nonexclusive beats?

i have herd this done my a few major artists imortal tech has used a few beats from other people. used to make fun of the some times but still used and released and from the sound of the tracks put some time in to it. or mabe imortal had those beats first i dont know, but they both used them.
 
junebugz said:


Tell me this….if you had a beat you knew was worth $50 would you sell it exclusively for $50 to one person only or non exclusively for $50 to 20 people ($1,000). Non exclusive is CLEARLY better (for most people) in that you have a made $1,000 instead of $50 and you can still license the beat to 20 other people and collect another $1,000 and so on. And you know that MANY underground artist (as a whole) searching for beats ARE NOT willing to spend much more than $50 for a beat.





I think this statement says it all. Most people searching for tracks on the internet are not willing to spend a large amount on a track. Most of the time when you put a non-exclusive track for sale on whatever site you will sell plenty but put an exclusive track up and most people won't even look at it even if it is reasonably priced. The "internet" has created the low price non-exclusive. In the outside world it is usually the exact opposite. The customers don't seem to have too much of a problem with it. You can make a little money by selling tracks on the internet, but you have to remember it's a different market than the outside world. You can ***** about it all you want but the market currently disagrees with you.
 
People, why are we focusing on a beat that has been sold whether they are exclusive or non-exclusive. If you sold it, that $hit is history.

If someone else wants it, and you let them know it was leased (you are telling people you already leased it right?) and they want it, good for them, pay me, here-.

But you are suppose to be making the next beat to better than the previous ones you already done. If you are a beat a month, make all your beats exclusive if you want. If you are beat machines, least a few sell a few do what you want.

It's all about being a business man, do what's right for you and your customer, be flexible to their needs but make sure your needs are met also.

If an artist is "broke" you can let him dig through your stock pile of leased beats until he's able to make some money but don't just deal with broke a$$ ninjas (or who pretends to be) they will pay for Jordans but won't pay for a beat. I bet this same "Broke" person had PS2 PS3 and Xbox 360 in there crib.

And besides if they are rockin' their Great-grand uncles hand me down sneakers and they are talented, work with them, don't just sale beats and run, you have so much freedom when it comes to selling your product why don't you utilize them.

Stop selling beats and run, off to the next thing, you run yourself thin, draft up contracts to the situation, get a damn lawyer and don't say you can't afford one. Could you afford that sidekick when you brought one?

There are purposes for non-exclusive, exclusive, and work for hire; use them accordingly. Like there is purpose for buying property, leasing property, and renting there are purposes for leasing, exclusivity, and work for hire.
 
I don't claim to know everything about exclusive/nonexclusive....but I do know selling beats exclusive style is hard...unless I'm selling them for $20-$50.

But I can't get past selling a beat I created from scratch for only $20-$50. Seriously, I spent 2 hours getting the drums right and the melody and all that. And don't trip on me saying it took 2 hours...That ish people talk about making a beat in 5 minutes is bullsh*t. That's real. It took time to: find the sounds that are just right/compose/mix/arrange and I want to be paid properly.

But here's what I'm doing: The nonexclusive beats I'm selling are the beats I make from sampling, because it does take me less time to make them. The beats sound great, I just didn't play out everything and put all my time in it.

The tracks I do create from scratch I do sell exclusively...to those who are serious about creating an album to be sold...and not mixtapes and ish. They are serious because they want that beat that no one else will have. They know the deal.

The reason I'm selling sampled/non exclusive beats is...I think Bigmagic said this too...people ain't payin for beats. They're looking for free...or at least cheap.
And a lot of them are just spittin to spit, they aren't trying to get a deal...really...they aren't doing shows or anything....they just wanna rap. They don't care about this exclusive/nonexclusive thing.

So that's what I'm doing. I actually just started selling the nonexclusive type tracks...I'm a better composer than sampler....but I think I got better sampled tracks than some on soundclick.

I'll see how it works out....that's my 12 cents though.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
i agree there is really noone that wants to buy them but as for big name people akon on his trobled ablum had a benie track on it and i think something else and that turned me off of the cd

i agree there is really noone that wants to buy them but as for big name people akon on his trobled ablum had a benie track on it and i think something else and that turned me off of the cd.
 
Last edited:
whatsup everyone i just wanted 2 throw my 2 cents in on this debate here cuz i license beats both exclusive and non-exclusive. now im not saying im an expert on business or anything but in my opinion as the person selling the trax it seems 2 make more sense to be able to sell one track a hundred times even for only $20 as opposed to a one time price and thats it.
the other thing i noticed is most people who are against non-exclusives seem to all have the same argument that no 'real artist' or whatever is gonna wanna buy a beat a million other ppl may also buy. thats absolutely true however the target customers of non-exclusives are not major artists or labels. the only ppl i sell non-exclusives to are ppl trying to come up, making demos, mixtapes, etc. those ppl arent gonna go out and pay $500-$1000 or more just for an exclusive license. so the idea is not 2 just aim 2 please these 'real', mainstream, garbage ass rappers out here its to help the underdogs come up cuz those r the REAL artists (for the most part ;) i do like some major artists but most r trash)
but of course this is just my opinion
peace

ps - whoever said that **** about ppl who sell non exclusives being wack producers or kids or whatever that **** was i guarantee my trax are at least as good as urs if not better- peace
 
Last edited by a moderator:
73* said:
Word!

I personaly believe that those producers selling non-exclusive beats are just there to take advantage of young artist that are foolish enough to think that with 10 or 15 beats, a mic, they will become the next 50cent.

On a side note this line of thinking could easily be used to discredit the sampling of previously recorded matierial...

The Non Exclusive beat seems like a cheap product but check Denon Porters website. He's worked with 50 cent and a bunch of other big names. The Non-Exclusive is not to "Make You A Star" it is to give a starving artist a way to complete a project. Once that project is done they can shop it and showcase it to other producers that may want to work with them or even to a label to get signed. The point of them is not to neccesarily showcase the Producer but rather to help the MC. In the right situation it can help both. An MC may kill a track from an unknown producer. The song gets buzz just in thier city (not goin platinum) people play it, copy it, email it ect..... word gets around that Jhonny whoever can flow and it is also said that Producer Still Broke, did some tight beats. After a while thier myspace, soundclick, or email starts getting hit by more people, hopefully those at a higher level than they are at ready to either spend money or help them make some. The Non-Exclusive is just to showcase. I do my own tracks, but if I needed a few to finish a DEMO I'd use them, get connected to that producer if the songs were hot and have him cook up something exclusive for me. He winsa and so do I.

myspace.com/Drethe5th

youngjust said:
I don't claim to know everything about exclusive/nonexclusive....but I do know selling beats exclusive style is hard...unless I'm selling them for $20-$50.

But I can't get past selling a beat I created from scratch for only $20-$50. Seriously, I spent 2 hours getting the drums right and the melody and all that. And don't trip on me saying it took 2 hours...That ish people talk about making a beat in 5 minutes is bullsh*t. That's real. It took time to: find the sounds that are just right/compose/mix/arrange and I want to be paid properly.

But here's what I'm doing: The nonexclusive beats I'm selling are the beats I make from sampling, because it does take me less time to make them. The beats sound great, I just didn't play out everything and put all my time in it.

The tracks I do create from scratch I do sell exclusively...to those who are serious about creating an album to be sold...and not mixtapes and ish. They are serious because they want that beat that no one else will have. They know the deal.

I fully agree with that. You can shoot the samples or "replayed stuff for the low" And charge for the real hard work. Overall Id sell non exclusives, but more so charge for the absolute bangers.
Lets be real. When you flip through pages of non-exclusives, they aint the best youve heard. You know it as an MC, and the producer know it too. Now go to that same person page and check thier exclusives, they are bangin, or better yet check what thier personal project sounds like, probably thier best work period. Look at the Chyrsler 300, it looks like a Bentley. That makes the average joe with no big money look like a winner and feel nice, but at the end of the day People that drive Bentleys will pay the large money for the bentley they wont go to the Chrysler lot for a substitute. Theres a standard, and there are people that meet those standards. There are those that dont meet that standard, and guess what - theres a market for them both. Like I said theres no way I would sell a "Platinum Hit" that I made at a cheap price, but a little thrown together loop library or sampled beat, imitation yeah Id let it go for cheap.

myspace.com/Drethe5th
 
Last edited:
chuka said:
would selling non-exclusive beats be equivalent to leasing beats???


It is hard to say since "leasing beats" is not actually a real thing (and you don't "sell nonexclusive beats", you "license beats on a nonexclusive basis")...

I am guessing people started using the term because they have no idea what real legal music business terms are... probably someone said "I don't want to sell my music away to someone... I know what i'll do! I'll LEASE my beats! you know, like I did with that car where I paid money to someone but didn't own the car. Yeah, I want people to pay me for my music but I still want to own it!"

...and of course, not only is this not a real thing in contracts, but it doesn't even make sense in regular plain old english. If you are "leasing" a house or car, you are still the only person who is allowed to use that house or car.



So, please everybody, if you want to sound like you are an intelligent person who knows something, rather than some kid who is begging to be taken advantage of... It is called a LICENSE.

...and you determine whether you are licensing exclusively, non-exclusively, exclusively for certain uses, the term (how long you are licensing it for), the territory (where it can be used in the world), etc.
 
Thanks for all the info yall. It's really made me think. Personally, I'm just getting started and trying to determine how I'm going to make money off of this. I wish my beats were of the highest quality, but they don't sound top-notch (yet!). But I do put in work into them, I don't [only] use loops, I hand-pick instruments for almost every new beat, so I feel I do deserve a little something. If I were to LICENSE these beats on an EXCLUSIVE basis, I don't feel someone would really want to give me much, maybe $50 at most. But if I were to LICENSE them on a NON-EXCLUSIVE basis for say $10-$20, I should be able to generate more income. Theoretically, that is, we'll see...
 
Last edited:
Illlogic said:
But if I were to LICENSE them on a NON-EXCLUSIVE basis for say $10-$20, I should be able to generate more income. Theoretically, that is, we'll see...

Yea that's going to work if you're just selling rights to any old crappy ass wanna be artists who only rap and make songs to impress girls so that they can say "shawtie I got the hood poppin... you ain't know?". I don't know about you, but I don't even bother with dealing with those kids who aren't about the hustle and grind of the music game... it's a waste of time and effort because I don't need that quick $20... but hey to each his own I guess.
 
one thing i know is it takes time........... shop them thangs around i guess. i sound like pookie t. froze-ice cuz i'm fallin asleep, but that's my 2 cents in.
 
So when you sell some non-exclusive beats there's no need for a contract, huh, is there?
 
greatestofallxs said:
So when you sell some non-exclusive beats there's no need for a contract, huh, is there?

Anything dealing with a copyright, license, or intellectual property needs a contract whether it’s a verbal or in writing. You have to treat a non-exclusive beat like you would computer software you buy in a store.
When you buy software, you are required to either accept the terms and conditions or decline.

Once you accept, you are able to use that software according to the terms and conditions. Usually it’s a non-exclusive license you acquire when you accept the terms and condition, that means you can use it for your own use, you CAN'T make a profit from it. It's non-exclusive because anyone can buy it in a store as long as they have money for their own personal use.

With a non-exclusive license for a beat, you pay for it like you would computer software. You accept the terms and the conditions just like you would software and once you agree to it you can use it according to the terms or conditions.

Of course just like software you buy it for a specific task, you usually buying a non-exclusive beat for a demo to demonstrate your vocal skills or maybe to accompany a video or movie. It could be various uses as long as you AREN'T going to make a profit off of it.

That also means that this beat can one day be sold as an exclusive license for a beat to only one person which they will use for a commercially release which can make money. All the other non-exclusive beat (if any waer sold) are not void if an exclusive beat is sold because it won't conflict.


Illlogic said:
I wish my beats were of the highest quality, but they don't sound top-notch (yet!). But I do put in work into them,

A little advice, you have to think like a business man, if you don't stand behind your product, what makes you think someone else will want it even if you are giving it out free.

The old adage: Don't put the cart before the horse, is useful here. Before you put your product out, try to perfect it first.

Another thing, "So much depends on reputation, guard it with your life," Law #5 Take the time out to get great, if you have a reputation of putting out hot beats, you are in control and if you are trying for the big time, it will drip down to the right person.

If this is your life, a career you are looking for, Kanye it and make 5 beats a day for six summer and learn what will make your beats hot and sound good. Or find a buddy that has a good ear and engineer know how. If not continue what you are doing and hustle a few suckers for their money, but don't expect to be taken serious, play on playa.
 
Last edited:
Just read through the whole thread.
Excellent info that everybody here needs to read.
 
Itz juz business

if you sell tha same lease 13 timez, how many people song iz actually gonna be hot enough 2 get major play, or any play at all, nobody will even notice it.

From a business stand point, if there are rappers who are willing to pay for a lease, then I have no problem selling it. cuz either way, after a while people are still going to ask for exclusive rights.

If a label wants original content then thatz when you work with the producer themselves. Custom beats, or beats that producer didnt want to let touch the internet, and beats made specifically with the artist in mind is what the label should be looking for.

I respect any mans business as his own, so If u only sell exclusives thatz koo too. Imo its just better business in leases.

I sell leases on SC and have made some pretty decent money doing it. Only a few exclusives off the internet because I charge higher down payments to artists with less potential and higher royalty percentages to artist that do have potential, sometimez I even make a track specifically for a hot artist and let em have it for free. I value and love my work, thatz why I can charge for lease, give some away, then other I will never let anyone hear untill I myself rap to it. As far as selling leases go tho at the end of the day it feels good to say I made $100 today and still own all the rights to my music.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top