Licensing Terms (Lease vs. Exclusive Rights)

An artist must understand that buying a beat lease means purchasing material copyrighted by the producer, so there are certain limitations to it. The purchase comes with limited usage rights that the producer sets depending on the lease that you want to buy. The individual terms of each lease type are explicitly stated in the license agreement you receive upon making a purchase. Through this page, get to know about non-exclusive beat licenses or leases and exclusive rights.

Beat Lease

With non-exclusive rights beat leases, purchasing a lease (or license, these terms are used interchangeably) means that the artist is granted only specific rights when using the beat that he or she has purchased. These rights include the amount of streams the artist can generate on platforms like Spotify, or the amount of physical copies the artist can sell.  If the artist exceeds the limits of the lease, they must upgrade to the next lease tier in order to continue using the beat in question.

The producer will still retain all copyright ownership to the beat in the event of a lease, which means he or she will still have the right to sell the license of the instrumental to other artists, up until he or she finds a buyer who is willing to purchase the beat exclusively.

When you decide to go for leases and record your vocals onto the beat, you have a certain level of copyright on it. Basically, you have done a derivative work, which means that you have copyright over the lyrics of the song, but still, the beat of the music you have recorded on belongs to the owner, in this case, the producer. This entitles you to zero percent publishing rights over it.

Understanding How Leases Work

When you choose a lease type, you will receive an mp3, WAV and/or stems of the beat, and you will be able to download the file(s) right away. You can then use the beat for promotional and for-profit endeavors. You get the right to mix, alter, or record the beat into a song, but you are not allowed to resell it. In case someone intends to buy exclusive rights to the beat that you have leased, you can still use it but full credit must be given to where you bought the beat from.

Exclusive Beat Licensing

When you have exclusive rights to a beat, then it means that you become the sole owner of the beat and it can no longer be leased out to other artists. There are no limitations attached to user rights. You can also make money from this type of license, both commercially and internationally. On top of that, you will not have any issues with beat licensing since you already own exclusive rights to the beat that you used to create the song.

There may be certain copyright issues depending on your terms with the producer. Many times, you get to settle for a 50/50 split of publishing rights, which puts you and the beat producer in a win-win situation. This can also help maximize the composition’s potential. Negotiating with the producer is important when purchasing exclusive rights for a beat.

Lease vs. Exclusive Rights at luke4pres

At luke4pres, we have various leasing plans and exclusive rights available for our clients. Among our leases are Standard MP3 Lease, Premium WAV Lease, Deluxe Stem Lease, and Unlimited Lease. Each lease plan has different inclusions and is priced accordingly. For our Exclusive Plan, you can make an offer and once we have negotiated the terms, we will remove the beat from our catalog for your exclusive use.

If you would like to find out more about luke4pres’ Licensing Terms, visit our beat store today!