Answers/Glossary/Exclusive license
Glossary · Licensing
Exclusive license
An exclusive license grants rights to one licensee and commits the owner not to grant the same rights to anyone else. In beat sales it usually means the producer stops selling the instrumental, though the producer commonly retains ownership and a songwriting share.
Exclusivity is a promise about what the owner will not do. An exclusive licence gives the licensee rights that nobody else will be given, for whatever scope the agreement defines — territory, term, media, or all of them.
The scope is where the money and the arguments are. "Exclusive" on its own says almost nothing. An exclusive licence can be exclusive worldwide and perpetual, or exclusive in the United States for two years, or exclusive for streaming but not for sync. In beat sales, "exclusive" typically means the producer removes the instrumental from their store and will not license it to another artist — while still owning the beat and, very often, retaining a share of the composition.
That last point is the one that surprises artists. Buying an exclusive beat and owning the song outright are different transactions. An exclusive licence transfers permission; a full buyout transfers ownership, and it requires clear written language, usually a work-made-for-hire clause with a backup assignment of copyright. Under US law an exclusive licence is itself a transfer of copyright ownership and must be in a signed writing under 17 U.S.C. 204(a) — a verbal deal does not create one.
Splice's licences, by contrast, are always non-exclusive, so no amount of paying more makes a Splice loop exclusively yours.
The misunderstanding: thinking exclusivity ends the producer's interest in the song. Unless the agreement explicitly conveys the composition share and the master rights, the producer may still be a co-writer collecting through The MLC and ASCAP or BMI for as long as the record earns.
Get exclusivity terms in writing at the time of the deal — and get a lawyer to draft them.
Related terms
- Non-exclusive licenseA non-exclusive license grants permission to use a work while leaving the owner free to grant the same permission to anyone else.
- Exclusive beat agreementAn exclusive beat agreement is a contract in which a producer stops licensing an instrumental to anyone else and grants it to a…
- Beat leaseA beat lease is a non-exclusive licence to use a producer's instrumental, sold at a low price with defined limits on streams…
- Work made for hireA work made for hire is a work whose author, in law, is the employer or commissioning party rather than the person who created…
Definitions on this site describe the United States system. I am an artist who has been through this, not a lawyer.
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