Leasing beats has been around for quite awhile.  I actually remember when I first got into the beat selling industry almost 20 years ago, that people were leasing them back then, and it still holds true today.  In fact, it seems that it's even more dominant now than it was 2 decades ago, as more producers are on the market selling beats, and more options are being provided to artists in terms of leases.  So why is leasing beats a better way to go?  Why should anyone really worry about leasing to begin with, why not just use them for free?  I mean, what's wrong with that option anyway?

For one, using beats for free isn't a problem, as long as you have permission from the producer or beatmaker to use them for free.  However, if you planned on using free beats without consent of the producer who created it, you can be setting yourself up for a world of legal issues and troubles.  So rather than to potentially deal with going to court and paying fines and fees for the sake of hoping to blow up with free beats, you're better off leasing the beat so that you obtain permission from the producer. 

The other benefit of leasing beats is that you have more flexibility on what you can do with regards to the project that you're working on.  For instance, most free beats have strict limitations on how many streams your music can incur, as well as having limitations on how many tracks or albums you can sell that include the beat you are using.  When you lease beats however, depending on the options that you are presented with from that producer, you have more room to gain more streams, sell more tracks, and with some leases, you can even perform live to the beat or have your music streamed on major radio stations, whereas with free beats, that is almost never the case at all.

Another benefit of leasing beats versus downloading free beats, is that when it comes to free beats, everyone is rushing to the door (figuratively) to get those beats because they're FREE.  And chances are, you'll have a bunch of people recording tracks to the same free beats they found.  However, with leasing beats, it keeps those that are not willing to pay for beats at bay, so you have a bit more of a chance with a beat not flooding the internet everywhere, and you hearing a track to a free beat you're using also recorded by 500 other artists on the same beat.  Of course, if you REALLY want to narrow down the likeliness of other artists having the same beat, you would really want to consider Custom Exclusive beats at that point.  Still, leases reduce the amount of having the same beat flooding the internet everywhere the way free beats potentially do.

And yet another benefit of leasing beats, especially when it comes to whether to lease beats or pay for exclusive beats, is that leases are usually much less in price than exclusives are.  And with leases, you could test the waters in recording a track to a beat, seeing how it sounds to you, and if you really like it enough, you could then contact the producer to inquire about securing it as an Exclusive instead.  However, with leases, you can consider it as a starter investment on your music, or if you just don't quite want to (or are ready to) spend so much yet, leasing beats makes for a great option considering the price is less than exclusive beats.  I don't know about you, but if I were starting off to test the waters to see how my music goes, I'm going to kick myself in the rear a bit less with a lease vs paying hundreds for an exclusive beat only to come to the conclusion that I either invested too much in my work without any gain whatsoever from it, or that I just flat out hate the track I created now and wish I had decided to lease beats instead.

I don't say all of this to knock Exclusive Beats, as there are definitely benefits to Exclusive Beats as well, and I'll cover that in another post.  But for the artist who is just getting their feet wet, or who may not quite be sure just how much they want to invest into their work, leasing beats works great.  And if things start to pick up more and more, then you can decide at that point whether to lease beats further, or if it's time to take a plunge into exclusive beats or custom exclusive beats.  You may just find yourself still leasing beats until you really know that there is a beat that you hear that you absolutely must have as exclusive, or that you want a custom exclusive beat that no one else will have but you.