To price your beats in 2026, start with a three or four tier ladder: an MP3 lease around $25 to $35, a WAV lease around $50, a trackout lease around $100 to $150, and exclusives on offer or from $250 up. That ladder matches what BeatStars itself shows as a working example ($50 leases, $150 trackouts, $250 unlimited, exclusives on offer). The real lever is not the number on the cheapest tier, it is the gap between tiers and the stream caps that push serious artists to upgrade.
This guide gives you a realistic price grid, explains what each license should actually include, and shows how platform fees change what you take home.
What’s in this guide
- A realistic beat price grid for 2026
- What each license tier should include
- How to price exclusive rights
- How platform fees change your real price
- Bundles, discounts, and free downloads
- When to raise your prices
- FAQ
What is a realistic beat price grid in 2026?
A realistic beat price grid for a type beat producer in 2026 has an entry lease under $40, a mid tier around $50, a stems tier at roughly three times the mid tier, and an exclusive that either starts at a few hundred dollars or opens on offer. The numbers below are starting points, not rules. Adjust them to your genre, your catalog size, and how much traffic you already have.
| License tier | Files delivered | Starting price (new producer) | Starting price (steady sales) | Who buys it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MP3 lease | Tagged or untagged MP3 | $20 to $30 | $30 to $40 | Artists testing a song, SoundCloud drops |
| WAV lease | MP3 + WAV | $40 to $50 | $50 to $75 | Artists releasing on streaming platforms |
| Trackout lease | MP3 + WAV + stems | $80 to $120 | $150 to $200 | Artists working with a mix engineer |
| Unlimited lease | MP3 + WAV + stems, no caps | $150 to $200 | $250 to $300 | Artists pushing a single with a budget |
| Exclusive | All files, beat removed from sale | Offer, or $250 and up | Offer, or $500 and up | Artists who want to own the master |
Two reference points anchor this grid. First, the BeatStars Academy pricing guide (September 2024) uses $50 for MP3 and WAV leases, $150 for WAV trackouts, $250 for an unlimited lease, and “Offer Only” for exclusives as its tiered example. Second, Pitchfork’s 2018 feature on type beat sellers reported that producer CashMoneyAp started leases at $20, raised them to $30, and priced MP3 at $50, WAV at $60, and stems at $150 for his packages. Those numbers are years apart and still in the same range, which tells you buyer expectations have been stable.
Why not just go cheaper to get more sales?
Pricing your MP3 lease at $5 to $10 can work as a deliberate discount strategy, and BeatStars cites a producer selling MP3 leases “as low as $7.” The risk is that a very cheap entry tier also drags down how artists perceive your top tiers. If your MP3 is $5, a $150 trackout looks like a 30x jump instead of a logical upgrade. Keep the entry tier low enough to remove friction and the ratios between tiers consistent.
What should each license tier include?
Each license tier should differ on three things: the files delivered, the usage caps, and the rights granted. Price alone does not sell an upgrade. A clear jump in what the artist gets does.
- Files. MP3 at the bottom, WAV in the middle, stems (trackouts) at the top. Stems are the strongest upgrade driver because any artist working with an engineer needs them.
- Stream and sales caps. Lower tiers carry a cap on streams, sales, and music video use. When an artist’s song takes off, they have to buy a higher license. This is how a $30 lease turns into a $250 sale six months later.
- Rights. According to BeatStars’ guide to music licenses, under a non-exclusive license the producer keeps master ownership and composition rights and can resell the same beat without limit. Under an exclusive, master ownership moves to the buyer, only one buyer is allowed, and the producer still keeps rights in the underlying composition.
One practical rule: write the caps so the cheapest tier fits an artist releasing their first songs and the middle tier fits an artist with a small but real fanbase. If your caps are so generous that nobody ever outgrows the MP3 lease, you lose your upgrade revenue.
Check your sounds before you sell anything
Your license is only as clean as the sounds inside the beat. Every drum, loop, and preset in a beat you sell should come from a royalty-free source, and any uncleared sample makes an exclusive almost impossible to sell to a serious artist. If you are unsure about a pack, read our guide on finding royalty-free sound banks you can trust before you set a price on anything built with it.
How should you price exclusive rights?
Exclusive rights should cost meaningfully more than your unlimited lease, because the artist is buying the master and you are taking the beat off the market for good. For a newer producer, opening exclusives on offer or setting a floor in the low hundreds is common. Producers with consistent sales or placements charge several times more.
Use three questions to set an exclusive price for a specific beat:
- How many leases has it already sold? A beat that has sold 15 leases is a proven earner. Selling it exclusively ends that income, so the exclusive should cover what you expect it to keep making.
- Is it sitting on a video with real views? In the Pitchfork feature, CashMoneyAp described exclusives as offers he accepts or rejects depending on how popular the beat is on YouTube. A beat with traction is worth more.
- Who is asking? An artist with a label budget and an artist paying out of pocket are different conversations. “Offer Only” lets you read the room instead of guessing.
Remember that earlier non-exclusive licensees keep their rights after an exclusive sale, as BeatStars’ license guide notes. Tell exclusive buyers this upfront. It is a common source of disputes when it comes up after the money changes hands.
How do platform fees change your real price?
Platform fees decide how much of a $30 lease actually reaches you, so price with your platform in mind. On BeatStars, the help center states that a 12% service fee is added to Marketplace purchases, applied to the buyer by default, and the seller can choose to absorb all or part of it. The fee does not apply to sales through a Pro Page, which requires the Professional plan at $19.99 a month.
Airbit takes a different approach. Its official announcement says it removed seller commissions (previously up to 40%) and now charges 0% on all accounts, including free ones, with only PayPal or Stripe transaction fees deducted.
| Scenario | Listed price | Artist pays | You receive (before payment processor fees) |
|---|---|---|---|
| BeatStars Marketplace, buyer pays fee | $30 | $33.60 | $30 |
| BeatStars Marketplace, you absorb fee | $30 | $30 | $26.40 |
| BeatStars Pro Page (Professional plan) | $30 | $30 | $30, minus $19.99/month subscription |
| Airbit (any plan) | $30 | $30 | $30 |
If you sell mostly through the BeatStars Marketplace and pass the fee to buyers, a $30 sticker becomes $33.60 at checkout. Some producers price at $27 or $28 so the checkout total lands near $30. For a full breakdown of the two platforms, see our BeatStars vs Airbit comparison.
Should you use bundles, discounts, and free downloads?
Bundles and discounts raise your average order value without lowering your listed prices, which is why they are worth using. The BeatStars pricing guide lists three tactics: tiered bulk deals such as “Buy 2, Get 1 Free,” time-limited discounts to create urgency, and free downloads exchanged for an email address or a social follow.
- Buy 2, Get 1 Free works best on MP3 and WAV leases. An artist building a mixtape needs several beats anyway.
- Short sales (a weekend, a holiday) work if they are rare. Constant 50% off trains your buyers to wait.
- Free downloads for an email build a list you own. When you drop a new pack of beats, that list is your fastest path to sales without paying for ads.
BeatStars also makes a point worth taking seriously if your buyers are international: “a $10 difference between pricing a track at $30 versus $40 might seem small in the US,” but in other regions it can decide whether you make the sale. If your YouTube analytics show a big audience outside the US, keep your entry tier lean.
When should you raise your beat prices?
Raise your beat prices when demand clearly outpaces your output: steady weekly sales, artists asking for exclusives on older beats, or videos that keep pulling views months after upload. Do not raise prices because another producer charges more. Their traffic is not your traffic.
A simple method: raise one tier at a time, by a small step, and watch sales for four to six weeks. If volume holds, keep it. If it drops sharply, roll back. CashMoneyAp’s move from $20 to $30 leases, as reported by Pitchfork, happened after he had already built a large volume of sales, not before.
The other way to justify higher prices is the beat itself. Artists pay more for beats that do not sound like the twenty other type beats on the same search page. That is a production question, and we cover it in how to make beats that actually stand out and our roundup of the best VST plugins for type beats.
FAQ
How much should I charge for my first beat?
For a first beat with no sales history, an MP3 lease between $20 and $30 is a reasonable start, with a WAV lease around $40 to $50. Set exclusives to “Offer Only” until you have a sense of demand. You can always raise prices later. Lowering them after artists have paid more is harder.
Should I give beats away for free?
Free beats for non-commercial use can work as a lead magnet. BeatStars offers a free license template that allows strictly non-commercial use while the producer keeps master and composition ownership. Pair free downloads with an email or follow requirement so each one builds your audience.
Can I sell an exclusive after leasing the beat?
Yes. Selling an exclusive after leases is standard, but the earlier lease holders keep their rights under their license terms. Disclose this to the exclusive buyer before the sale, and price the exclusive to reflect the lease income you give up.
Should every beat have the same price?
Most producers keep the same lease prices across the catalog so buyers do not have to think, then vary exclusive prices beat by beat. A beat with strong views or many lease sales can carry a higher exclusive price than a fresh upload.
The short version
Start with a clear ladder (around $30 MP3, $50 WAV, $100 to $150 stems, exclusives on offer), give each tier a real reason to upgrade, and price with your platform’s fees in mind. Raise prices slowly and only when sales prove the demand.
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