Licensing

Every beat sold through Asterisk Archive is licensed, not sold. When you buy a lease you receive a non-exclusive licence to use the beat in your own music under the terms of the tier you choose. Ownership and copyright of the beat stay with the producer who made it. Nothing sold through Asterisk Archive is royalty-free, including sound kits.

The full licence agreement delivered with your files is the binding document. This page is a plain-English summary of it.

MP3 Preview (Free) — High-quality MP3. Non-profit use only. Producer credit required. Capped at 1,000 streams.

MP3 Lease — High-quality MP3. Release on all streaming services. Capped at 10,000 streams and 1,000 copies. Non-profit live performances only.

Premium Lease — WAV (or high-quality MP3 where no WAV exists). Release on all streaming services. Capped at 50,000 streams and 2,500 copies. For-profit live performances allowed.

Unlimited Lease — High-quality MP3. Release on all streaming services. Unlimited streams and copies. For-profit live performances allowed.

The Premium Lease is delivered as a WAV file whenever one exists for that beat. If a beat has no WAV, the tier is listed as the Premium MP3 Lease and delivered as a high-quality MP3 with identical terms.

Every licence, including the free preview, requires credit to the individual producer who made the beat (for example "Prod. by Jiorno"), not to the collective. Use the producer name shown on the beat's listing in the song title or description wherever the song is released.

Limits are counted per song across all platforms combined. Once your song passes the limit for your tier, upgrade to a higher tier before it goes further. Contact us and we will credit what you have already paid toward the upgrade.

You may not resell, share, sublicense or transfer the beat or your licence to anyone else.

You may not claim ownership of the beat or register the beat itself, on its own, with any copyright, publishing or content identification service.

You may not use the beat in more than one song per licence.

Leases are non-exclusive. The same beat may be licensed to other artists until it is sold exclusively. If a beat is later sold exclusively, any lease you already hold stays valid under its original terms.

The producer keeps their writer's share of any song made with their beat. Register your song with APRA AMCOS or your local performing rights organisation and list the producer as a co-writer.

These terms are governed by the laws of Western Australia, Australia.

For upgrades, exclusive enquiries or anything not covered here, contact us before you release.

Contact Asterisk Archive — hello@asteriskarchive.cc