What are "leased beats"?

[coolhouse912]

NEW LISTING -- CONTEMPORARY E.D.M. (Electro Dance Music) INSTRUMENTALS that would be played at the same music festival as "Warrior" by Michael Woods, "Greyhound" by Swedish House Mafia, "Toulouse" by Nicky Romero, etc., are needed by the Owner of a BUSY Music Library (Non-Exclusive) that has secured TONS of placements for TAXI members. The references have a TON of ENERGY and DRIVE, so be sure your tracks can go head to head with any one of the referenced artists, and have the same forward moving momentum, and build in intensity. Keep it FOCUSED and TIGHT. Tracks that are too busy and all over the place won't work. You should have an OBVIOUS melody line that gets the audience UP and MOVING. UPTEMPO SONGS ONLY. Instrumentals ONLY. Songs with vocals are not needed at this time. NO leased beats or un-cleared song samples!!! Broadcast quality is needed (great sounding home recordings are fine). Please submit one to three instrumentals online or per CD. All submissions will be screened and critiqued by TAXI and must be received no later than Thursday, April 18, 2013.
TAXI # S130418ED

The specific phrase that concerns me is bold, & underlined in red above. I'm unfamiliar with the term "leased beats". I recently bought several dubstep drum loops. Do they qualify? If they do, can I edit them and be alright? (I intend to anyway)

Also, I spent quite some time looking on Spotify for "Warrior" by Michael Woods with no luck. Anyone have a clue what track they mean?

Thanks,
Mike

[cardell]

I'm guessing that it refers to loop library tracks etc. Those tracks/beats that you are licensed to use but don't take ownership of.

Edit: Also, I've noticed in Hip-Hop & Dance that "Beat" now seems to refer to the entire music bed.

Stuart

[coolhouse912]

I've noticed in Hip-Hop & Dance that "Beat" now seems to refer to the entire music bed.

I think that's probably it. I've run across stuff like that before where it's called a beat or even a drum loop but is in fact a combo playing a specific progression.

Thanks Stuart,
Mike

[jaysoul]

hey guys.

"leased beats" refer to instrumental tracks/songs/beds that you have non-exclusively licensed from somebody else (aka leased). And yes, in most electronically produced music a beat often means the entire instrumental, not just the drum parts.

This is common practice for example for rappers or singers that are starting out and can't or won't produce their own music. They can buy a non-exclusive license for a piece of music (a beat) created by somebody else in order to record to and use for their demos etc. But since they're not the copyright owners of the beat/music they couldn't submit to listings like these.

So, using samples / drumloops from sample libraries that you either bought or got for free with your DAW (like Apple loops) are ok to use, just as long as they're part of a new composition - not just the single sample by itself.

Hope this helps.
Jay

[cardell]

So, using samples / drumloops from sample libraries that you either bought or got for free with your DAW (like Apple loops) are ok to use, just as long as they're part of a new composition - not just the single sample by itself.

Thanks Jay.

So presumably, some of these "leased beats" are made with drum loops from royalties free loop libraries.

Stuart

[Salty]

Is there a category called 'Fleeced Beats'?

How does one copyright a beat? Ive got dibs on triplets BTW.

[andygabrys]

warrior on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ievph7kCC1w


to add to the conundrum of this "beat" thing - yeah, from Big Fish Audio for example, you can get a producer's pack which has a whole tune in full mix and then broken out to stems (drums, bass, synth 1 etc.). A friend of mine was using this and writing a lyric and singing an original melody on top of it and fine, great, but you can't be submitting that to a library. The full mix, ok, at least there is something original, but the instrumental?.... there's the rub.

and I think Big Fish has a particular clause in their license agreement that negates use of their stuff for songs that will end up in libraries. you can use it for your own productions that are sold on iTunes etc.

http://www.bigfishaudio.com/faqs.html#anchor1

although you can also contact them specifically about music library uses, but it probably comes down to how much of Big Fish's content is included in the production going to the library and whether it forms a recognizable hook in the piece. Like a percussion loop has a better chance of going incognito vs. a synth lead line.

[coolhouse912]

Hi guys

Thanks Jay & Andy for further clarifying this issue. I wanted to be sure my track didn't get kicked right back at me over a poor understanding of the term.

I went back & reread the end user agreements for all of the vendors I've purchased from. (Zenhiser, Freaky Loops, Massive Synth, & Rankin Audio) I was particularly concerned with Massive Synth. I've bought a (ahem) massive number of Massive patches from them that includes loops, arps, & sequences which are preprogrammed with full complements of macros. Many of these are so variable that they could be dropped into a track with some knob twiddling & become the basis for building an arrangement. Very cool, inspirational stuff that I wanted to be sure I could use. (Though probably not for this listing. They're more Chill or Trance or....whatever, I don't know)

Anyway, despite variations in language, all the EUA's clear all their included material for any of the uses we might have for them (including library music). The only thing they don't want is for their stuff to be repackaged "as is" for sale to multiple 3rd party users or another vendor who would resell them. So, while the examples both of you mentioned of a performer using such beds under their vocals might not be strictly interpreted as a copyright violation, the resulting tracks would be pretty much useless to a music library (especially an exclusive one).

Well, I feel I can proceed now without further worry. Thanks eveybody for chiming in on this one.

As always, TAXI peeps RULE!
Mike

PS: Andy, I noticed the link to "Warrior" just as I hit submit. Thanks man!

[andygabrys]

Is there a category called 'Fleeced Beats'?

How does one copyright a beat? Ive got dibs on triplets BTW.

dang, I had this hot triplet concept I was going to sweep the music world with.

LOL

[coolhouse912]

Dibs on flam-a-diddles!