For many of you, whether you are an artist or a film maker, the major concerns you have when it comes to finding music for your projects are the following:
– You need music in a very specific genre, with a specific tempo and that might sound like something you have heard.
– You would like to use it with few constraints in terms of rights. Basically, the less authorization you need to get to use the music, the less trouble it is for you.
– Last but not least, you would also be happy to get this music at a reasonable price, isn’t it?
In the past years, as the music industry has gone through lots of changes, music producers and beatmakers have also changed the way they are selling their music. They are now leasing beats and instrumentals.
Here are 3 reasons why leased beats and instrumentals totally fit today’s way of consumption:
1. No need to wait to get served
Let’s call it the “fastfood” way of consumption. You go into a 24/7 store, you choose your product and you get it right away. You don’t want to wait and anyway people don’t have the patience anymore.
Well, music producers have understood this and that’s why they are now selling instrumentals and beats for lease. On every serious beats website, you will find a large music catalogue. Generally you can sort beats by genres (rap beats, pop beats for sale…), tempos or even “sounds like” option. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, then no big deal, you can just visit another website until you find the exact sound you wish. Once you feel you have found the right music, you won’t have to wait too long to get your product. As a matter of fact, most of these websites have automated systems to handle their orders. So when you make your order, you almost instantly receive an email with the music ordered (generally download links to the purchased mp3 and/or wav audio file).
2. No need to own it to use it
Just like a leased car that you can use without owning it, you can now do the same with music. Today, producers are proposing people to use their music in exchange for some financial compensation. The producers remain the owners and the users are granted licenses of use. So, according to your objectives, whether you need music for an album or for a video, and whether you want to broadcast your final work on TV, radio or internet, you will generally be able to choose a license that matches your needs.
Beside, most of the time, the music that you hear on TV, radio etc. is registered at some copyright collection society like ASCAP, BMI, GEMA, SACEM… Therefore, whenever you want to use music from their catalogue and for any purpose, you need to check if you are allowed to do so, and if not, then you should try to get an authorization. And once you have it, then you’ll have to pay royalties for the use of this copyrighted material. And every time you’ll need to use the music for a different purpose, you’ll have to pay once again
Well, we are in a total different world today, and many music producers have their own business, not depending on any publisher. They protect their work by other means than with copyright collection society and they sell their music in other ways. This is why lots of hip hop beat maker (online) will sell rap beats in a royalty-free way. Similarly, other music producers will offer the same but with many other genres, for example: download Pop beats, R&B/Soul, Electro/Dance/Club, Rock, Bachata, Reggaeton beats etc., all royalty-free.
3. No need to go bankrupt to buy quality
In today’s world, it’s competition that drives the markets. Therefore, the more you have competitors, the more prices will lower. At the same time, it doesn’t mean that quality will decrease because you have more actors offering similar products.
Well, this is the same when you want to buy beats and instrumentals. As you will notice, every leasing beats and instrumentals sold on the internet have a maximum price of $100 according to the rights that are granted to you. And the majority of beats for lease have a range price between $20 to $50. A few years ago, purchasing music was much higher especially because production’s costs were much more due to expensive investments in recording equipments. Nowadays, everyone makes music with computers and everything is dematerialized, producers just need to buy plugins. So no need to have a huge studio to fit all the recording stuff, you just need a room with a computer.
Beside, the evolution of technology has allowed people to produce music that is more qualitative in terms of sound and it is made in a quicker way. This now allows producers to propose cheap instrumentals with high quality.
So what are you waiting for to buy beats from producers? Leasing gets more and more popular in our society. It may become a mainstream way of consumption in the next years, don’t you think?
Author: Steve C. has been in the music business as a manager for artists and music producers for more than 10 years. He is the founder of Beats Avenue website.
