Q: Why is song XYZ not listed in your database?
A: Probably because no cover songs of this song have been submitted by the community yet. Songs are only relevant to this project if they have been covered or if they are cover songs themselves.
Q: Why is cover song XYZ not listed in your database?
A: Millions of cover songs have been performed and released by artists worldwide, making it a gargantuous task to list all of them. This being said, we currently are both the biggest and most reliable cover song database (almost 1.200.000 cover songs indexed) and we invite you to submit any missing cover song you may be aware of.
Q: Why is song X by artist A listed as a cover, knowing this artist actually wrote the song?
A: Probably because artist A wrote it for another artist, who recorded or released it first. Check out our introduction to the database.
Example: Both Sides, Now by Joni Mitchell is listed as a cover. She released it in 1969, while Judy Collins released her version in 1967.
Q: When a musical work has been created two artists, how do I know who wrote the music and who wrote the lyrics?
A: Basically, you've got 2 scenarios:
- We list the music & lyrics credits separately:
This means we have found sources (usually PRO databases) that clearly distinct the two types of credits.
- The music & lyrics credits are listed jointly:
This can mean two things: Either those artists have both written the music and the lyrics, else we have used sources that do not differentiate between music and lyrics credits.
A final important note is that these are the artists registered as having written the music and lyrics, and may differ from the actual composers and authors.
Q: Why are a lot of band member listings incomplete?
A: We only list artists that are already listed in the database:
- Artists who have composed songs that have been covered,
- Artists who performed original songs that have been covered,
- Artists who performed cover songs.
This might explain why some "essential" band members are missing in our band member listings.
Q: Why are a lot of track listings of albums incomplete?
A: We only add songs to our database if they have been covered, or if they are a cover. It's not our purpose to create full discographies.
Q: Why is the order of the track listings of albums incorrect?
A: We don't try to reproduce the order of the original track listings; the songs are simply ordered alphabetically.
Q: You're listing a cover song that is released on another album/single, on top of the album/single you are currently listing. What should I do?
A: If your release is older than the one we list, file an error report. Each cover song should be attributed to the oldest release.
A: If your release is younger than the one we list, but it has been created in the database for other purposes, file an error report.
A: If your release is younger than the one we list, and we're currently not listing it, do no thing. It's out of scope for our database.
Q: Are your statistics reliable?
A: They are evidence but not proof. Despite over 900.000 cover songs indexed, our site is far from comprehensive and doesn't claim to be. Also, the entries are biased by the preferences of our editors and contributing visitors. Conclusion: With almost 3.000 cover versions listed, Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! , is not 100% certain the most covered song, but it likely is.
Q: Why does it say work XYZ is written by artist ABC when many other sources claim it was written by artist DEF?
A: Sometimes there are conflicting sources regarding the credits of works: The Publishing Rights Organizations (PRO), the releases, books and interviews, don't necessarily agree. When available, SecondHandSongs will follow the PROs, which list the legal composers and authors. If the song credits are disputed, and the actual composers and authors potentially differ, we will discuss this in the comment section of the work in question.
Q: The title of web cover DEF is incorrect!
A: That's possible. For web covers we display the title of the work as the cover song title.