What does 'leasing' beats mean?

DJ Synner

DJ Synner

HiBeats Music
I'm new to the beat selling industry and I've seen a lot of other producers offer their beats for both 'exclusive' rights and also give an option to 'lease' a beat.

I know what exclusive rights mean, but I'm not sure about leasing beats. Does it mean they can use it for a certain amount of time or something like that?

Please fill me in.
 
Leasing is somewhat misleading. Non-exclusive or Licensing is the proper term. Leasing is the same as when you get an Apt. or car. The person who sold it cant come into your apt or drive your car whenever. It is your property until your contract agreement is up. When you license a beat you give this person permission to make a recording with the beat but you obtain all rights still to th beat and can do as you please with it
 
leasing is really the common term, but we all should say licensing instead. leasing/licensing basically means you are allowing someone use the beat with limited rights but you still have full rights to the beat and may license it out to other artists
 
Ok cool. So that means that they could like use it on a mixtape or something but not release an actual song without your permission?
 
It's the use of a term that is nonexistent in the world of intellectual property licensing to mean something the opposite of what the word means when it's used elsewhere to create a situation that is filled with legal pitfalls if the user ever ends up in court.
 
DJ Synner said:
Ok cool. So that means that they could like use it on a mixtape or something but not release an actual song without your permission?
Click to expand...


Nah as i understand it, it means they can release a song but so can others.

As gballin sed "non-exclusive" is a better word for it

:)
 
I've written a post on my blog about the difference between leasing rights and exclusive rights when purchasing and selling beats. There's more to it than just permission to record an album. Some leasing contacts can entitle limitations on the amount of streaming/views and or downloads. That way you could continue to profit from that one beat. More can be found on my blog at https://sub08.com/leasing-a-beat/
 
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As stated by others in this thread, (in regards to selling beats) the term "lease" basically means "non exclusive license". When you "lease a beat" you are selling / granting someone a non exclusive license to use that beat.

Now, If you were to sue someone in court because they didn't "buy a lease", you will probably lose because (to the rest of the world) the term lease means something entirely different.

Now, with that said, if you were to specify in clear language in your licensing agreement that the term "lease" is being used in the agreement to describe a non exclusive license "type" then you may have some ground to stand on.

For the record, I am no lawyer and this is not legal advise (besides, a lawyer would probably advise you to not use the term at all) so you may want to consult a lawyer if you are getting serious about licensing your music and want to do everything the right way.

Good luck.
 
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