Beat Leases
You Leased The Beat. You Built The Song On Top Of It. So Why Doesn't It Actually Belong To You?
Here's the truth: most producers and artists sign beat leases without ever reading what they actually say, and by the time it matters, it's too late to fix. This course teaches you exactly what's in that contract, step by step, the same way a tutorial class would.
You'll walk through the real mechanics of a beat lease, in order, across the situations that actually cost people money:
1. LEASE VS. EXCLUSIVE → Learn exactly what separates a non-exclusive beat lease from an exclusive rights purchase and the real legal consequences of treating one like the other.
2. METADATA & DISCOVERABILITY → Decode the hyper-specific metadata producers embed to make beats discoverable on marketplaces like BeatStars and then learn why none of it is supposed to survive into your final commercial release.
3. EXPIRATION & LIABILITY → Identify the two separate expiration triggers built into every non-exclusive lease, and understand why turning on YouTube Content ID for a leased beat creates liability, and not just for you, but for every other artist using that same instrumental.
4. BREACH & COMPLIANCE → Apply the indemnification clause to a real breach scenario to see exactly who's financially responsible when something goes wrong, and learn how broadcast rights and sync restrictions shift across different license tiers.
Then you're tested on it.
The final exam puts you inside a real contract dispute. This is not multiple choice exam. You'll work through the same clauses, triggers, and liabilities producers and artists deal with every day, and diagnose exactly where the breakdown happened.
6 objectives. Real contract language. Zero guesswork.
Get The Full Course — $49
This section is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Royalty School, a DBA of Music Business Lab LLC, and its founder make no representations or warranties as to the accuracy or completeness of this information, and assume no liability for any actions taken based on it. Every artist's situation is different — for guidance specific to your contracts, splits, or releases, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.