Can a songwriter allow their songs to be used by another bands, and she can still perform the songs by herself (her own band)?

Generally, it’s frowned upon to let multiple artists use the same song, especially if you’ve already used it for yourself.
The same thing happened between Beyonce and Kelly Clarkson, recently. They were each given the same exact tune.
If you’re going to write music and use it in your band, then I would suggest not trying to give it to anyone else. You’re just asking for a lawsuit.

@Vunessuh is not correct. or what are covers all about?

Here is a site that details the basics of royalties and how they work. You should definitely ask for them. As for you retaining the rights to your song, you should copyright the song. You have all the rights except those you grant the band that wants to use your song.

As far as I’m concerned, covers are done after a song has already been sung by an artist/band. If you reproduce a song for profit, you still have to get the rights to it.
How can a “cover” be done, when multiple artists don’t know someone else has their same exact music?

Bob Dylan wrote “All Along the Watchtower” and artists like Jimi Hendrix and Dave Matthews have performed the song and included in on their albums. But Dylan still performs the song himself.

The issue with Beyonce and Clarkson was over the music being sold to both artists without their knowledge. Kelly Clarkson was mad because she was concerned that people would think she stole the beat.

The song Ice, Ice, Baby is an excellent example of stealing part of a riff from Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust. That was a massive, nasty fight in the music industry, because Vanilla Ice did not get legal permission to use that riff. He claims to this day that there was one note’s difference between the two, therefore, his is unique, not theft. Everybody disagreed with him, and he lost that lawsuit brought against him. It ruined him in the music industry permanently.

It happens all the time in popular music, and has been happening for generations. One of the most famous covers from the Seventies was “Blinded by the Light.” This was written by Bruce Springsteen and he recorded it on his first album, “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J”. in 1973. In 1977 it was recorded by Manfred Mann on their album “The Roaring Silence” and on a single which went to the #1 spot of the “Hot 100”.

This is one example of many covers which performed better than the original recording by the writer.

@Yetanotheruser I haven’t researched your examples, but my very strong hunch is that those artists who restyled those songs and others, such as Whitney Houston’s redux of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You, all sought and received legal permission before being allowed to proceed.

I was under the impression that the asker wanted to give their songs away to multiple bands rather than write a song, produce it and then allow others the rights to make a cover of it.
She isn’t talking about “covers”. She’s talking about selling her music to multiple people at the same time which means it would be without the other’s knowledge. That is what will get you in trouble. Don’t do that.

@phillis It was under pressure, not another one bites the dust.

Oops! Memory issues strike again. Thanks for the info :)

Read http://www.whatiscopyright.org/

You already own the copyright to the song and cannot lose it, even if you allow others to perform your song. You can only lose the copyright by explicitly waiving your rights to the song, which might happen e.g. if you sign for a record label.

You can also try licensing it as Creative Commons, which is really nice to do ;-)

But really, read that first link, it’s very informative.

You wrote it, so it’s always yours, you can grant permissions for others to use it if you want. With Indie groups that I’ve encountered, not a lot of royalties get distributed, but credit is given where due. It really depends on the success of any of the bands, though.

If they are going to record the songs you should get papers acknowledging you as the author. Unless you sell the rights to them you can still play the songs yourself. So can anyone else you give permission to.