Usage Rights

I get a lot of messages with people asking me if they can use my music for their projects so I’ve decided to make a page clarifying most common cases for usage rights of my music.

What is allowed:

1. “I want to perform one of your compositions/arrangements live or upload a video of me performing it on YouTube”.

I’m OK with that, you don’t have to contact me for permission, but if you upload your performance online – feel free to send me a link, I love seeing my work performed by others.🥰

Make sure you credit me in the program of the concert or in the video description

2. “I want to make a cover of your arrangement/composition and upload it to streaming services.”

This one is a bit trickier but this is how it works:

You can’t use my recordings for this, nor any portion of my recordings, you can only use your own recording of your own performance.
If you perform my original composition (a composition that I wrote) you need to make sure you obtain a mechanical license (ask your distributor how to do this) and credit me as an original author (composer) on that track.
If you perform my arrangement of someone else’s composition/song you need to make sure you obtain a mechanical license (ask your distributor how to do this) and credit me as an arranger on that track and credit original authors as original authors.
This can be tricky so contact me first so we could discuss it and do it right.

3. “I want to record my singing over one of your covers of popular songs and put it on YouTube/Instagram/TikTok/somewhere else.”

I’m OK with that, you don’t have to contact me for permission, just credit me in the description and keep in mind that copyright owners will likely monetize your video and some nasty copyright management company might send you a copyright strike (this is pretty rare these days, but it happens). Neither of these two have anything to do with me.

4. “I want to use your music in a non-commercial personal project like a video to share with my family.”

I’m OK with that, you don’t have to contact me for permission, just make sure you give me proper credit and link back to my YouTube channel if you put it online.

4. “I want to use your music for my student film/student project or art/craft/education YouTube video”.

I’m OK with that, you don’t have to contact me for permission, just make sure you give me proper credit and if your film/project has any exposure (being sent to festivals or just uploaded to YouTube) – send me a link.

If your project is dealing with some sensitive themes, like politics, religion etc. – contact me with more details about your project first.

5. “I want to use your original music (i.e. music that Daria Semikina composed, not a cover) in a commercial project (film, animation, game etc)”.

Contact me with more details about your project and we can discuss the terms of usage. Do not use my music without my permission.

What is NOT allowed:

1. Uploading any of my music to streaming services without permission and credit, no matter how you use it (sampling, overdubbing etc).

You might think you’ll get away with this, but I will find out at some point, get your music removed and your profile will be terminated.

2. Using my covers in a commercial project.

I do not own copyright rights to the covers I make and I cannot give you permission to use these commercially under any terms. I do, however, own master rights to my recordings, so doing this you infringe both original author copyright and my master rights. Just don’t do this.

Please only use contact form on my website to contact me, I won’t respond to private messages on social media.