A few questions on leasing out beats!

A

AleksZen

New member
Hi guys, hows it going?

Sorry if these seems like basic questions and have been asked a billion times but i want to firmly establish the general ground rules when it comes to this practice...

a. i tend to see on people's beat selling websites that they're selling a track both as a lease, and also for more as an exclusive. however, from the very moment an artist is to buy it as a lease then surely that's gonna defeat the whole point of it being available as an exclusive as well? yet im sure ive seen producers advertise both options for days on end if not permanently... so i'm a bit confused about why that is firstly..

b. when leasing out or selling exclusive beats, is it normal practice to master the beat first or just sell the premaster? do producers sometimes have both options available? and that leads me onto question c.

c. what ARE the general selling options? i've seen leasing, exclusive and i saw one guy talk about selling the stems? what would he mean by that exactly? cos from what i know, i export stems in the form of drums, instrumentation & vocals to run thru my hardware compressor, ready to mix them together for the final mix... would the person in mind be selling stems so an artist could also play with the mix of the backing track a bit more if he wanted to?

finally..

d. i been reading about how producers lease out a beat for an artist and if that artist were to sell 5000 units of that song (just for example), then the producer should have some sort of contract signed that states the artist needs to renew the lease by buying it again until it sells another 5000, and so forth.

so my question is - isn't it a bit long and a waste of time to chase up an artist on a lease renewal fee of £20 / $30, when firstly they'll probably not bother bringing to your attention that they have exceeded 5000 sales, and even if you knew they did and they refused to renew the lease, are you gonna bother taking legal action over pocket money? not to mention you would have to keep tabs on 100's if not 1000's of artists if your a successful leaser? doesn't seem worth the trouble imo really...

so yeah, if anyone could help answer one or all the questions above that'd be massively appreciated :)

thanks

Aleks
 
First of all, good questions.

A. That is true. I've had several people hit me up about exclusives and ask if I've leased the beat yet. Some artist may not want to purchase exclusives on a beat you have leased others don't care. Generally, the "better" artist are gonna want exclusive rights and most of the people I sell leases too (MOST) are not very musically talented. I think that most artist who purchase exclusives realize this and often don't mind purchasing a beat that has been leased because the leased song is limited. It legally cannot blow up or be all on the radio, so when another artist purchases the exclusive rights to the beat, you can no longer lease it out (even an artist who previously leased it, recorded a song that was doing well and wanted to purchase full rights or re-lease it. They pretty much are screwed). I look at my leases almost as equal as the tagged free download. In theory someone could download my tagged beat and make a dope song. But they can't get very far without legally owning the exclusives rights.

b. This is personal preferrence. My tagged beats I upload at 256kbps (mixed and mastered), my leases and exclusives the MP3 is at 320. So they will increase in quality. When I first started I didn't mix until they were purchased and thats just a hassle.

c. I offer standard leases. Which is the mp3 and wav file untagged at 320. Premium Leases which are the same, but come with the track outs. And then exclusives which is all of that, plus the full rights to the beat. So I would recommend selling any additional files especially track outs.

d. All my leases I send out a contract. There's really no way to tell what's going to happen with your beat when you send it off. They may try to sell a billion copies of it. But as long as you have a contract that says they can't, it acts as more security for you. You can't monitor what they do, and 9 times outta 10 they will break the rules of the lease (if they have the opportunity to), but as long as you have in writing the contract, if you turn on the radio and hear a beat you leased is number 1 on the billboard charts and what not, you can use your contract to handle that.

Hope this helped. Let me know if you have anymore questions.
 
@therealjoe

cheers for taking the time that was really helpful indeed, especially the part about the contract and the exclusive rights :) i just have a couple more questions in regards to your response tho.. firstly,

1. whats a 'track out'?

2. is there any sonic difference between your standard / premium leases vs. exclusives? cos you said you tagged your beats too but you haven't mentioned anything about that in regards to what you're selling, is that just for free downloads?

3. do you have a different contract for each sales option or do you just write one which covers everything? i'm gonna look into writing one asap but also wouldnt mind having some sort of example or template to guide me cos i know all that legal jargon can be a bit much, would u have any useful links to check? if not, not to worry im sure i can google it but if u know something u could tell me straight off the top of your head, thatd be very helpful!

all the best,

Aleks
 
Thanks for this informative post about leasing. This will help beginners. Leasing allows businesses to upgrade assets more frequently ensuring they have the latest equipment without having to make further capital outlays.
 
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