Soundraw and Beatoven license background music, not a master

Both services licence generated tracks for use inside your own project, with distribution and ownership handled differently.

Site publication

September 18, 2026

What happened

Soundraw and Beatoven both generate background music from prompts or style selections and licence the result for use in a maker's own video, game or podcast. Soundraw's licence page, dated 11 September 2026 as retrieved, and Beatoven's terms of service, last updated 5 June 2024, both describe permitted and prohibited uses in specific terms rather than a general 'commercial use allowed' statement.

What the documents say

Soundraw's licence permits 'personal and commercial use in all of your projects (YouTube, UGC, product videos, tutorials, live streams, social media, video games, up to 1 physical store, client work, hold music, radio, TV)', but treats streaming release differently: distribution to 'DSPs such as Spotify' is allowed 'only if you modify the beats first', with the 'final, modified song' needing to 'sound clearly different' from the original, a right limited to Artist plans. Soundraw's own homepage, by contrast, answers a general usage question by saying a beat 'comes with a worldwide, perpetual license' to 'post your track on YouTube, Spotify, TikTok, or anywhere else and keep 100% of the royalties', without repeating the modification requirement. Beatoven's terms take a different structure: 'Beatoven shall own and be the copyright owner of Your AI Music', granting only a 'non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license' to use it 'in synchronization with your video, storybook, game, podcast or other audio-visual content'; the same terms add that 'it has not yet been established whether, or to what extent, copyright applies to music generated by artificial intelligence.'

Why it matters for makers

The mechanism in both cases is a synchronisation-style licence bound to a specific use, not a transferable master, and Soundraw's own pages show why a marketing headline cannot stand alone: a general answer promises use 'anywhere', while the more specific answer on Spotify distribution requires substantial modification and the higher plan. Beatoven's edge differs again: its terms exclude standalone sale or distribution entirely and confine the licence to synchronising with a maker's own content. A generated track behind a YouTube video is a different licence event from the same track released as a single, even with an identical file.

What to check before you use it

Before uploading a track to a monetised video platform, check your plan permits it and that you are not barred from filing your own content-ID claim, as Soundraw specifies. Before releasing any version to a streaming service, confirm it has been substantially modified and your plan permits distribution. Before treating a track as unambiguously copyrighted, note Beatoven's terms flag that AI-music copyright status is unsettled. This reads the published terms; it is not legal advice.

• Does your plan's licence cover the specific platform you intend to publish this track on?
• If distributing to a streaming service, has the track been modified enough to satisfy the licence's requirement?
• Are you relying on registering the track for royalties in a way the terms actually prohibit?

Reading 'commercial use' against the specific list of permitted platforms and required modifications in each document, rather than the marketing headline, is what actually tells a maker whether a given release is covered.

Sources & reading trail

States which plan permits DSP distribution, the required modification, and prohibited uses such as content-ID registration.

Source published: Not established · Retrieved: 16 September 2026

Homepage marketing language describing a broad usage licence, contrasted against the licence page's plan-gated distribution rule.

Source published: Not established · Retrieved: 16 September 2026

States Beatoven retains copyright, licenses use only in synchronisation with a maker's own content, and flags unsettled AI copyright status.

Source published: Not established · Retrieved: 16 September 2026

Papers, terms and official documents establish the record; the maker reading and the checks are Signal to Song editorial analysis. This retrospective draft does not imply the site published on the event date.

Continue reading

• Suno assigns song ownership only on its paid tiers
• A performance licence from ASCAP or BMI does not cover picture
• Epidemic Sound owns its catalogue instead of collecting royalties
• Browse the complete the archive

Published September 18, 2026, not on the date of the event described.