Nahuel D'Elias · Product engineer
( vers1ons)

(W01.2)vers1ons · 2025Shipped

Licensing

A remix license artists can sell, buyers can trust, and vers1ons can enforce.

Shows

  • Product
  • Design
  • Frontend
  • Backend
Role
Product lead, building with the engineering team
Stack
Next.js · tRPC · Postgres · Stripe · Inngest · Redis · Object storage
Status
In production

The decision

We were selling a license that exists in law but had never been sold like this: artists set their own terms on vers1ons and sell them to anyone who wants to remix the song, instead of going through a label.

Chose
Make the license a record the whole platform runs on, tracked at the rights level across the full remix chain, so every remix knows where it came from and what it's allowed to do.
Rejected
A contract PDF attached to each sale between two people and tracked by hand, which breaks as soon as someone remixes the remix.
Cost
Time to get it right. Every feature reads from the same rights records, and because we sell to major labels, indie labels and established artists, the agreement had to hold up with their legal teams, so every legal change meant a code change.

Problem

A license is only worth something if everyone can trust it, and ours couldn't yet be trusted.

What a licensor set on a listing didn’t always match what the system allowed, so a remix could reach a store the license didn’t cover. Once a remix was remixed again, it got hard to tell who the original rights holders were and who should be paid. And setting up a listing, with its contributors, splits and terms, was easy to get wrong.

That mattered for three reasons. A release that breaks its license is a legal problem for vers1ons. Original artists only list their songs if they know they’ll be credited and paid down the chain. And the license is what we sell: if it isn’t true, there’s nothing to sell.

Three parts

Review & Publish for "Night Swim": its cover art, the $40.00 price, contributors with their shares, and the license terms.
From upload to a published listing · muted2:22
How it worksFrom an upload to royalties, and round againThe seller sets the terms once. Every purchase grants rights that point back to where they came from, so a remix can be listed and bought in turn, and royalties find their way up the chain.
sellerOriginal workuploaded with its contributorsand splits
sellerLicense termsprice · how manyremixes of remixeswhere remixes may release
marketplaceMarketplace listingthe song on one sidethe license on the other
buyerPurchaseagreement signed firstthen payment
rightsRights grantedwhat the buyer may dopoints at the grant above it
buyerRemixa new workits parent and root recorded
Distributeonly to the storesthe license allows
moneyRoyaltiesthe remix earnsevery share up the chain is paid
  1. ready · press run, or hover any part of the system

What I did

I led the product decisions on licensing and built it with our engineering team.

I worked with legal on the agreement, with labels and artists on the terms they needed, and with our founders on the license model. Then we turned the agreement into data the platform runs on. Every purchase issues a rights grant that points back to the grant it came from, so rights and royalties resolve up the chain however deep it goes. The terms a buyer signs are frozen at purchase, and one check decides where a remix may release, the same in the API, the release wizard and the delivery worker.

On the screens, I designed the listing flow so an artist can set contributors, splits, terms and the stores remixes may go to, then sign and publish, without being a lawyer.

The flow, step by step

10 steps, one screen at a time.

  1. The first step: an original work or a licensed version, where the audio comes from, and the upload.
    01UploadSay whether you own the song outright or are remixing a license, and where the audio comes from. That choice decides what the listing can fill in for you.
  2. Track details and cover art, with the artwork rights confirmation.
    02Details and coverGenre, key, BPM and an AI disclosure, then the cover art, with a box confirming you hold the rights to it.
  3. Add contributor: the composition and master sides, and their roles.
    03Who did whatEvery contributor picks the side they worked on, the song or the recording, then their roles. Those are the two sides a license has to pay.
  4. Two contributors listed with their roles and shares.
    04ContributorsEveryone on the song in one list, with what they did and the share they're owed.
  5. Splits for the recording and the composition, each with a ring at 100%.
    05SplitsThe recording and the composition each have to reach 100% before you can go on. The rings fill as you drag.
  6. License terms: fee, quantity, subsequent remixes, where remixes may release, and the contract summary beside them.
    06License termsThe price, how many licenses, whether remixes can be remixed again and which stores they may go to. The contract summary sits beside every field, in plain words.
  7. Review & Publish: the audio, song details, contributors and license pricing.
    07ReviewEverything a buyer will see, and every split, on one screen before anything is signed.
  8. Release timing, the licensor's legal name and signature, and the agreements to accept.
    08Sign and publishThe licensor signs with their legal name and accepts each term. Publish stays disabled until every box is checked.
  9. A "Remix this" share card for "Night Swim".
    09Share itA share card for the new listing, ready to post.
  10. A published listing: the song on the left, the price, royalty shares and license terms on the right.
    10The listingWhat a buyer sees: the song on one side, the license on the other, with the price and Purchase License at the top.

    The same flow on a phone. Click any screen to see it full size.The same flow on a phone. Each screen links to it at full size.

    1. Splits on a phone: the recording and composition rings, each at 100%.
    2. License terms on a phone: fee, quantity, subsequent remixes and where remixes may release.
    3. The published listing on a phone, with the price and Purchase License pinned at the bottom.

    See all 8 screens (5 more)

    What changed, and why

    The same part of the product in an early build and today.

    1. The listing page

      The listing was one stacked column, with the price halfway down. Now the song is on the left and the license you're buying is on the right, with the price and Purchase at the top.

      A listing in one column, with the price halfway down.
      Before · Nov 2025One column, the price halfway down.
      The listing today: the song on the left, the license on the right.
      Now · Oct 2026The song on the left, the license on the right.

    2. License terms

      Artists set terms with the full contract open next to them, in legal language. Now each term is a plain field, with a summary of what it means beside it, and the full PDF one click away.

      License fields next to the full contract PDF.
      Before · Nov 2025Fields next to the full contract.
      License terms today, with a plain-language summary of the contract.
      Now · Oct 2026Plain fields, with a summary beside them.

    3. Contributors

      Contributors were typed into one long form. Now each person gets their side, their roles and their share, in steps, so the splits behind a license come out right.

      Contributors typed into one form.
      Before · Nov 2025One long form.
      Contributors today, each with their side, roles and share.
      Now · Oct 2026Each person's side, roles and share.

    4. The agreement

      Buying asked for a checkbox under the terms. Now the buyer reads and signs the agreement before any payment, and each acknowledgement is its own line.

      An early checkout step with the license terms.
      Before · Nov 2025A checkbox under the terms.
      The agreement today, signed before payment.
      Now · Oct 2026Read and signed before paying.

    Outcome

    Live in production, with labels and artists selling licenses under these terms.

    Major labels, indie labels and established artists list songs on vers1ons. A remix of a remix still credits and pays the original artist, and only goes to the stores its license allows.

    Reliability

    Every signature binds to the exact text that was signed.

    Sending a split sheet for signatures freezes a version of it, with a hash of the agreement and the document, and the server checks against that version when each person signs. Signing links are stored only as hashes. License terms are frozen at purchase, and a revoked grant stops a queued release from going live. Store scope was verified end to end across a three-deep remix chain.

    Showcase content. Artwork belongs to its respective owners. Artist names, prices and royalty figures are fictional, and no affiliation is implied. The "Bobby" drop with Ravyn Lenae is a concept mock. Recordings come from an isolated local copy of the product running seeded data.