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.
Every time when you try to purchase a beat from an online beat store, you will be requested to choose between a lease and an exclusive license.
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 recording 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.
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.
So which one?
A Lease is suitable for EPs, Mixtapes and Singles.
Exclusive license is more suitable for Albums and bigger projects.