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

"Bobby" is yours to remix: the receipt, with the master and the license agreement to download.
Buying a drop license and entering a remix · muted1:12
How it worksA remix contest where no one leaves a loserThe license is the entry fee. Every entrant ends up with a remix they're cleared to release, the winners get the prizes, and the original artist earns on all of it.
label · artistDrop createdits own rules and licensesubmit, judge, release windows
marketplaceDrop pagelicenses on salea limited number
producerBuy to enteragreement signed, then paidthe license is the entry fee
rightsRights grantedlicensed before a note is made
producerSubmitinside the windowa new work, pointing at the original
label · artistJudgingplayed · starred · picked
Distributewinners, and everyone elseonce the release window opens
moneyRoyaltiesthe remixer earnsso does the original artist
  1. ready · press run, or hover any part of the system

What I did

I built Drops end to end: a remix contest where no one leaves as a loser.

Most remix contests run on a form and a Dropbox link. Stems leak, entries have no license, and the winning remix can’t be released because nobody cleared the rights. In a drop, the license is the entry fee. The artist is paid for every license sold, and every producer leaves with a remix they’re licensed to release to socials and stores, with no legal back-and-forth between teams.

I wrote the spec, designed the pages and built the backend. Each entry is saved as its own work that points back to the original, and the purchase issues a real rights grant, so a winning remix can go straight to distribution. The windows to submit, judge and release are enforced on the server, at purchase, at submission and at release. On top of that come the lifecycle emails, from the invite to the winners, and a judging page where the host plays, stars and picks entries.

The flow, step by step

11 steps, one screen at a time.

  1. Drops: active and recent remix contests.
    01DropsEvery open remix contest in one place, with its price and how long it has left.
  2. The public page for the "Bobby" drop, open to anyone without an account.
    02The public pageAnyone can open a drop, no account needed. It shows what a real license gets you, and it's the way in: sign up, buy the license, enter. Easier than doing it illegally.
  3. Further down the public drop page: release review, remix rules, what you get with the license, and the timeline.
    03The rules, in publicFurther down, anyone can read the rules, what the license gives them and the timeline, before they ever sign up.
  4. The "Bobby" drop inside vers1ons, with Buy license and a link to the public page.
    04In the appWith an account, the same drop lives inside vers1ons, next to everything else you can license.
  5. Order summary: who licenses it, the price and the fee.
    05Order summaryWho is licensing it, who signs for them, and the total, before anything else.
  6. The license agreement, scrolled to the end, with acknowledgements and a signature.
    06Sign the agreementThe buyer scrolls the whole agreement, checks each acknowledgement and signs. Payment only opens after that.
  7. Payment, with "Agreement signed" above it.
    07PayCard, wallet or platform credit. The signed agreement stays pinned above it.
  8. "Bobby" is yours to remix: the receipt and files.
    08LicensedThe stems and the signed agreement, ready to download. The license is real from here.
  9. Submitting a remix: the cover art and primary artist.
    09Submit the remixThe remix goes in with its own cover and credits. It's saved as a new work that points back to the original.
  10. The remix details filled in, with the confirmation and Submit remix.
    10Ready to enterThe entrant confirms it was made from the licensed stems and follows the drop's rules.
  11. The host's submissions page: bookmarked entries and every submission.
    11JudgingThe host plays, stars and bookmarks entries, sees which they haven't heard yet, then announces the winners.

    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. The "Bobby" drop on a phone, with Buy license.
    2. The scroll-to-sign license agreement on a phone.
    3. "You're licensed." on a phone.

    See all 7 screens (4 more)

    What changed, and why

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

    1. The drop page

      The public drop page and the in-app one had drifted apart. Now they're one design, with a side rail you can close and a countdown before a drop opens.

      The public drop page in July 2026.
      Before · Jul 2026
      The public drop page today.
      Now · Oct 2026

    2. Judging

      The submissions page was a plain list. Now the host can play, star and bookmark entries, and see who they haven't heard yet.

      The submissions page in July 2026.
      Before · Jul 2026A plain list.
      The submissions page today, with bookmarks and listening state.
      Now · Oct 2026Play, star, bookmark, heard or not.

    Outcome

    Shipped and working end to end, with the first drops being set up with artists now.

    A drop goes from create, invite, buy and submit to judge, winners and release window, on the same licenses as every listing. The buzz of a contest, with the rights already cleared.

    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.