What's the difference between the license tiers?

Every tier lets you put the beat in a song and release it. What changes between them is the audio quality you get, how far you are allowed to take the release, and how long the license lasts.

• Basic: MP3 audio. Up to 500,000 streams and 250,000 sales, one music video, two radio stations, for 10 years.
• Premium: WAV audio (higher quality, no stems). Up to 1,000,000 streams and 500,000 sales, two videos, five radio stations, for 15 years.
• Premium Plus: WAV audio plus the track stems (the separated parts, for proper mixing). Up to 1,500,000 streams and 750,000 sales, five videos, ten radio stations, for 25 years.
• Unlimited: WAV audio plus stems, with no caps. Unlimited streams, sales, videos and radio, for 100 years.
• Exclusive: you become the only person who can use the beat. It comes off the store and is no longer licensed to anyone else (see the next question).

Higher tiers give you better files, higher or unlimited usage limits, and a longer term. If you outgrow a tier later, you can move up and only pay the difference. See "can I upgrade" below.

What does "exclusive" mean, and what happens to licenses already sold?

Buying exclusive means the beat becomes yours going forward. Once your payment clears, I remove it from the store and I will not license or sell it to anyone else again, exclusive or non-exclusive, from that point on.

Licenses sold before your exclusive are not affected. Anyone who bought a non-exclusive lease earlier keeps their rights under the exact terms they bought, and that does not change. An exclusive stops new licenses from the day you buy it, it does not undo past ones. This is written directly into the exclusive agreement, so it is not a judgment call.

Can I upgrade my license in the future?

Yes. If your release grows past what your current tier allows, or you just want the higher-quality files and stems, you can move up at any time. You only pay the difference between what you already paid and the new tier, never the full price again.

Head to the license upgrade page, enter your details, and it works out the difference for you.

Do I owe you royalties on streams?

The short answer is yes, on the publishing side. You do not pay me a cut of what your recording earns from streaming. What is shared is the publishing, which is the songwriting side of the song.

On any song you make with one of my beats, I keep 50% of the publishing. That is set in your license. So when the song earns songwriting royalties through streaming, radio and live performance, half of that publishing belongs to me, and there are also mechanical royalties owed at the standard statutory rate. Most artists never set this up, and it is the part of the game most people skip.

How to do it properly:

• Register the song with your PRO (for example ASCAP, BMI or PRS) and list me for my 50% writer's share. My PRO is BMI and my IPI is 01339730439.
• Credit me as "Produced by Nathandiorr" on the release and in the metadata.
• For mechanical royalties in the US, your distributor or the MLC handles collection.

Doing this keeps everything clean and protects you if the song ever takes off.

Do I need a license, or can I just use a beat for free?

The free download is there so you can try a beat and use it for non-profit, non-monetized releases only. Think SoundCloud, untitled uploads, or anywhere you are not making money and not going through a distributor.

The moment you want to release properly, you need a license. A license is not just my permission to use the beat. Distributors and platforms require proof of one before they will let you put the song out, and my beats are tagged in content-identification systems, so releasing an unlicensed beat on a monetized platform can trigger takedowns or disputes. The license is what lets you release, monetize, and stand on solid ground if a dispute ever comes up.

So: free for testing and non-profit, a license for any real release.