Let P be a unital subsemigroup of a group G. We propose an approach to C * -algebras associated to product systems over P . We call the C * -algebra of a given product system E its covariance algebra and denote it by A× E P , where A is the coefficient C * -algebra. We prove that our construction does not depend on the embedding P → G and that a representation of A × E P is faithful on the fixed-point algebra for the canonical coaction of G if and only if it is faithful on A. We compare this with other constructions in the setting of irreversible dynamical systems, such as Cuntz-Nica-Pimsner algebras, Fowler's Cuntz-Pimsner algebra, semigroup C * -algebras of Xin Li and Exel's crossed products by interaction groups.