An artist who bought a beat on a Standard licence a year ago has a track that is starting to move, and a label asking questions. These are the notes as the questions the artist asked and the answers, because the upgrade from a Standard licence to an Exclusive one is a conversation more than a transaction.
Session notes, illustrative. This is a composite of sessions, written to show how a job like this runs. No artist is named, no result is claimed, and nothing here is a client's track. The decisions are real; the artist is not.
The questions, and the answers
The label wants to know who owns the beat. I do, and the Standard licence you hold lets you release the track within its limits. The label is really asking whether anyone else can release the same beat, and under Standard, they can.
Can someone else have this beat right now? Yes, under Standard and Premium. Under Exclusive the beat comes off the site and nobody else can license it after you. That is the whole difference, and it is the one a label cares about.
What do I actually get with Exclusive? The stems, the beat removed from sale, the right to release without the stream and sales caps the lower tiers carry, and a licence document the label's lawyer can read. The licence guide has the tiers side by side.
Do I have to re-record? No. The recording you have is yours; the licence changes what you can do with it. If the track was mixed on the two-track beat, the stems let it be remixed properly, which is worth doing before a label release but is not required.
What about the version already released? It stays up. The upgrade covers it from the day it is signed. What it does not do is reach back and change what happened under the old terms, which is why upgrading before the track moves is cheaper than after.
Is there anything in the beat a label would object to? No samples from records; every part is mine or licensed for commercial use, and the licence says so. Why that matters.
What happened next, in the notes
- Exclusive licence signed; the beat removed from the site the same day.
- Stems delivered; the track remixed with the vocal balanced against the parts, and remastered to the same loudness as the original so the two versions did not jump.
- The licence document and the stems folder sent to the label in one zip, with the original receipt.
- A second beat written for the follow-up on a custom brief, because once a label is involved, a beat nobody else can ever have is the only kind worth building on. How a custom beat is briefed.
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