With more and more independent artists and producers on the rise, it is important to know the difference between leasing and buying beats to protect yourself from future possible legal problems. 

Whenever you try to purchase a beat from an online beat store, you will be requested to choose between a lease and an exclusive license. 

Beat Leasing is a term which has been around for a while in the music production. It is when the producer leases the beat to the artist, giving them rights to use it in their song. The producer then sells those rights to artists, who are looking for beats.

A Beat lease is a beat sale agreement that gives an artists/purchaser rights and permission to incorporate a producer’s instrumental beat into a new song by the artist for a limited time or to only sell a limited number of units, however, the producer can still sell or lease the same beat 100 other artists. This is usually the cheaper version a prices ranges from $10-$100. 

Pros and Cons of Beat Leasing

Pros

• Affordable

Cons

• A lot of artist have the same beat
• Content ID Disputes
• Has limitations

An exclusive beat license is a beat sale agreement that gives the music artist sole ownership of the beat, and unlimited use of it as well. The producer cannot sell this to anybody else. This is usually more costly as the producer will not be making any more sales from the beat.

Exclusive Rights deals with two parties – the producer and the artist. The producer retains all rights to his or her beat and only licenses it to one artist at a time.

Pros and Cons of Exclusive Beat License

Pros

• Only one artist can have the exclusive rights to the beat
• No limits
• Artist owns all the rights to the beat

Cons

• Costly
• Scarce, some producers do not offer exclusive rights

Beat Lease vs Exclusive Rights: Who Wins?

I really depends on your budget and the type of project that you are working on, for example. An mp3 lease would be suitable for soundcloud, audiomac and other free music streaming services. Unlimited Lease would be suitable for distribution to spotify, itunes, apple music etc, this is the best license because it does not have any limitations when it streaming and distribution but it remains affordable. If you working on an album or a serious project then you need exclusive rights to have full control of the rights of the beat. This bring more flexibility.

Beat leasing is much cheaper than exclusive rights, as you can lease as many beats as you want from one producer for just $10-$50 per beat, whereas with exclusive rights you have to pay $250-$500 per beat. Exclusive Rights are also more restrictive – one a music producers sells an exclusive beat, he cannot sell it to any other artist or client