30 November 2023

Online beat leasing is the primary way in which independent artists and producers buy and sell beats in the modern era. When you, as an artist, purchase a lease for a beat, you are paying for permission to use the beat to create a new song.

Why You Should Be in Favour of Beat Leasing

Beat leasing is beneficial to both artists and producers. The sale of non-exclusive licenses can facilitate a proper income for a producer without ever landing a major placement (which we all know is very difficult and sometimes down to luck). The non-exclusivity of these leases means that producers can charge considerably less for their purchase, allowing independent artists with any kind of budget to buy high quality instrumentals without breaking the bank. A total win win.

Different Types of Leases

There are two main types of beat lease; exclusive and non-exclusive. Let’s start with the non-exclusive…

The conditions of these leases vary depending on the price and the producer’s preferences but generally operate in similar fashions. For example, a lease for $45 might include MP3 and WAV audio files of the beat and permission to sell up to 10,000 physical or digital units. Another lease option for $100 might include MP3 and WAV plus full trackouts/stems and permission for unlimited units to be sold (as well as other conditions pertaining to radio plays, online streams etc).

When an exclusive lease is purchased for a beat, it will be removed from the producer’s beat store, never to be sold to anyone else again. The buyer also has unlimited usage rights regarding streams, sales, music videos etc. These leases are usually purchased by bigger independent artists or signed artists and can range in price from around $300 to north of $2000 and even more in some cases.

Royalties

Like most agreements in the professional music industry, these standardised contracts detail a 50/50 split between the producer and the artist/licensee of the writers share of the new song (but be sure to check the license preview as they vary from producer to producer). This often causes some confusion due to the term “writer”. Yes, the producer IS a writer even though they didn’t write any of the lyrics. The underlying composition (the beat) is the part that they wrote.

In regard to the publishing, the producer retains 100% of the publishing rights to the ‘underlying composition’ (the beat). Understanding this can also prevent confusion for an artist who asks “why does the producer own 100% of the publishing?”. This is only the rights to the BEAT and not the new song itself. The artist will own 100% of the lyrics and any other original musical components in the new song that are written soley by the artist.