Using Leased Beats – Kycker

Using Leased Beats

Leasing beats lets you get to creating music quickly and easily, but there are a few things you need to know to do it safely.

What Is a Leased Beat?

A leased beat is an instrumental track that’s being offered for sale. You can use it to create an original song, which you can record, distribute and promote as you wish. What you can earn with it and how you can use it depends on the agreement you signed with the lease company.

Even if you pay for an exclusive license, the beat has probably been used before. You only buy exclusivity from that point on, any other song using the beat is still allowed to be released and streamed.

Caution!

Never ever use free beats. No matter what you are told they will be able to be claimed by the copyright owner as their original material. If your song with a free beat blows up, you could lose all of your earnings.

If you use a leased beat and your song does well, you may get an opportunity for a sync in tv, film or games. The catch is that the beat contract is generally not available for this, and it will likely prevent you from getting a sync because a sync agent usually has to move fast. They don’t have time to get into complicated situations involving negotiations, especially where the beat owner may demand a cut or block the usage.

Check for these key items in the lease agreement:

  • Streaming caps
  • Royalty splits
  • Public performance
  • Commercial use
  • Sync restrictions

If in doubt, seek legal advice!

Agreement Types

There are 3 main types of agreement:

1.Basic Lease

  • A basic lease allows you to use the beat in an original song but has limits. This is often only allowing a certain number of streams, you need to check the leaser to see what’s included
  • You might also have limited other rights, for example not able to be broadcast (radio) or used for sync
  • It can be used by anyone else that leases it

2. Premium Lease

  • You may have a higher number of streams allowed, or it may be unlimited
  • You may be able to have public broadcast (radio) and may be able to play it live
  • It can still be used by anyone else that leases it

3. Exclusive License

  • This takes the beat off the open market
  • You get full and exclusive rights to use the beat
  • It can’t be sold to anyone else
  • But it doesn’t make any difference to previous sales and uses of the beat

Fingerprinting

If someone else has used the beat that you’ve leased and released a song with it, it will be digitally fingerprinted. This means that when you go to release a song using the beat, it will get flagged by all of the UGC (User Generated Content) sites, like YouTube, Soundcloud, Insta etc.

This can cause conflicts and can even potentially prevent the song from being released if you don’t have the license to prove the beat has been leased. You should be prepared for conflicts as it is very likely they will happen.

If you send the lease to your distributor, it’ll demonstrate you have the rights to use it. But there is still a risk that a UGC site will map the audio to the person that first released a song with the leased beat, and direct the royalties to them, because they see them as the copyright owner.

Earning From Leased Beats

What you earn depends on the agreement you sign and the terms within it.

1. Master Rights

As part of the lease you will usually have full master rights (depending on how many streams you are allowed under the agreement). This means that you get all of the money you earn directly from streaming.

2. Composition Rights

Music also earns another copyright, which gets paid through a PRO (Performing Rights Organisation). This is for the Composition, and is called Mechanical Royalties. Streaming sites collect this behind the scenes any pay it to the PRO.

Your lease agreement will generally specify a split in this regard. For example, it may say the entitlement is 50% to each party. You need to register this when you register the song either with a published or with a PRO.

3. Performance Royalties (Neighbouring Rights)

When the song is played live, in a public space or on the radio, it generates royalties for the performers on the track.

With a leased beat these royalties will be split between you and the owner of the beat. They will be paid out in the percentages registered for the Composition Rights when you register with a PRO or publisher.

But, you also need to check that the agreement allows for collection of these rights.

4. Sync Royalties

Check the agreement, but it’s highly likely that you will not be allowed to use the beat for sync (use in tv, movies, commercials, games).

This will nearly always need to have a separate agreement, most leases exclude sync. It could also get very expensive. Not only this but it is highly likely that it will prevent the sync entirely because they usually need to move fast and without complication.

If you get an agreement and land a sync, you’ll get paid out a one time fee and then each time the sync is broadcast you’ll collect Composition Royalties at the agreed rates.

And…

There you have it. Using leased beats is a shortcut to creativity, but you need to be careful, read and understand the agreement fully before you sign it.

And try negotiate if you think there is something you need adding to the agreement.

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