Exclusive Licensing
Is Your License Still Good If Someone Else Buys the Exclusive?
By the Starchild Music team · October 28, 2026 · 5 min read
The short answer
Yes, your license is still good. Starchild licenses are perpetual and an exclusive covers new licenses only, so you can keep releasing the song, performing it live and using your recording in your own music video and lyric video. What changes is that nobody can add a new license to the song, you included, until the exclusive's term ends.
You licensed a song, maybe months ago. Today you open its page and see a notice that it is under exclusive license. Another artist has bought a window in which nobody else can license it.
If your version is out, or about to be, the first question is a fair one: is my license still good? Here is how it works, and what to do about it.
The short answer: your license stands
Starchild licenses are perpetual, and an exclusive only governs new licenses from the day it begins. Earlier non-exclusive licensees keep their rights. The exclusive does not reach back and cancel what was already sold.
Dates decide who counts as earlier. Your license began the day you bought it, and the exclusive began the moment the other artist's purchase completed. Keep proof of your date, as the paperwork section below explains.
What you can keep doing
Your license covers the same uses it covered before. None of them depend on the song staying on the marketplace, and someone else's exclusive does not switch any of them off.
- Releasing your recording on streaming platforms and stores.
- Performing the song live.
- Using your recording in your own music video and lyric video.
What changes while the exclusive runs
While a song is under an active exclusive, nobody else can license it until the term ends. That includes you. You keep the license you have, but you can't add a new one to the song for now. If you had planned to buy anything else for it, that waits.
Visitors to the song's page see that it is under exclusive license, and they can join a waitlist. You can join too. The waitlist emails you when the song is available again. It notifies and does not reserve, and Starchild does not share how many people are waiting.
You may also see a second version. The exclusive holder can release their recording while yours is out, and both can sit side by side in search results. Having two licensed versions of one song is normal. Each artist's voice, arrangement and story make the record their own.
What the holder gets, and what they do not
Artists buy exclusives to protect a window around something they are investing in, such as a single they plan to promote. It is a short, fixed arrangement, not a takeover of the song. Our guide to when an exclusive is worth it explains the thinking.
For the term, which is 3, 6 or 12 months, nobody else can license the song. The holder can renew before the term ends, and renewing extends the term from the current end date. So a song can stay off the market for longer than its first term, and you will not know in advance.
That is how the word works in law. The Copyright Alliance explains that an exclusive license is one in which "ownership in one or more of the copyright owner's rights is transferred by the copyright owner to a third party," while with a nonexclusive license the owner "retains the right to license the same right to others." For the term, the owner cannot hand the same right to anyone else.
What the holder does not get is a way to cancel a license that was already sold. The exclusive is a promise about the future, not an edit of the past. Our guide to what an exclusive can and can't promise looks at the same rule from the exclusive buyer's side.
The law protects earlier licensees too
The statute itself separates the two kinds of license. Its definitions list an exclusive license as a "transfer of copyright ownership" and say the term does not include "a nonexclusive license." Section 205(e) then protects the earlier kind. It says a nonexclusive license "prevails over a conflicting transfer of copyright ownership" when it is "evidenced by a written instrument signed by the owner of the rights licensed" and "was taken before execution of the transfer." The section also covers one other case.
Whether your own paperwork meets that test is a question for a lawyer, so check with a professional if it ever matters. The point here is the design. The law gives earlier non-exclusive licensees a protected position, and Starchild's rule matches it. Our explainer on what 'perpetual' and 'non-exclusive' mean goes further.
A short example
Lena licenses a song in March and releases her version in May. In October, Omar buys a 6-month exclusive on the same song. Lena's release stays up, and she can keep performing it. Omar's version may come out too, and both can appear in the same search results.
If Lena wants to buy anything more for the song in November, she waits until Omar's term ends, which could be later than April if he renews. These are made-up names, but the order of events is the rule.
Keep your paperwork in order
A few minutes now saves arguments later.
- Save your license certificate with your release files. It names the writers, and anyone can check it at /verify.
- Keep the purchase receipt too, so you can show the date you licensed.
- Check the writer credits on your release pages and video descriptions against the certificate.
If someone asks you to take your release down
A request does not change your license. Reply politely, send the certificate and the verify link, and keep a copy of the exchange. If it turns into a claim on a platform, use that platform's own dispute process, and check with a music attorney if it goes further.
If you wanted the exclusive yourself
If you hoped to lock the song down, you are waiting, not out. Join the waitlist, and remember that the holder can renew, so the end date is not a promise that the song comes back.
Plan your release around the license you already hold. If your plan needs an exclusive, look for another song with the same feel. Our guide to what to do when the song you want is exclusively licensed shows how.
When the term ends
If the holder does not renew, the song returns to the marketplace and waitlisted buyers are emailed. Your license has been the same the whole time. After that day, anyone can license the song again.
Sources
Find a song to license
Every song on Starchild can be heard in different styles and in your key before you license it.