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Beat licensing explained: what you buy when you lease a beat

A beat license is permission to use someone else's composition and recording within set limits. What you get, what the producer keeps, and what to check before release.

Updated · 5 min read Lesson 1 of 4 in Licensing Guide

In short

  1. A beat license is permission to use the beat under set terms. The producer keeps the copyright.
  2. Non-exclusive tiers differ in files, stream and copy caps, music videos, radio and paid performances.
  3. Read the written license before you release, credit the beat, and ask before you pass a cap.
In this lesson (9)
  1. The song that outgrew its lease
  2. A lease is permission with limits
  3. What a song on a leased beat is made of
  4. Non-exclusive and exclusive
  5. The current tiers
  6. Releasing first, reading later
  7. Read the license before the release
  8. Check yourself
  9. Sources

The song that outgrew its lease

You lease a beat on the smallest tier, record a song on it the same night and put it out everywhere. For two months it does a few hundred plays a week. Then a short clip of the hook takes off, the streams climb past the number in your license, and a sync agency asks whether you can clear the song for an ad.

You go back to the license file you never opened. It says what you can do, how far the song can travel, and who owns what. It is also the first place to look before you answer the agency.

Why it matters

A lease is permission with limits

When you buy a beat online you are buying a license: written permission to record a song on the instrumental and release it within specific limits. The producer keeps the copyright in the beat. That is why the license matters more than the price. It decides where your song can go, how far it can travel before you need to upgrade, and what you owe in return, such as a credit.

Figure 1. What a lease covers. The beat stays the producer's property. What you buy is the second step: written permission to release your song on it within the limits of your tier.

What a song on a leased beat is made of

US copyright law treats a musical composition and a sound recording as two separate works (US Copyright Office, 2021). The composition is the music and words: melody, harmony, rhythm, lyrics. The sound recording is one fixed performance of it. They can have different authors and different owners.

A beat carries both: the producer's composition (the chords, the melody, the drum pattern) and the producer's recording of it. Your song adds your lyrics and topline to the composition and your vocal to the recording. A lease lets you combine your parts with the producer's and release the result. It does not hand you the producer's share of either.

Non-exclusive and exclusive

Most beat sales are leases. The producer can license the same beat to other artists, and each license carries caps: how many streams and copies, how many music videos, whether radio play and paid shows are included.

An means that, from the date of the deal, the producer stops licensing the beat to new buyers. What it includes, what happens to leases sold before it and who owns what are all set by the contract, so an exclusive is agreed individually. Exclusive does not by itself mean you own the copyright.

The current tiers

These are the non-exclusive tiers for Virzy Guns beats right now (Basic MP3, Basic Pro Lease, Premium Lease, UNLIMITED Lease). The table is read from the same source as the beat store, so it stays current.

Basic MP3

Price
$15
Files
MP3 (320kbps)
Copies you can sell
2,000 copies
Online audio streams
5,000 streams
Music videos
1 video
Radio stations
0 stations
Paid performances
No
Content ID
No
Credit
Prod. By Virzy Guns

Basic Pro Lease

Price
$25
Files
MP3 (320kbps), WAV (24-Bit)
Copies you can sell
5,000 copies
Online audio streams
200,000 streams
Music videos
1 video
Radio stations
2 stations
Paid performances
Yes
Content ID
No
Credit
Prod. By Virzy Guns

Premium Lease

Price
$50
Files
MP3 (320kbps), WAV (24-Bit), Track Stems
Copies you can sell
10,000 copies
Online audio streams
500,000 streams
Music videos
1 video
Radio stations
2 stations
Paid performances
Yes
Content ID
No
Credit
Prod. By Virzy Guns

UNLIMITED Lease

Price
$100
Files
MP3 (320kbps), WAV (24-Bit), Track Stems
Copies you can sell
UNLIMITED copies
Online audio streams
UNLIMITED streams
Music videos
2 videos
Radio stations
2 stations
Paid performances
Yes
Content ID
No
Credit
Prod. By Virzy Guns
Current Virzy Guns license tiers, taken from the same source as the beat store. Exclusive rights are agreed individually.

Choose from where the song is going. A first release to a small audience fits the smallest tier. WAV files, radio and paid performances are listed per tier in the table. If you or an engineer will mix from separate parts, choose a tier with . If you expect the song to travel, compare the caps with your plan before release. Sync, the use of a song in an ad, a film or a TV spot, is not one of the rights the table lists, so the agency in the hook needs an answer from the producer, in writing, before you agree to anything.

Common mistake

Releasing first, reading later

You put the song out the night you lease the beat and open the license only when the streams take off. A song that takes off on a small tier can pass its caps in weeks, and an upgrade is easier to arrange before that than after.

The second mistake is assuming a lease lets you claim the song in YouTube's Content ID. YouTube requires exclusive rights to the material it evaluates, and it lists music licensed without exclusivity among its common examples of material that may not be exclusive (YouTube Help, n.d.). Every other artist on the same beat would be claimed too.

The third is assuming that exclusive means you own the beat outright. Ownership depends on the contract, so read it before you sign.

Takeaway

Read the license before the release

  1. 1.Read the written license you receive at checkout. It is the document that applies, not a product summary or this lesson.
  2. 2.Credit the beat as written in your license: Prod. By Virzy Guns.
  3. 3.Keep the license file with your release records.
  4. 4.If the song approaches a cap, ask about an upgrade before you pass it, and get the answer in writing.

This lesson is a plain-language guide, not legal advice. If something about your use is unclear, ask before you release. You can browse beats and their licenses in the beat store, and the lesson on what each license lets you do goes through each right in turn.

3 questions

Check yourself

  1. When you lease a beat, what are you buying?
  2. What does non-exclusive mean?
  3. Your song is close to the stream cap of your tier. What should you do?

Sources

Show all 2

Next lesson · 2 of 4

What each beat license lets you doStreams, copies, music videos, radio and paid shows are separate allowances, each with its own limit. How to read each one against your release plan.
Portrait of Virzy Guns

Written by Virzy Guns

Songwriter and producer, founder of Virzy Guns Production. Now building HealingWave.

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Later in Licensing Guide

See all 4 lessons

  1. Streaming a track vs licensing it for your videoA stream gives you listening access. Using the recording under your own video needs a license that names that use, shown step by step with the Flow catalogue.
  2. Commercial use vs personal use: when you need a beat licenseIf money or promotion is involved, it is commercial use. Where the line falls for streaming, video, shows, social posts, client work and background music.