The Full Picture
Exclusive
Rights.
Explained.
No sales pitch. No fine print buried in the footer. Everything you need to know about exclusive rights — the benefits, the drawbacks, who it makes sense for, and who it doesn't. Make the right call for your career.
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01
What Are Exclusive Rights?
When you purchase a beat under Exclusive Rights, you become the last artist who will ever license that instrumental from us. The beat is pulled from the store the moment your payment clears — permanently. No future leases. No other artists. That sound belongs to your catalog going forward.
You receive the full file package — MP3, WAV, and every individual stem track — alongside a signed exclusive contract delivered directly to your inbox. The license is unlimited across every platform, every revenue stream, and every distribution channel with no caps, no thresholds, and no expiration.
Important distinction: Exclusive Rights grant you sole future licensing rights to the beat for your recordings. Metropolis Beats retains the underlying composition copyright to the instrumental itself — this is standard industry practice and does not affect your ability to collect, distribute, or earn from your music in any way.
Any artists who leased the beat prior to your exclusive purchase retain the rights they already hold. Their licenses are unaffected. But from your purchase forward — you are the only one.
02
What You Get
Five reasons exclusive rights is the professional standard for serious releases.
01
🏆 100% Publishing Rights — Every Dollar, Yours
Every penny your song generates in publishing royalties — performance royalties, mechanical royalties, sync fees — flows directly to you with no split. Register your composition with your PRO (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) as the sole publisher and collect in full from day one. With a lease, Metropolis Beats retains publishing rights. With Exclusive Rights, that changes entirely.
02
🎯 Your Sound — Permanently Removed from the Market
The beat is gone from the store the moment you buy it. No other artist will ever release a song on that instrumental after you. Your release becomes the definitive version — no awkward moment discovering another artist used the same beat on their project. In a landscape where differentiation matters, this is not a small thing.
03
🎛️ Full Stems — Total Creative and Mix Control
Every track layer delivered individually — kick, snare, hi-hats, bass, melody, FX, atmospheres. Your engineer gets exactly what they need to craft a professional mix. Want to pull the 808 up? Isolate the guitar? Remove a layer entirely? You have that control. Stems are the difference between working with a beat and truly making it yours.
04
🚀 Unlimited Everything — No Ceiling on Your Career
Unlimited streams. Unlimited sales. Unlimited music videos. Unlimited paid performances. Unlimited radio and broadcasting. No stream caps to monitor, no sales thresholds to worry about, no tiers to upgrade through if your record takes off. Your license scales with your success automatically — it never becomes a problem regardless of how far the record goes.
05
📄 Signed Exclusive Contract — Legal Certainty
A fully executed exclusive license agreement is delivered with your files. Documented, legally binding, enforceable. If a label, manager, sync agent, or distributor ever asks for proof of your rights — you have it. In an industry where handshake deals create disputes, having paper is not optional. It's infrastructure.
03
Who Should Buy Exclusive?
Honest answers on both sides. This decision depends entirely on where you are in your career and what you're building toward.
Exclusive Rights makes sense if —
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You're dropping a project you're actively promoting — album, EP, or a single with real push behind it. Exclusivity protects the investment you're making in promo.
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You're going for sync licensing — TV, film, and ads. Sync agents and music supervisors require exclusivity before placing a record. A lease makes sync licensing almost impossible.
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You're building a brand around a sound. If this beat is becoming your signature style, you don't want another artist releasing on it and muddying the association.
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You're working with a label or distributor who requires exclusive rights as a condition of signing or releasing. This is standard in most label agreements.
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You have real momentum — a growing audience, a record already gaining streams, a team around you. At that stage, the cost of a lease ceiling becoming a problem is higher than the cost of exclusivity.
A lease is smarter if —
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You're still finding your sound. If you're experimenting with styles, genres, or flows — a lease lets you work across multiple beats without the commitment of full exclusivity on each one.
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The release is a freestyle, loosie, or SoundCloud drop with no commercial push. The caps on a basic or unlimited lease are more than enough for that context.
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You're on a tight budget. A strong unlimited lease is better than stretching financially for exclusivity. Make the record, build the audience, invest in exclusivity when you're ready.
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You're not sure about the beat yet. Always fully preview before buying anything. If there's doubt — a lease lets you work with the beat without full commitment.
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You need volume over depth right now. If you're recording an album and need 12 beats, leasing across a range of sounds is often smarter than going exclusive on one or two.
04
The Real Drawbacks
Every purchase decision has tradeoffs. Here are the genuine downsides of exclusive rights — no spin, just facts. We'd rather you buy the right license than the wrong one.
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01
Higher upfront cost
Exclusive Rights costs more than a lease. That's the straightforward reality. If you're early in your career or working with a limited budget, that gap is meaningful. A well-executed unlimited lease on a great beat will always outperform an exclusive rights license on a beat you're not fully committed to.
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02
Prior lease holders keep their rights
If other artists leased the beat before your exclusive purchase, they retain the rights they already hold. Their releases don't disappear. In practice this is rarely a problem — lease holders are often independent artists at different stages, in different markets, with different sounds. But it's something to know going in, not after.
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03
The underlying composition stays with us
Metropolis Beats retains the copyright to the underlying instrumental composition. You own your master recording and 100% of your publishing — but the beat itself, as a composition, remains our intellectual property. This is identical to how major label publishing deals work and does not limit your ability to earn from or distribute your music in any way.
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04
All sales are final
We don't offer refunds on digital files once delivered. This applies to all licenses, but the stakes are higher on an exclusive purchase. Preview every beat thoroughly before buying. Every track on our store streams in full before you commit to anything — use that.
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You're making a commitment to the record
Buying exclusive rights signals you're serious about a release. That's actually a feature, not a bug — commitment produces better work. But if you're not sure about the direction of a project, sitting with a lease version while you develop the record is a smarter approach than going exclusive on something that might change direction.
05
License Comparison
Every right, every tier, side by side. No asterisks.
|
Basic Lease |
Unlimited Lease |
Exclusive Rights |
| Price |
$49 |
$99 |
$169 |
| MP3 + WAV (untagged) |
— |
✓ |
✓ |
| Track Stems (Trackout) |
— |
✓ |
✓ |
| Audio Streams |
2,500 |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
| Sales / Downloads |
Limited |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
| Music Videos |
1 (500K views) |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
| Paid Performances |
— |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
| Radio / Broadcasting |
— |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
| Streaming Distribution |
Limited |
Spotify, Apple & more |
All platforms |
| Publishing Rights |
Retained by producer |
Retained by producer |
100% — yours |
| Beat removed from store |
— |
— |
✓ |
| Exclusive future use |
— |
— |
✓ |
| Signed contract |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
| Sync licensing eligible |
— |
— |
✓ |
06
Still Have Questions?
Can I register the beat with a PRO like ASCAP or BMI?
With Exclusive Rights, yes — you can register your recorded composition with your PRO and collect 100% of your publishing royalties. Do not register the underlying instrumental beat itself, as the composition copyright remains with Metropolis Beats. You are registering your song — the combination of your vocals, lyrics, and the beat — not the beat as a standalone work. With lease licenses, do not register publishing as that right is retained by the producer.
What happens if a prior lease holder's song blows up after I buy exclusive?
Their license remains valid and unaffected — their success is their success. Your exclusive purchase doesn't retroactively cancel their rights. What it does guarantee is that no new licenses are issued after your purchase date. Going forward, their release and yours coexist, but you are the last artist who will ever get rights to that beat. In practice, prior lease holders are typically independent artists in different markets — the overlap is rarely a commercial issue.
Can a label or distributor use my exclusive rights license?
Your license covers distribution through all major platforms and channels, which includes working with a label or distributor for your release. However, the license is non-transferable — it is issued to you personally. If a label wants to sign your record and requires their own licensing arrangement, contact us directly and we can discuss what that looks like. Most standard distribution and label deals work within the scope of an exclusive rights license without any issues.
Is Exclusive Rights eligible for sync licensing — TV, film, ads?
Yes — Exclusive Rights is the minimum requirement for sync licensing in most cases. Music supervisors and sync agents require that the artist controls exclusive rights to the recording before they'll place it. A lease license makes sync placement essentially impossible because the same instrumental could appear in competing placements. If sync licensing is part of your strategy, Exclusive Rights is not optional — it's the prerequisite.
What's included in the BOGO offer and how does it work?
When you purchase one Exclusive Rights license, a second Exclusive Rights license is included at no additional cost. Add both beats to your cart and the discount activates automatically at checkout. Both beats are pulled from the store immediately, full stems and signed contracts are delivered for each. Both licenses are fully exclusive — same terms, same rights, same protection as a single exclusive purchase.
Can I upgrade from a lease to exclusive rights later?
Yes — as long as the beat hasn't already been purchased under Exclusive Rights by another artist. If it's still available, you can upgrade at any time by purchasing the Exclusive Rights license. The beat will be removed from the store and your new exclusive contract supersedes your previous lease. Contact us if you're looking to upgrade a specific beat and we'll confirm its availability and walk you through the process.