the rights from Stevie Wonder via HFA for our version of "Sir Duke")

...but uploading a FREE version of a cover to the net should be considered FAIR GAME!