Every rapper needs those impeccable beats, those special instrumental hip hop downloads that take their tracks to a completely new level, and leaves them soaring miles and miles above the competition. But here comes the dilemma... where do you find these instrumentals? You constantly hear the latest hit on the radio, and hit the web looking for the beat, but then face the reality that you CANNOT legally rap over a mainstream beat and make profit, due to all the copyright and stolen content laws that exist out there.
But you don't care about any of that anyway! You just want to rap! But where the heck do you get the beats?!
Luckily, studio-quality beats and instrumentals are all over the internet! You just need to know what to look for! You actually have a few different options!
1. Non-Exclusive, or Leasing Rights:
Purchasing non-exclusive, or leasing rights, to a beat/instrumental, allows you to use the beat for basic profit purposes, such as radio play, live performances, and a limited number of copies of your studio album sold for personal profit. Leasing a beat is usually fairly inexpensive, if you go to the right place.
Once you have reached your copy/profit limit for an instrumental hip hop download, you must either re-purchase your lease, or consider purchasing exclusive rights to the beat.
2. Exclusive Rights:
Exclusive rights to a hip hop beat allow you to use the beat freely, for unlimited amounts of radio play, performance, and above all, profit. The beat basically becomes your property. This is the most ideal choice for rappers, but also the most expensive. Exclusive rights can cost anywhere from 0 to 00's of dollars!
3. Royalty-Free Instrumental Hip Hop Downloads:
A royalty-free download allows you to use the beat for any sort of profit purposes that you please, as long as you give the original producer full credit. This is very similar to having exclusive rights in that the beat almost becomes yours, but this option is usually much more inexpensive, as most websites offering royalty-free downloads offer packages of several beats for one low flat-rate.
Now that you understand the types of deals that are out there, you can make more educated decisions about how much you want to spend, and what kind of license you want to get! The possibilities are endless!
