Answer a few questions about your license and get a Trap Score plus a flag on every clause, the stream caps, the publishing grab, the resale, the expiry. The fine print producers hope you skip.
Plenty of "exclusive" beats still take 50% of your publishing and cap your streams. That's not yours.
1Your lease
$What it cost you
Not sure of a term? Pick the closest, then check your license PDF against the flags below. This is guidance, not legal advice.
Your trap score
0 / 100
The verdict—
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A beat lease is a contract, and the fine print is where the traps live. These are the ones that actually hurt independent artists, in rough order of how much they cost you.
worst
50% publishing
half your song
producer owns 50% of it forever
high
Stream cap
expires
re-license or take it down at the cap
high
Non-exclusive
not yours
the same beat is sold to everyone
medium
Sales cap
2k units
a hit blows past this instantly
medium
MP3 only
no stems
you can't properly mix or master it
low
Video limits
1 video
caps how you can promote it
The one rule: if a beat might carry a real song, a non-exclusive lease with a stream cap and a publishing split is the most expensive "cheap" thing you can buy. Owning the beat outright, or using a beat that's actually yours, removes every trap at once.
A non-exclusive lease is a rental: cheap, but the producer keeps selling the same beat to other artists and caps how far your song can go. An exclusive transfers the beat to you and lifts the caps, but read it closely, because some "exclusive" deals still take publishing or let the producer keep honoring leases they already sold. The only fully clean option is a beat that is genuinely yours, with no caps and no split.
Non-exclusive
rental
shared, capped, can expire
Exclusive
yours
check for publishing + resale clauses
Own it free
clean
no caps, no split, no expiry
03 / ANSWERS
Common questions
What is the difference between a beat lease and an exclusive?+
A beat lease is a non-exclusive license: the producer keeps selling the same beat to other artists and usually caps your streams, sales, and video use. An exclusive transfers the beat to you alone and removes those caps. A lease is cheaper, but the beat is never really yours, and a hit on a leased beat can force you to re-license or take it down.
Do producers take publishing on a beat lease?+
Many do. A common trap is a lease or even an exclusive that still assigns the producer 50% of the publishing, meaning they own half of every song you build on that beat forever, even after you paid. Always check the publishing and master-royalty split before you sign.
What happens when a beat lease hits its stream cap?+
Most leases cap distribution at a set number of streams or units. Once you pass the cap the license expires, and you have to buy a larger lease or the exclusive, or legally take the song down. This is why a leased beat is risky for a song that might take off.