How to Renew an Exclusive Song License

If a song is carrying your single, your set, or your pitch, its renewal date is a business date — the same way a domain name or a trademark window is. The mechanics take two minutes; the discipline is the part that saves careers. Both are below.

The mechanics: two minutes, from your library

Your active exclusive licenses live in your account library with their end dates visible. Renewing is a checkout like any other — choose the new term (3, 6, or 12 months, from $60) and the extension applies from your current end date. There's no gap, no re-application, no risk of someone sniping the song between terms as long as you renew before expiry.

The one rule that matters: before, not after

Because renewal extends from your current expiry, renewing early is free — thirty days early or one day early, same coverage. Renewing late is not: at expiry the song returns to the marketplace automatically and everyone on its waitlist is notified. For a song with an audience, that can mean hours between your lapse and someone else's license. The asymmetry is the whole lesson: early costs nothing, late risks everything.

Reminders do the remembering

Starchild emails you as your end date approaches — a heads-up a week out and a final notice the day before, often carrying a renewal discount for acting before expiry. Treat the first reminder as the decision point, not the warning shot: read it, decide renew-or-release right then, and the deadline never gets close enough to bite. And after any renewal, the reminder cycle re-arms for your new end date automatically.

Choosing the renewal term

• 3 months — the single is peaking now and you're deciding quarter by quarter
• 6 months — an album cycle, a tour leg, a sustained campaign around the song
• 12 months — the song is part of your identity now; longest runway, best rate per month, fewest renewal decisions
• Not renewing — legitimate when the moment has passed: your recording stays yours forever either way