How to sell beats online: leases, exclusives and licenses
Selling beats online means selling licenses: permission to use your beat on certain terms. Get the terms right and one beat can be leased many times and still sold as an exclusive later. Here is how to structure your licenses, where to sell and what to keep on file.
This is a general guide, not legal advice. Every store and every producer writes their own license; the names and caps below are common patterns, not standards.
You sell licenses, not beats
When an artist buys a beat, you normally keep the copyright in it. What they get is a license: a list of what they may do with the beat, for how long and up to what limits. That is why the same beat can be sold to many artists as a lease, and why an “exclusive” is usually still a license — a stronger one — unless the contract says the copyright is transferred.
Beat lease vs exclusive
A beat lease is a non-exclusive license: the artist may release a song on your beat within the limits of the license, and you keep selling the same beat to others. An exclusive license means that, from the date of sale, nobody new can license that beat.
| Lease (non-exclusive) | Exclusive | |
|---|---|---|
| Who else can use the beat | Anyone else who leases it | Nobody new from the date of sale; earlier leases usually stay valid until they expire |
| Limits | Usually caps on streams, sales, videos or paid shows, and a term | Usually no caps |
| Files | Often MP3 or WAV | Usually WAV plus track-outs (stems) |
| After the sale | The beat stays in your store | You take it down and stop leasing it |
Many producers offer several lease tiers (for example, a basic MP3 lease, a WAV lease and a track-out lease) with higher caps for each step up, and the exclusive on top. Set the caps and prices that fit your market; there is no standard.
What a beat lease includes
A lease is only as clear as the license PDF that comes with it. Before you publish a lease tier, check that the buyer can answer these questions by reading it:
| Question | Where the answer goes in the lease |
|---|---|
| Which files do I get? | Format of the files (MP3, WAV, track-outs) and whether they are untagged |
| Where can I release the song? | Uses allowed: streaming services, downloads, music video, live shows, radio |
| How far can it go? | Caps on streams, sales or video views, and what happens when a cap is reached |
| For how long? | Term of the license (a number of years, or no end date) and when it starts |
| Can I monetize on YouTube? | Whether the video can be monetized, and that the song must not go into Content ID |
| What if someone buys the exclusive? | That this lease stays valid until it expires or reaches its cap |
| How do I credit the producer? | Credit wording in the title and the metadata, and the producer’s writer share |
When a lease runs out or a song outgrows its cap, the usual path is an upgrade: the artist buys a higher tier or the exclusive. Write the upgrade rule in the lease so that a song that takes off doesn’t become a dispute.
What every beat license should say
- Parties and beat: your name, the buyer, the beat title and the date.
- Type: lease or exclusive, and whether any copyright is transferred (usually not).
- Uses allowed: streaming, downloads, music videos, live shows, radio, sync (film, ads, games).
- Caps and term: streams, sales or views, and how long the license lasts; what happens when a cap is reached (usually: buy an upgrade).
- Credit: how you must be credited (for example “prod. by …”) in titles and metadata.
- Publishing: your share of the new song as a writer, and that it goes on a split sheet.
- Master royalties: whether you get a share of the recording income (common for exclusives, rare for leases).
- Content ID: who may claim the song on YouTube (see below).
- Samples: a statement that the beat has no uncleared samples, or a list of the ones that need clearance.
- Exclusive sale: what happens to existing leases if someone buys the exclusive.
Artists read these terms from the other side; the buyer’s checklist is in beat licenses: lease or exclusive.
Where to sell
- Beat marketplaces. Stores built for beats handle the checkout, the license PDF and the download. Compare their fees, payout methods, the license templates you can edit and whether buyers can find you there.
- Your own website. You keep the relationship with the buyer and choose your own terms; you need your own checkout and delivery.
- Direct deals. Artists you already know, sessions, and labels or managers looking for songs. These are often exclusives or custom productions, with a contract instead of a store license.
Read each marketplace’s terms on its own site before you upload: fees, payout timing and the rights you grant the store change from one to another.
Prepare and deliver
- Export each beat as MP3 and WAV, with track-outs ready for exclusives.
- Use a tagged preview (your voice tag over the beat) for anything public, and send untagged files only after payment.
- Name files the same way every time: title, BPM, key and version.
- Keep a list of who licensed which beat, when, and with which terms — you will need it when someone asks for the exclusive.
Publishing, splits and Content ID
A beat is part of the composition, so the producer is often a co-writer of the song made on it. Agree the share in the license and sign a split sheet with the artist, then register the song with your collecting society — royalties from airplay and streaming are paid to the writers on file (how music royalties work).
Content ID is where leases cause trouble. YouTube says that to use Content ID you must have exclusive rights to the material, and content licensed non-exclusively from a third party isn’t eligible (YouTube Help, “Qualifying for Content ID”, checked on October 13, 2026). If the same beat is leased to many artists, none of them should put their song in Content ID — and your license should say so, so that one artist’s claim doesn’t hit the others or you.
Getting your beats heard
- Post short clips of the beat being made or played back, with the title, BPM and a link in the bio.
- Upload full beats to YouTube with a clear title (style, mood, BPM) and the license options in the description.
- Send private links to artists and managers you want to work with, not mass emails.
- When an artist releases a song on your beat, share it: placements are the best proof of what your beats can do.
TONTRIA Clips turns a beat video or a studio session into short vertical clips with captions for TikTok, Reels and Shorts. More income streams beyond beats are in how to make money from music.
Keep every sale on file
For each beat, keep the stems, every license you issued, the split sheets of the songs made on it and the placements. TONTRIA for Producers keeps beats, sends, placements and split sheets in one place. TONTRIA Law drafts beat licenses (lease or exclusive) from a template or your description and sends them to sign online; it is an AI legal assistant, not a lawyer.