Beat Store FAQ

All purchased beats are untagged, meaning, they don’t have any voice tags.

The beat store is laid out like popular video streaming platforms where you have a headings and scrollable beats below each heading.

It’s pretty easy to use. Just click on a beat to play it, click purchase, select a lease and add it to the cart.

Continue shopping and checkout once you have found all the beats you want to purchase.

Yes. One of the main advantages of our beat store is that all of our beats are all pre-mixed by engineer Tom Watson at the Current Sound recording studio.

Data pulled from: lease/license type comparison page

Leasing a beat means, you don’t completely own the instrumental outright. We license it to you but you must add your own vocals and create a song with it.

You may release your song as long as you meet the terms specified in the license agreement you select.

Checkout the new Viral License. You get up to 10 million streams which, if you’re unsigned, should give you around $60,000-$84,000 worth of streaming revenue for yourself plus you get a very generous amount of allowed sales and performances. If you exceed that or you get signed to a label, then we can talk.

Unless you’re signed to a label, it’s rarely true you will need the exclusive rights for the beats on my beat store. I will tell you why…

The best beats in your genre will be gone.

The problem with most beat stores is that artists with small fanbases come in a buy up the exclusive rights to the best beats in their genre… then no one ever hears their music. 

This sucks because I put my heart and soul and a huge amount of time and care into every beat that I make and I want the world to hear them as they are all potential hits. 

Viral song… but then the beat is gone!

Working as an engineer and producer for 20 years has taught me that it is extremely common for a rapper to lease a beat, then their song goes viral and turns into a hit.

In this scenario we have a rapper, let’s call him “rapper 1” coming to the site leasing a beat.

That would be good except… it just as common for an another unsigned rapper, let’s call him “rapper 2”, to purchase the exclusive rights to the same beat after rapper 1 but before rapper 1’s song goes viral.

In this scenario, rapper 1 has a hit but rapper 2 has the rights to the instrumental/beat.

This sucks for rapper 1. Maybe he was more talented but couldn’t afford the exclusive rights at the time. Now rapper 1 has a label wanting to sign him and his song except… he can’t get get the rights to be beat and is fucked. This might even prevent him/her from being signed.

I don’t want that to happen

I don’t want to miss out on a hit and neither do my clients. I create music because I love it and I want the world to enjoy it.

This scenario might seem far fetched but believe me, it happens all the time.

You know, Old Town Road was a leased beat. Can you imagine if someone else bought the exclusive rights to it after Lil Nas X leased it? The label never would have promoted it and it never would have been a hit.

We are all here to make hits

Every beat on this site has the potential to be hit. These are not the normal sort of beats you find online. I have curated the best beats I have made after producing full-time for 20 years and put them up for lease.

We are all here to make hits and I am here to help you. The reason the beats are still here is that I am only letting them go for exclusives when a major label agrees to back/promote a song that uses the beat.

So that means, you don’t need the excusive rights yet – because no one can buy it from underneath you unless they are backed by a major label. This minimizes your risk.

This also means, for the same price as one exclusive, you can afford to lease many beats from the site thereby increasing the possibility of us making a hit.

So that’s what I mean when I say, if you’re unsigned, you don’t need the exclusive rights yet. If the song goes viral and you have a major label interested in it and you, have them contact me and we’ll sort it out.

By leasing beats from Current Sound, you are joining our family and we plan to take the music industry by storm!

Consider and Custom Beat and/or Recording Session with me

If you’re unsigned and really want an exclusive you might want to consider hiring myself, Tom Watson, though my Current Sound recording studio in Los Angeles to make a custom beat for you from scratch in person as custom beats, unlike the beat store, can be sold on the day as exclusives. Not only can I make a beat for you but I can also record, produce mix and master the entire song from scratch and you can leave the studio with a finished song. I also offer all of these same services online minus the recording part, streamed live from the studio.

You can even record the vocal first and have a beat created around your vocal

I can also create a custom beat from scratch around any vocal, whether it is a rap or a sung vocal/melody because I can play by ear and I play all my melodies on the piano and drums on Maschine or MPC from scratch. That means you can rap or sing over any beat, send me the A Cappella/vocal track or record over it in my studio and I can create a new custom beat from scratch to fit it without you having to alter your vocal. This is a good option if you’ve written over a 3rd party beat that you don’t like or one that becomes unavailable, like in the scenario above.

If you have a major label release and require the exclusive rights….

Please contact me.

For all other inquiries, please fill out a support ticket but keep in mind that exclusive rights is reserved for major label artists at this time.

Yes I do this for artists all the time. Book a session with me at the Current Sound recording studio in Los Angeles either in person or streamed online and I will make it for you.

Rates

Independent artists can simply pay the day or hourly rates in the studio while your custom beat is being created.

Services

I also record, mix and master artists so if you book a session at Current Sound, not only can I create a custom beat for you in the studio but we can create a full finished song from scratch in person.

Exclusives

Unlike the beats on the beat store, custom beats can be sold to you as exclusives but are more expensive than leasing a beat.

If you did not purchase the most expensive lease, please purchase a new lease from the site that allows for a higher amount of plays/streams and downloads.

You will be charged for a new lease. We don’t refund previous purchases so it is a good idea to purchase a lease with a high number of streams initially if you think you might exceed the number of allowable streams as it will save you some money later down the road.

If you exceed the number of streams and downloads on our most expensive lease – we are happy for you, you are doing much better than most unsigned artists. Please contact us with proof and we will sort out a custom lease for you.

The YouTube Content ID system is flawed. The algorithm can’t tell the difference between two different songs when they both have the same instrumental/beat. So you are unable to use Content ID for a leased beat. 

I know, it sucks. This is something they should really fix.

This means when releasing a song with a leased beat through Distrokid, Tunecore, CDbaby or any other digital distribution service, you can’t enable Content ID. Please disable Content ID when distributing your song through one of these distributors.

This is the same for all beat licensing websites including Beatstarts, Airtbit and TrackTrain because it is an issue with YouTube’s algorithm. None of these sites allow you to use Content ID on leased beats, simply for the reason that it creates mis-identification of songs and causes problems for artists. So this is an industry wide problem.

To protect those that lease my beats from bogus takedown notices from other artists abusing the YouTube Content ID system, I’ve already assigned YouTube Content ID to all the beats on this site, so you are protected.

This appears to be the best way around this issue at this point in time.

Yes. I have tried making this optional in the past but literally no rappers credited me for 20 years so it is now compulsory.

I am sorry if this upsets you but I am forced to do it.

Doing this will ensure the beat store stays open and will also help stop other beatmakers from stealing my shit.

I can no longer make any exceptions to this rule.

All licensing agreements on the beat store states you must write “Beat by Current Sound” in the track title of your song.

Using “Prod. By” Current Sound or DJ Tom Watson in the track title is strictly reserved for select clients that I produce for in person at Current Sound in Los Angeles and you need a “rights to use name” clause in a contract with me to use the term “Prod. By”.

All beats purchased/leased on the beat store must use the term “Beat by Current Sound” in the track title instead. 

This is because I offer full music production and reocrding services where I direct the artists’ performance, record, mix and master in addition to creating the beat. Music production is way more than just creating a beat and just because other beatmakers want to devalue the term Music Producer and use the name incorrectly does not mean I can as it devalues the songs that I actually produce.

Imagine if DJ Khalid, DJ Mustard, Timerland, Dr Dre all started leasing beats and letting everyone use “Prod. By” their name when they didn’t actually produce the song, they just made the beat. That would drastically reduce their brand image as it would make it look like anyone could be produced by them and it would also devalue their skillset if poorly mixed and produced songs made it onto the market with their names attached to them.  It is the same for me since I can actually produce, mix and I don’t just make beats. 

The reason many beat-makers want you to use “Prod. By” is because they can’t mix, they don’t have a recording studio studio, they are not producing and directing artists in their studio and they don’t even understand the traditional role and definition of the word music producer.

I have written two high ranking articles on Google about this topic. The Word “Music Producer” has Lost All Meaning and The Difference Between a Beat-maker and a Music Producer.

So to get the “Prod. By” tag, you need both to have me oversee the entire song creation process from start to finish and then you also need my permission.

All songs made from beats purchase on the beat store must write “Beat by Current Sound” in the track title unless you have written consent from myself stating otherwise.

Since the digital products/beats on this site are digital and are delivered and licensed instantly, they’re not like physical products that can be returned. Payments are considered final. Refunds are only given for obvious mistakes or fraud. For example, ordering the same beat twice by mistake or ordering the wrong beat by mistake.

If you have an issue with an order, please open a support ticket on your account page within 48 hours after placing the order.

If you suspect someone has used your credit card on this site without your permission, please call +1 310 598-0020 and we will investigate the matter.

If you login to your account, you will be able to re-download them. 

The download links sent to your email address expire. They’re not meant for sharing to recording studios/engineers and others.

Going into a recording studio?

I would highly suggest downloading them to your own device first and then bringing them on a USB drive/stick to the recording studio. You don’t want to waste studio time downloading files anyway. But you might be reading this from the studio right now lol. Don’t freak out. Just login to your account and you can re-download them.

Emailing files

Track-outs are large and you might not have space to download them on a phone. Use a laptop or desktop if possible. If you booked a recording studio and you’re sitting there right now wondering what to do, go up to the studio computer, login into your account and download them direct onto the studio computer. Most studios are on the internet these days.

Pro Tip: if you don’t have a USB port

If you don’t have a USB port to transfer the files to the studio, blame Apple lol. Grab the studio’s/engineer’s email address and you can use WeTransfer.com to transfer/email wav files and track-outs from your device quickly without making an account.

Yes. Log into your account page, select “Manage Licenses” and you’ll see a way to upgrade your license at a discounted rate. You’ll get instant access to the files to your upgraded license and your new allowed streams amount will apply to your existing whitelisted song URLs. 

Once you’ve made a song with one of my beats, please Whitelist the YouTube, Soundcloud and Spotify link(s) under “License Management” in your account page.

That way, I’ll make sure you don’t get hit with any copyright takedown notices as long as you have a valid lease.

This is especially important for YouTube and Soundcloud since they use Content ID but it is also recommended for Spotify.