5 Things To Know Before Buying a Beat Online
Aj Shine
Music Producer, Entrepreneur
I talk to a lot of artists looking for instrumental on the networks and several questions come up regularly. If you are on this page it is because you are probably asking yourself some questions about the use of instrumentals online. You can find all the answers in this article! 🙌
What is commercial or non-commercial use of an instrument?
If you often look for productions on Youtube you must have seen that a lot of producers put [FREE] in their title. In description it is often noted that the instrumental is “free for non-commercial use”.
Non-commercial use means that you are using the instrumental for a song that will be played for free like broadcasting it on Soundcloud or Youtube (as long as monetization is not activated).
Commercial use – on the other hand – means that you can make money with your music . This is the case if you publish your sound on streaming platforms: Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music… these platforms pay artists according to their number of streams! 💰 Another commercial use would be putting your song in a paid download.
If you want to put your music on these platforms you need to buy a license for your beat and that’s what we’ll see just below 👇
What is an instrumental license?
When you purchase a license you basically rent the beat the way you would rent an apartment. You can use the beat for as long as the contract says that you can — the same you way you can live in an apartment you rent but you never truly own the property — but you own the right to use it for a period of time.
Licenses are offered in different audio formats (Basic MP3, Premium WAV, Unlimited…) and each license has its characteristics. For example at WSO Philly.com with a “Basic MP3” license you will be limited to 10,000 streams maximum while with an “Unlimited” license you will not have a limit on streaming. It is your decision to choose your license according to the audio quality you want and the broadcast you want to do!
When you buy a license you get 2 things:
1) Your instrumental in the audio format you have chosen
2) A contract that guarantees your right to use the lease
To give you a more precise idea of what the licenses are and their differences, here is a summary table of those that I propose:
Ysos Beats licenses
What happens if I buy a license for an instrumental and someone buys the exclusive?
Nothing ! When you buy a license for a beat, your usage rights are guaranteed by contract. You are therefore authorized to publish your song even if the exclusive is subsequently sold.
If I exceed the stream limit of my license, what should I do?
If your song blows up you might exceed your license stream limit. In this case you can upgrade to the next license paying only the difference. This way you will have the right to more streams and you will not be forced to remove your song from the platforms. However, be careful, not all producers offer this license improvement service !
Note: in some cases you will not be able to upgrade your license, for example if the exclusive of the beat is purchased in the meantime. This is why it is important to decide beforehand if you have big plans for the song and you believe an unlimited license will give you the most flexibility.
Once I have purchased an instrument, will I receive it with tags?
No ! When you buy an instrumental online and regardless of the license (MP3, WAV, Multitrack) you will receive it without the vocal tags .
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