How to License Hip Hop Beats for Productions

From gritty dramas to comedies, sports newscasts to love stories, hip-hop background music for productions can be the perfect sonic accompaniment to your project. Whether you’re working on your own self-produced podcast or part of the team that’s making a movie for a prominent Hollywood studio, if you’re feeling hip-hop vibes, no other type of music will do. Just like with any other genre, you’ll need to legally license the hip-hop tracks you plan on using in your project-- but how exactly do you do that? Read on as the experts at Universal Production Music explain how to license hip-hop beats for productions.

Browse a Large Hip Hop Music Collection

First thing’s first, you’ve got to find your tracks. Companies like UPM have large hip-hop production music libraries with an incredibly diverse collection of songs. From old school 808-inspired beats that will remind the viewer of rap’s golden age to trap, hardcore, and futuristic electronic beats, there are many choices. Thankfully, most production music companies will have their collection curated by style and theme, which will hopefully help you narrow down your choices.

Select a Sick Beat

Settling on the right track isn’t as easy as simply finding a jam you like. You have to take into consideration why you’re using it. For example, do you need a strong intro theme or a mellow sound-bed to play under dialogue? Maybe you need cut music to smooth the transition between segments or scenes, or perhaps you need something super repetitive to crank in the background while your characters get down at the club. Hip hop production music from UPM is designed to be easily editable with clear cut points. Select tracks are also downloadable as stem tracks which allows you to make your own mix. Love the beat, but don’t need the rest? Download the stems and cut the vocals and other instruments out of the mix.

Choose the Music Licensing Plan that Works for You

Ok, so now you’ve got the beats you want, how do you legally license them? This is another instance where it pays to work with a production music company like UPM. Since production music companies own all the rights to the tracks in their collection, you can license them without negotiating with composers, record companies, and publishing companies. This makes production music licensing much easier, especially if you’re an indie content creator.

Universal Production Music offers a wide variety of music licensing options, including blanket licenses that allow for unlimited play over a term of time and needle-drop pay per use licenses. Do you have unique licensing needs? We can help craft a custom agreement that fits your needs and budget perfectly. Reach out to our team today.