Online beat licensing has long been widespread everywhere. Online music producers have been doing it for many years on sites like Soundclick, Airbit, Beatstars and much more. Music / audio production has never been easy. To do this, you need skills and a lot of experience behind your back. Licensing beats also requires certain knowledge. But as soon as ‘new producers’ are involved in licensing, many difficulties and questions begin. Some even thoughtlessly copy licenses of other producers. So they do not even understand what they are selling.
Although the term "licensing" is not that difficult to understand, some beat licensing options (user right) are rather confusing and require some explanation. In this article, I will not go into the details of jurisprudence and explain such terminology as the ‘Licensee’ or ‘Licensor’. I will try those moments which will be interesting for you as an artist.
Exclusive or Non-Exclusive?
Updated on: November 11st, 2018 Blog
Non-Exclusive Beat Licensing
What are the advantages of a non-exclusive license?
Non-exclusive license gives you some rights on beat that depend on the type selected non-exclusive license (we have 4 types non-exclusive licenses). All non-exclusive licenses are also suitable for recording lyrics and vocals. But this does not mean that you own the rights (exclusively) to this instrumental, because the producer leaves the copyright ownership of the beat. In other words, the producer has the right to dispose of the bit at his discretion, including renting a beat to someone until the beat is sold in the Exclusive. The table below shows the license options for our beats.
Copyright
Let's imagine that you recorded a song on one of our beats. Now do you have all the copyrights to the song?
Not quite
Your creation is a derivative work of a song. You have copyrights to the text in the song, but there is no copyright to the music, because you have it purchased under a non-exclusive license.
When you send your song on the TuneCore or CDbaby, they will ask you who has copyright owners on the song are. You must tell them that you purchased the music on a non-exclusive license, and the copyright for the music in song is with the producer. In addition, you can attach a license agreement.
Publishing Rights
With a non-exclusive license, you get 0% publishing rights.
Tracked Out files
A Premium License is an extended version of our Basic License in our beat licensing section. This license also comes with tracked out files of the beat. Tracked out files are all the separate audio tracks of the entire beat delivered in the highest quality WAV format. We highly recommend to get these files, in order to get the highest quality recording of your song.
Exclusive Beat Licensing
Why choose an exclusive license?
Exclusive rights give you broader rights. You can use the beat without any restrictions on the usage rights.
You can freely sell millions of copies of your track in different countries and in any number. If you are sure that you will achieve fabulous heights in the field of music - exclusive beat licensing for you.
Beat licensing will no longer be a problem for you. Because now you own exclusive rights to beat. That is, if you have acquired exclusive rights to beat, this beat is removed from the sale and we can no longer sell it.
Copyright
Producers differently determine the rights for beat. Basically we provide 50% separation. But by agreement we can provide all 100% of rights to beat (in this case, the amount of payment will be much larger, since we lose our creativity).
With each artist (his representative) we work individually. And for each individual we determine the division of rights. It is in our interests to make a quality product with the artist.
The terms of the exclusive license can be discussed and changed to the needs of the artist.
Work-for-hire contracts
If at the sale of an exclusive license all 100% of rights are transferred, including copyrights, then this is called a work-for-hire contract.
Beat licensing explained
Non-Exclusive or Exclusive?
Which license should I choose?
Think and decide for yourself whether you need exclusive rights. If you are sure that your track will take off to the top of the hit parades after the recording or quickly gain popularity, it is better to purchase an Exclusive License
But if you are a young performer, a beginner rapper recording his first album or mixtape, better buy a Non-exclusive License. In addition, you will not spend as much money as if you were buying exclusive rights.
Maybe first you need to become popular, have at least 1000 fans. Many musicians who bought bits from us worked as follows: they bought a non-exclusive license, analyzed the popularity of tracks and if it was positive they acquired an exclusive license.
I sincerely hope that this article has helped you determine the choice of license and now you can easily make the right decision.
You can buy hip hop beats at this link.