Topic
A practical guide for producers selling beats online: the difference between a non-exclusive lease and an exclusive licence, what to put in each tier, why leased beats cannot go into Content ID, why an exclusive needs a signed contract, and how to price a ladder without boxing yourself in. Sources read on 25 Oct 2026.
Workflows
A producer deal is usually two things at once: who owns what the producer made, and how the producer gets paid. Here is how fees and points fit together, what "work made for hire" really means under US law, and how a SoundExchange letter of direction routes a share of radio royalties to the producer.
Workflows
Producers, mixers and engineers only get US digital radio royalties from SoundExchange if the featured artist signs a Letter of Direction, or, for recordings made before November 1995, through a narrow 2% fallback in the statute. Here is how both routes work, with the numbers, and what to put in your producer agreement so you never have to chase it.
Industryvia Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
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