Soundalike recordings—often called “tribute songs” or “specialty music” within the industry—have been around for decades. Labels like Bell, Embassy, and Hit churned out quickie imitations in the 1950s, but the form reached its commercial apex in the ’70s, when Ronco and K-Tel advertised anonymous cover versions of popular hits on late-night TV commercials, and another label, Pickwick, scored a No. 1 hit in the U.K. with one of its Top of the Pops compilations. These recordings succeeded by offering—at a discount—collections of songs that, due to prohibitive costs, licensing constraints, administrative hassles, and contractual obligations, major labels couldn’t put together themselves.

In the United States, copyright law makes recording and selling any cover song pretty simple. If you want to pimp your own version of “All Summer Long”—itself already a pastiche of “Werewolves of London” and “Sweet Home Alabama”—you don’t need permission from Kid Rock, his publishing company, his record label, or anyone else, for that matter. You just have to notify the song’s writers and publishers and make sure you pay them royalties on each sale of your recording.

But the rise of digital retailers like i Tunes, Amazon, and eMusic has changed the landscape in the last few years. Where previously, soundalike recordings struggled to find shelf space in music stores, now they’re as easily accessible as most any other recording. Furthermore, when buying music can be accomplished with a mouse click and most tracks cost less than a dollar, customers are more likely to take a flyer on a curiosity or—as some critics of soundalikes would contend—be fooled into buying something they never wanted. None of this can be particularly pleasing to labels already facing a rather dire business environment.

“Tributes are not liked by some majors,” says Infante. “But let’s remember one thing: Publishers, writers, and composers all collect their royalties here. So when the label bleats on behalf of the artist, it’s not always the whole story.”

The actual Estelle and Kanye West

“THERE’S NO DECEPTION THERE. PEOPLE ARE BUYING SONGS. THEY’RE
NOT NECESSARILY LOOKING FOR WHAT ARTIST DID WHAT SONG.”

Ricky Hanley knows what it’s like to write a hit song. The British singer/multi-instrumentalist cowrote two Top 5 U.K. hits for prefab pop group S Club 8. He has worked with Pet Shop Boys and Take That. Since 1991, though, his steadiest paycheck has come from singing, playing, and producing cover versions of other artists’ hits, including Ne-Yo’s “Closer,” Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours,” Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop,” and the Jonas Brothers’ “Burnin’ Up,” mostly for Countdown Media, which has been in the soundalike business for 30 years. As a producer, Hanley’s job is generally to get these tracks “as close as possible” to the originals.

“First thing I do is listen straight through the whole track and decide which vocalist to use, if not myself,” he explains. “Then we start trying to get the drum sound, which is the hardest thing to emulate. From there, we’ll start the instrumentation, then the vocals.”

Far from feeling oppressed by the task of subsuming his own artistic ambitions to replicate someone else’s, Hanley finds his work educational. “What I love about these cover versions is that every track I work on is a hit,” he says. “You learn so much from so many different songs when you break them down and dig inside them.”

Steve Ivey, who has recorded dozens of soundalikes over the past eight years from his Nashville studio, says that even when his goal is to create something nearly identical to another song, he tries “to hold up the integrity of the [original],” rather than just bang out a quick, cheap recording and move on.

“I try to get the essence of what they did and make it cool,” Ivey continues, “so that way I feel like I’m having some creative effort, as opposed to just copying what some other guy did. As a musician, you don’t want to be known as the guy who is just ripping off Kid Rock. It’s not just a copy; it’s an artistic endeavor for me.”

Dozens of record labels and music licensors dabble in the soundalike business these days, but their approaches vary wildly. Some contacted for this story, including Countdown, Legacy, and SBI, were reasonably anxious to dispel any misconceptions about their corner of the industry. Others refused to comment and didn’t want their companies associated with the practice. Hip Kiddy, the label behind Hit Masters’ version of “All Summer Long,” did not return messages left on its president’s voice mail.

This reticence is perhaps understandable. Many people see soundalikes as little more than a bait-and-switch scam. In fairness, most of these recordings are clearly labeled as tributes to the original artists and pay royalties to the tunes’ authors and publishers. But some operate in a definite gray area. A recent collection of songs from the musical Mamma Mia!, released by the California-based Cleopatra, not only apes the play’s artwork, but also is credited to “the New Musical Cast,” which, as it turns out, is not the cast from the movie or Broadway show, but the name of a studio group. Cleopatra president Brian Perera says the album, as well as other soundalikes in their catalog credited to the New Musical Cast, was licensed from another company in Australia.

“There’s no deception there,” he insists. “With the way things are now, people get to sample the recordings [for free]. Plus, in the digital age, people are buying songs. They’re not even necessarily looking for what artist did what song.”

Walter McDonough, general counsel at the Future of Music Coalition and an expert in copyright law, says that if Cleopatra licensed the Mamma Mia! trademark, they’re likely on safe legal footing, and that even if the presentation is deceptive, false-advertising claims brought by consumers are difficult to prosecute. But Mark Jenkins, president of the licensing division at Countdown’s parent company, Madacy, says such shady practices give the business a black eye. “That really pisses me off,” he says. “We put it into all of our contracts that if they are cover recordings, they have to be designated a certain way.”

COUR TES Y ATLAN TIC RECORDS