FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Before sending any message, please check the questions/answers below.
General
1. What is Beats Avenue?
Beats Avenue® (B.A.) is a website which has been founded by music industry producers and which main aim is to provide quality instrumentals/beats at an affordable price for recording artists (singers, rappers…) and for video/film makers, media professionals…
B.A. also provides services such as mixing/mastering and production of custom music.
2. Who are the producers on the Site?
Beats Avenue music producers have an experience of more than 10 years in the music industry, including collaborations with several record companies and artists worldwide.
3. Do you offer Free beats?
Yes, please visit the Free Beats section.
4. I didn’t receive my free beats. Where are they?
Right after you have subscribed to our newsletter, an email was sent to you including a download link to the free beats. Please check your spam folder if you don’t find this email.
If the download doesn’t work, please empty the cache of your internet browser and try again. Otherwise you can try to copy/paste the link onto another browser.
5. What is the newsletter for?
The newsletter’s purpose is to inform you about our latest news, fresh instrumentals uploaded or even special offers. Some information contained in the newsletter may not be available to other users. The newsletter will be sent to your email directly, after you have signed up.
If you wish to join our newsletter, please visit the Free Beats section.
6. What are the differences between an Exclusive and a Leasing license?
Differences:
- The main difference is the number of users of the same instrumental/beat. “Exclusive” means that when you purchase an exclusive instrumental/beat, you will be the unique (exclusive) user of it. No other user uses or will ever use the same instrumental/beat as yours. Beats Avenue won’t be allowed to exploit it in a profitable way anymore. However, “lease” beats can be acquired by multiple users, this is why such leasing licenses are called “non-exclusive”. We have 4 non-exclusive licenses: Non-Profit, Premium, Trackouts, and Unlimited.
- Also, exclusive licenses globally grant you with broader rights than leasing licenses.
Common points:
- Exclusive and lease beats are royalty-free.
- Legally, the instrumental/beat is not actually sold but licensed to you. B.A. remains the owner of the instrumental/beat (i.e. the “master” sound recording) and its copyright.
- To see the full comparison table of all the licenses, please click here.
- For more information, please refer to the Exclusive Beat section and the Lease beats / instrumentals section.
- To know what the difference is between an Exclusive beat and a Custom beat, please refer to question 9 of the FAQ.
IMPORTANT: please note that in both cases (exclusive and leasing), you are NOT allowed to use or sell the instrumental/beat alone, i.e. with no voice over it or with no other Contribution (images, video…).
Non-exclusive licenses (Beats for lease)
7. What are the differences between Non-Profit, Premium, Trackouts, and Unlimited Lease
First of all, these 4 types of licenses are mainly designed for recording artists.
- The Non-Profit license allows you to use the beat/instrumental purchased for a non-profitable purpose only while you can use it for a profitable purpose with the other licenses: Premium, Trackouts and Unlimited Lease.
- The Non-Profit license grants you a credit of 10,000 non-profitable streams with your New Song, while you’re granted a credit of 100,000 profitable streams with the Premium and Trackouts licenses, and unlimited streams with the Unlimited license.
- The Premium and Trackouts licenses allow you to sell or distribute up to 10,000 units/copies/downloads of the New Song while you get unlimited sales with the Unlimited license.
-> To learn more about the term “New Song” (or “New Work”), please refer to the question 18 of the FAQ.
- While all the licenses allow you to webcast the New Song on the Internet, the Trackouts license allow you to broadcast it on the radio as well, and the Unlimited license allow you to broadcast it on TV & radio (local and national).
- Different files will be sent to you depending on the licenses:
- Non-Profit: MP3
- Premium: MP3+WAV
- Trackouts: MP3+WAV+Stems
- Unlimited: MP3+WAV+Stems
For more information, please refer to the Lease beats / instrumentals section.
8. What does “Sync” or “Synchronization” mean?
A music synchronization, or “sync” for short, means the combination of music (instrumental/beat/song) with some kind of visual media output such as: video, film, documentary, video game, accompanying website music, commercial advertisement…
Exclusive license & custom music
9. What are the differences between an Exclusive beat and a Custom beat?
Differences:
- Custom beats are not sold under the terms of a license (they are produced on demand) while this is the case with Exclusive beats. With a Custom beat, you become the owner of the instrumental/beat (i.e. the “master” sound recording) while with an Exclusive beat, Beats Avenue remains the owner of it.
- Exclusive beats are royalty-free while Custom beats are not.
Common points:
- You are the unique user of the beat/instrumental, no other user possesses or uses the same beat as yours.
- In your songwriting credits, you always have to mention the name of Beats Avenue producers. For example, “Music produced by Booming Brothers/Beats Avenue”.
10. What is the price for Exclusive beats?
Prices range between $600 and $1500. They are sold on the Exclusive Beats page only:
11. I don’t see the Exclusive option. Where is it?
Exclusive beats are freshly produced beats/instrumentals. They have never been sold or used by anybody. They are sold on the Exclusive Beats page only.
If you don’t see the Exclusive option for the beat you like in the Beat Store, it’s because this beat is only sold in a non-exclusive way.
12. Do you make custom beats / instrumentals?
Yes, we are aware that some of you may need custom music:
- arrangement on your composition
or
- songwriting (composition+arrangement).
So, Beats Avenue producers can work on a tailor-made instrumental/beat for you. For more information, please refer to the Custom Beats section.
Legal / Rights
13. Do I acquire copyright on an instrumental/beat when I buy it?
No, for every instrumental/beat (lease, exclusive and custom*), Beats Avenue (B.A.) and its producers still own copyright to it. Our producers have composed and arranged the music, so if you’re making a song with our music, remember that our producers are part of the songwriters (music part).
Therefore, whenever you use an instrumental/beat from B.A., for a commercial purpose or not (on a CD, mixtape, website etc.), intellectual property laws impose every user to include credits to the authors of it (lyricist, composer, arranger etc.).
For example, for an instrumental/beat produced by Booming Brothers, the credits shall be given as follows:
- “Music produced by Booming Brothers/Beats Avenue.”
or:
- “Music composed and arranged by Booming Brothers/Beats Avenue.”
or
- “Copyright [year] Booming Brothers/Beats Avenue. All rights reserved.”
(*Except for the Pack Arrangement: B.A. and its producers own a part of the music composition or you own 100% of it depending on the case. It’s discussed on a case by case basis depending on the project).
14. Am I allowed to monetize my video on YouTube?
You may monetize your video (including our music) on YouTube with the Unlimited and Exclusive licenses only. You’re not allowed to monetize your video with all of the other licenses (Non-Profit, Premium and Trackouts).
Beside, with the Unlimited license, you are allowed to monetize your video on YouTube but you must do it via YouTube directly, by becoming a YouTube Partner. If you’re willing to do it via digital distribution services such as TuneCore, CDBaby, Routenote etc., they will probably ask you to use their Content ID system which is strictly forbidden. So you won’t be able to monetize your video via their services.
Important: with all of our non-exclusive licenses, you’re NOT allowed to track your song/video, including our music, with the YouTube Content ID system or any other Content ID systems. Remember that we remain the owners of the music.
15. I received a copyright claim on YouTube, why?
Beats Avenue and its producers own the Masters of all the beats/instrumentals licensed to you via our website (including Non-Profit, Premium, Trackouts, Unlimited and Exclusive licenses). In agreement with our producers, Beats Avenue fully controls and administers the rights to the recordings of all the beats/instrumentals listed on the site www.beatsavenue.com.
Because some users are literally stealing and using our music without any authorization on the internet and specifically on YouTube, we have decided to use a Content ID system:
-> This system allows us to track all of our beats/instrumentals on YouTube. This is then easier for us to take down videos of people who didn’t pay any license fees on our site.
-> This system also ensures that all of our honest clients can use their video (embedding our music) without getting any copyright claim from a third party that is not us.
-> Globally, this system allows us to keep on running our business in a clean way and allows us to keep on licensing our music to you in the long run.
So, that being said, whenever you upload a video containing our music and monetize it, please be aware that you will automatically get a copyright claim from our Content ID system (AdRev) stating the following:
“Due to a copyright claim, you are no longer monetizing the following YouTube video. It is still playable on YouTube, but the copyright owner could choose to show ads on it.”
(Claim by: AdRev for Rights Holder)
-> If you’ve purchased an Unlimited or Exclusive license, you are allowed to use our music for YouTube monetization. To know how to remove the copyright claim on your video, please read FAQ 16.
16. I received a copyright claim on YouTube, what should I do?
First of all, please note that this is just a notification; this will not harm your channel, nor take your video down. If you have purchased an Unlimited or Exclusive license, you’re allowed to monetize your video, so don’t worry it will only temporarily stop the monetization of your video.
To monetize it again, you have 2 options. Please note that Option 1 is preferable because it’s faster, and in some cases Option 2 might not work.
Option 1: contact us and send us the following information:
- Your full name
- Your email address that you used for your purchase
- Name of the beat/instrumental used
- Your video link
- Your named license (PDF) – might be required
-> We’ll then whitelist your video and you’ll be allowed to keep on monetizing it.
Option 2: dispute the copyright claim directly on YouTube:
In your Video Manager:
- Click on “Copyright Notices”
- Click on the link next to your video “Matched third party content”
- Click on “file a dispute”
- “I believe this copyright claim is not valid because” -> Select: “I have a license or written permission from the proper rights holder to use this material.” >> Continue
- Tick the box: “I am sure I have a license or written permission” >> Continue
- In the text box, just write the following:
“The instrumental used in the video comes from Beats Avenue website (www.beatsavenue.com) and is royalty-free. The original title of the instrumental is: [Write the Beat/Instrumental Name]. I have purchased a license allowing me to use the music and monetize it on YouTube. Please remove the claim, thank you.”
Then, you’ll have to tick a few boxes and write your last and first name as electronic signature before sending your “dispute”.
A few days later, the copyright claim should be removed and your video will be monetized again.
Important:
Remember to always mention the credits for any video you upload on YouTube (in the description part below your video and if possible in the video itself). Our producers have composed and arranged the music that you use. Please refer to question 13 of the FAQ.
Note:
- If you got a copyright claim on a video and you didn’t purchase an Unlimited or Exclusive license, don’t worry, you can just keep on using your video but with no monetization (in respect to the terms of use of your license).
- Generally, if you are not monetizing your videos, you should not receive such notifications and anyway, it won’t change anything for you.
17. What does “royalty-free” mean?
First of all, only licensed instrumentals/beats (lease and exclusive) are royalty-free, not custom ones.
Purchasing a royalty-free instrumental/beat means that once you have paid the license fee (non-exclusive or exclusive license), you may use the instrumental/beat with no ongoing royalty obligations towards the producer or Beats Avenue. No royalties are due, nothing is due to any copyright collection society, also called Performing Rights Organization (“PRO”), worldwide (BMI, ASCAP, GEMA, SACEM…).
Consequently, if you are a singer/rapper and have recorded vocals over the instrumental/beat and therefore created a song, you are NOT allowed to register that song at any copyright collection society worldwide or PRO.
Please note that royalty-free is not the same as copyright-free. The copyright of the instrumental/beat is still owned by Beats Avenue and its producers. For more info about copyright, please refer to question 13 of the FAQ.
18. What does “New Song” or "New Work" mean?
When you purchase a licensed (non-exclusive or exclusive) instrumental/beat on Beats Avenue, you are not allowed to use it alone, for any profitable purpose or not. You must associate or combine it with something else. For example, a singer would add recorded vocals over it (lyrics). The song created by the singer (instrumental+voices) is called “New Song” or “New Work”.
19. Are there any samples in your instrumentals?
No, all of the instrumentals listed on Beats Avenue are 100% original and 100% sample free.
20. What does "master (sound recording)" mean?
By “master”, “master tape” or “matrix” should be understood as any original media audio, audiovisual or multimedia used for the first fixation of a phonogram, a video or a multimedia program regardless of the technical methods of fixation, analog, digital…
On Beats Avenue, the term “master” simply refers to the full audio file of an instrumental/beat (mp3 ou wav).
21. What am I allowed to do with a Non-Profit/Premium/TrackOuts/Unlimited?
When you buy a non-exclusive beat/instrumental, you actually buy a non-exclusive license of use (Non-Profit, Premium, TrackOuts or Unlimited). Beats Avenue remains the instrumental/beat’s owner and allows you to use it either for: your demos, albums, mixtapes, social network websites, film/videos, shows/public performances (with limitations according to the license purchased) etc.
Example of 1 Premium license purchased by a singer:
After you have recorded your vocals over the instrumental/beat:
- You will be allowed:
- to mix/master one single track with it and sell up to 10,000 royalty-free units/copies/downloads of your music, either via music albums (CD, cassettes…) or mp3 (internet download websites: iTunes…).
N.B: if you would like to distribute your single for free, the limits will be the same. - to make one music video with the song and upload it on YouTube.
- to use your song for profitable concerts/public performances
- to webcast and promote your song and video over the internet only, i.e. on any website, streaming website (any webradio, Deezer, Spotify…), with a limit of 100,000 profitable streams, and social network pages such as Facebook.com, MySpace.com, SoundClick.com, etc.
- to mix/master one single track with it and sell up to 10,000 royalty-free units/copies/downloads of your music, either via music albums (CD, cassettes…) or mp3 (internet download websites: iTunes…).
- You will NOT be allowed:
- to broadcast or use your song on TV (video clip, TV shows…), radio, cinema, video games…
N.B: only the Trackouts license would allow you to broadcast it on the radio as well, and the Unlimited license on TV and radio.
- to broadcast or use your song on TV (video clip, TV shows…), radio, cinema, video games…
Note:
- Other artists will still be able to purchase a license to use this instrumental/beat.
- About sales cap for Premium, Trackouts and Unlimited licenses: if you would like to sell your song by multiple means: in a CD album, in a compilation and on internet download websites, you have to make sure that the overall sales will not exceed the limit number granted by the license purchased. Example for 1 Premium license: CD A (3000 sales) + compilation B (2000 sales) + internet downloads (5000 sales) < max. 10,000 sales.
You must count in the same way for the maximum number of streams granted.
To learn more about it, please visit the Lease beats / instrumentals section.
Leasing agreements legally bind you to Beats Avenue. If you need further information about the conditions of use etc., please contact us.
22. What am I allowed to do with an Exclusive licence?
When you buy an exclusive instrumental/beat, you actually buy an exclusive license of use. You are the very unique user of the instrumental/beat. Nobody uses or will ever use the same instrumental/beat as yours. Beats Avenue remains the owner of it and, under some conditions, you are allowed to use it for: your demos, albums, mixtapes, website (background music…), social network websites, film/videos, shows/public performances…
Example of 1 Exclusive license purchased by a singer:
After you have recorded your vocals over the instrumental/beat:
- You will be allowed:to mix/master a single track with it and sell an unlimited number of royalty-free units/copies/downloads of your music, either via music albums (CD, cassettes…) or mp3 (internet download websites: iTunes…).
- to use your song for unlimited concerts/public performances (profitable or not).
- to shoot a video clip with this song (audiovisual adaptation).
- to promote, perform and broadcast your song on the radio (local and national), on TV and over the internet. For any broadcast of your video clip on TV, it must not exceed 7 minutes in length.
- You will NOT be allowed: To synchronize your song with any:Video/film/documentary that has a duration exceeding 30 minutes and that is aimed to be broadcast on television.
- TV or radio program that is broadcast on a daily, weekly or monthly basis (e.g. news, series or miniseries, television film, reality show, documentary…)
- Cinema film (movie soundtrack), and generally any film or documentary that are intended for Mass Broadcasting, i.e. the presentation of motion pictures in national and international movie theaters.
- Video On Demand (VOD)
- Commercial advertisement on TV or radio
- Video games for computers, consoles, phones (mobile or not) and tablets (e.g. iPad…).
- To do any theatrical, radio, literary or graphic adaptation of the song.
Note:
- Before your purchase of the exclusive instrumental/beat, Beats Avenue has never licensed the instrumental in a non-exclusive (leasing) way.
- After your purchase, Beats Avenue will not be entitled to sell the instrumental/beat anymore.
- To learn more about it, please visit the Exclusive beat section.
- To see the full comparison table of all the licenses, please click here.
Exclusive License agreements legally bind you to Beats Avenue. If you need further information about the conditions of use etc., please contact us.
23. What should I do when my license expires?
When you purchase a Non-Profit, Premium or Trackouts license, there’s an expiration date for the use of our instrumental/beat. You can’t use your song (including our music) for more than 10 years. By the way, there’s no expiration date with the Unlimited and Exclusive license. In order to keep on the using and exploiting your song, you must purchase a new license that will grant you rights for another 10 years.
Please note that every contract mentions the date and time when they have been edited, so these licenses granted are all unique and they may serve as evidence in the event of a dispute.
24. What should I do if my sales or streams exceed the limit granted by my license ?
First of all, this limitation only concern instrumentals/beats sold with the Non-Profit, Premium or Trackouts license. Unlimited, Exclusive and custom beats/instrumentals are not subject to such limitations.
Let’s take the example of a Premium license: When you create your New Song with the instrumental/beat, you must limit yourself to pressing or publishing a maximum of 10,000 CDs containing the instrumental/beat under license. This is a contractual obligation. When it comes to downloads or streams, it is of course more difficult to control. However, you should do your best to withdraw from sale/streaming the digital file (mp3…) before breaching the limit. In case of breach or close to it, you must contact Beats Avenue and you’ll be requested to purchase another license to keep on using and exploiting your song.
Purchase / Order
25. What is the voice (Voicetag) speaking over the instrumental/beat? Will it be removed once I buy it?
The purpose of this Voicetag is to identify tracks produced by Beats Avenue website. This Voicetag repeats over the instrumental/beat as it is playing in order to deter anyone from using it without paying the license fee.
Of course, once you buy it, the instrumental/beat sent will have no Voicetag over it (it is untagged).
26. What is the audio format of the instrumentals purchased?
All the instrumentals/beats purchased on Beats Avenue are in mp3 (320 kbps) or wav format (44 kHz/24bits). Wav format is the best audio quality for recordings or broadcast.
27. How can I buy instrumentals/beats?
- To buy licensed instrumentals/beats (lease or exclusive), please refer to the instructions on the Beat Store page.
- To buy custom beats / instrumentals, please visit the “Custom Beats” section on the website.
28. What does the label "Paypal Verified" mean?
Indeed, Beats Avenue Paypal account is labelled “Verified”. This means that our company has gone through several security controls by Paypal such as: identification of the company, of the individuals owning the company, of the business activity, of the bank account information
Therefore, when you decide to do a purchase on Beats Avenue, your payment is 100% secured and you are sure to be dealing with a serious clearly identified business company.
29. What are the methods of payment? I don’t have a Paypal account, can I still buy?
Yes, you can pay without having a Paypal account.
- For instrumentals/beats under license and mix/mastering services, you can either use a Paypal account or a credit/debit card.
- For custom beats/instrumentals services, you can either use a Paypal account, a credit/debit card or even bank transfer, upon request.
To know more about the methods of payment, please click here.
30. How come I clicked on the "Buy Now" button but nothing happened?
To fix this issue, you should empty the cache or use another web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox…).
31. Do the instrumental/beat I buy get removed from the site?
- Lease beats / instrumentals are not removed as they are non-exclusive, they remain available for other customers in the Beat Store.
- Exclusive instrumentals/beats are automatically removed from the music player when they are purchased or marked as “Sold”. No other user will be able to buy them anymore.
32. Is it possible to get instrumental stems (track-outs)?
Yes, it is possible but only with the Trackouts, Unlimited and Exclusive licenses, and custom music as well.
Please remember that for every instrumental/beat that is licensed to you, we still legally own the Master. Our music, including the stems, is copyrighted. Please respect the rights that are granted to you.
Stems (track-outs) are mostly requested for mixing/mastering purposes. While making an instrumental/beat, one audio track has been assigned to one instrument or sound used. Stems are sub mixes of an instrumental/beat, they gather multiple instruments or sounds in one audio track. For example, there can be only 4 stems in an instrumental: Bass, Beat, Percussion, Other instruments. While mixing a song, stems are useful as they allow for more precise fine tuning.
If you need mix/mastering for your song, please check out our dedicated page.
33. I would like to buy 3 beats or more, will I get a discount?
Yes, Beats Avenue proposes Bulk discount packages depending on how many instrumentals/beats you buy. Please note that the Bulk discounts work only if you buy instrumentals/beats of the same “category”. For example, you will get 1 beat for free if you buy 3 beats with Premium licenses but you won’t get any if you buy 2 beats with a Premium license and another one with a Trackouts license.
“Buy 3 Beats, Get 1 FREE” means you must place 4 beats of the same category in your shopping cart; You’ll pay for 3 beats and the 4th one will be for free.
Please refer to the Beat Store music player for instrumentals/beats under license.
34. Can I pay in an other currency than US Dollars (in the Beat Store)?
By default, the prices displayed in the music player are in US Dollars. However, if your account (Paypal or bank) is in an other currency (e.g. Euros, British Pounds…), when you purchase in US Dollars, you’ll be debited in your currency equivalent
35. I would like to exchange the instrumental I bought or return it, is it possible?
No, this is not possible because of the nature of the products we are offering (digital audio files). The instrumentals/beats in the player are available for listening with no limitation in terms of frequency and time. You have plenty of time to make a choice. Furthermore, once the instrumental/beat has been purchased, the Voicetag is automatically removed, therefore Beats Avenue has no more control over the use of it.
Therefore, there is no returns or refunds on purchases.
However, if for some reason you are not able to download your music from the links sent, we would be happy to help you in any way to make your purchase complete.
36. I didn’t receive my order. What should I do?
- First, please wait a few minutes because even if your order is sent almost instantaneously, sometimes it’ll take more time than usual.
- Second, our system is automated, so your order was sent to the email address you provided on the checkout page only. Please check your mail box and verify that your email address is correct and valid.
- Third, please check your spam folder.
- Fourth, please check your payment because it might be delayed (generally a few days) for reasons related to your account or to Paypal itself. Consequently, your order will only be sent when our account will be credited with your payment.
If after you have checked all the above points you still haven’t received your order, please contact us.
Technical
37. How can I record my vocals?
- Find a professional recording studio in your local area: if you have a certain budget, that would be a good solution to get professional recordings of your vocals. Compare the rates offered, some studios will charge more than others obviously. Some will propose to pay per hour and others will ask for flat fee payments.
- If you are a student, perhaps your school or college has some recording studios. Go check out if there is any possibility for you to record there.
- Otherwise, there is always the do-it-yourself solution. You could invest in some recording equipments, the prices for such equipments are more and more affordable. You just need a computer, a good mic and an AD/DA converter, like the Mbox for instance, to record the audio into your computer. Check out information on the web, it is getting more and more common to do home recording.
Perhaps you already know some friends or family who have this equipment, why not contact them?
38. I have just recorded vocals over my track, I would like to have it mixed and mastered, what should I do?
Beats Avenue can do this for you. For more information, please refer to the “Mixing/Mastering” page.
Other
39. Can you become my executive producer? Can you help me find a label?
Unfortunately no, we are not a label and we’re not offering any management services.
40. I am a music producer and I would like to sell my beats on your site, is it possible?
For now, this is not possible but if you think you are a talented producer, feel free to send us a message with links to your work and we will keep you in record for the future.
41. I have read all the FAQ but I don’t find the answer to my question, what should I do?
Please go to the Contact section and message us, we will be happy to reply to you.
