So, you’ve just decided to take a hobby, which will now turn into your career, to the next level. Congratulations! Most people don’t take it seriously enough to put the work in to make it this far. But you’re one of the few and the proud. On this next level of your musical journey you will find out that only amateurs and artists that are not really serious about their career use free beats they find on youtube. Here I will walk you through everything you need to know about buying beats.
Free Beats
We all know exactly what free beats are. You can tell mainly by the producer’s tag playing in it every 30 seconds…super annoying. They are also usually in the lowest quality sound file like mp3 and the beat isn’t tracked. Tracked out means that each individual instrument and sound is exported from the beat separately so that the artist can mix each instrument how they want, or take out any instrument from the beat when they need to.
Using a free beat is not recommended. You can get in serious legal trouble if you are caught using a producer’s free beat without a license. A license is a legally binding contract that states the terms and what authorizations you have and in what ways you can use a beat. You can’t use a beat without a license…especially for commercial purposes. And if the producer really gives you a free beat, the beat would be accompanied with a license that states the beat is free and that you are authorized to use it for a certain length of time and whatever restrictions. Most producers offer artists free beats so that they can test drive, “try before they buy”, see what it sounds like with their voice recorded to it and to see how well the beat compliments their lyrics. Honestly, there is no such thing as a free beat. Producers just call them free for promotional reasons and for their marketing strategy. Not much can be done with a free beat, that’s is why you should always purchase a license.
What is the process of buying beats?
When you buy a beat, the producer still owns the copyright. It’s kind of like leasing a car or renting an apartment. The producer still owns it but they let you use it in exchange of payment. When that happens it is called a License Agreement.
There are mainly 2 types of license agreements dealing with a buying beats from a producer: Non-Exclusive and Exclusive.
They pretty much are exactly how they sound. The exclusive license means that once the beat is sold to an artist the producer can’t sell it anymore. The non-exclusive can be sold as many times as the producer wants to sell it. Don’t worry, if someone buys an exclusive license to a beat you already have a license for, your license terms won’t be effected.
On my website, I only offer exclusive license agreements to select artists that meet a certain set of requirements. But for the non-exclusive licenses I have 3 options: Basic, Premium and Unlimited. Usually, as you see below, the more a license costs, the more rights an artist gets from the producer and the better the sound quality. Upgrading a license is always an option too if you need extended rights for any beat.
Copyright?
A copyright is a person’s ownership and right to sell, distribute, publish or reproduce their own original intellectual property. When a person creates an original work, they are the copyright holder. But when you as an artist purchase a license online for a beat, you are not the owner of that beat. You are the copyright owner of the lyrics you created only. You will own 50% of the writer’s copyright and the producer will own the other 50%. The producer will still own the overall beat and copyright unless agreed upon otherwise in a contract. You must register the copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office.
What to Expect Once You Purchase
Once you purchase a license, the beat and the license purchased will be sent to you immediately via email. The license will be in a downloadable format so that you can download it for your records. All the terms of the agreement for the license you purchased will be detailed in the document.
Depending on which license you get, the audio file for the instant beat download will be either low quality MP3 with tags for a Basic license, untagged high quality MP3 & Wav file without tags for the Premium license, and an untagged, at the Highest quality, tracked out MP3 & Wav files for the Unlimited license.
Once you receive your download, you are ready to go! If you have any questions don’t hesitate to hit me up!