Lease or exclusive? How to choose your beat license
The same beat can cost a few dozen dollars or a few thousand. The difference is not the sound. It is what you are allowed to do with it.
Most beat stores sell two kinds of license: leases and exclusive rights. This article compares them side by side and gives you a simple way to decide which one your next release needs.
The short version
A lease lets you use the beat with limits, while other artists can use it too. Exclusive rights give you the beat alone: it is taken off the store, nobody else can license it from that point, and your usage limits go away.
| Lease | Exclusive | |
|---|---|---|
| Other artists can use the beat | Yes | No new licenses after you buy |
| Streams and sales | Capped | Usually unlimited |
| Files | MP3, WAV or stems, depending on tier | Stems, often the project file on request |
| YouTube Content ID | Usually not allowed | Usually allowed |
| Price | Low, fixed | Higher, often negotiated |
| Producer credit | Required | Required |
| Producer's publishing share | Often kept | Often kept, and negotiable |
One thing exclusive rights do not undo
If a beat was leased to other artists before you bought the exclusive, those artists usually keep the right to use their songs under their original lease terms. Exclusive rights stop new licenses. They do not erase old ones.
Always ask the producer how many times the beat has already been leased. If it was leased many times and one of those songs is already popular, the exclusive is worth less to you. If it was never leased, you get a beat no one else has ever released on.
Exclusive does not mean you own everything
Buying exclusive rights rarely means the producer disappears from the song. Most exclusive agreements still require producer credit, and many keep a share of the publishing and sometimes a producer royalty on the master. These terms are negotiated, so read them and ask questions before you sign.
A simple way to decide
Choose a lease if:
- you are releasing a mixtape, a freestyle or a song to test with your audience;
- your budget is small and you want a professional sound now;
- you are not sure yet whether the song will be a single.
Choose exclusive rights if:
- the song is a single you will spend money promoting;
- you are pitching it to a label, a sync agency or radio;
- you need Content ID to collect from videos that use your song;
- you never want to hear your beat on someone else's track.
The third option: custom production
If you need exclusive rights anyway, consider having a beat made for you. A custom beat is built from your references and around your voice, it has never been leased to anyone, and the terms are agreed before the work starts. For a lead single, that often costs less than people expect compared with buying out a catalog beat.
Want a beat that is yours from day one? Tell me about your record and get a written proposal.
Book a custom beat