When buying beats online, (for those of you who don't know) there's a few terms you should understand.

Exclusive License: When buying exclusive beats, you are purchasing the full rights to the beat, it's like buying a one of a kind piece of clothing--you are the only one who owns it, and you are the only one allowed to put yourself in or on it. The only difference is that (usually), if you're sick of a beat you purchased the rights to, you can't just go and resell it to someone else. Double check with your producer's terms of service, but in most cases it is prohibited to resell beats without lyrical tracks.

Non-Exclusive Licensing (Leasing): Buying a non-exclusive beat typically allows you to use the beat just as if you were the sole owner, except you're not. Anyone is free to buy it. In some cases, the producer will set a limit on the number of copies that can be sold or produced of your final product when leasing a beat, but this varies from site to site. Again, double check with your site's terms of service. I know of a good site that has no copy limit that I'll discuss later in my recommendations.

With this knowledge, you can at least fend for yourself a little bit out there in the jumble of search engines. But I'll save you some more time...

Know what you're buying! If you're going to buy a beat you should at least know how long it is, right? Most sites will give you a small clip with some voice over to make sure that you don't steal it, but make sure they tell you the duration of the actual product! Other aspects are not AS important, but are still helpful to know before putting all your money into a song you know nothing about... e.g. tempo, style, etc...

It's hard to judge what kind of customer service you'll have if you have any concerns about a beat you like. I've dealt with all sorts of sites, some of which have never so much as answered my e-mails. Others have GREAT customer service. Before buying a beat, try and contact the website owner (or producer) to get a feel for how they might respond to problems you run into.

Might last piece of advice for you is this: stay away from the GIANT sites with thousands of producers and thousands more beats--you'll spend so much time digging through crap producers, because ANYONE can sign up and sell beats on these sites. Even if you find a decent beat or producer you like on these sites, they might not even have an e-mail address for you to send your questions. Find a producer or a few producers that you like, and stick with them. Your liner notes will get really confusing if you don't...

My personal favorite...? DrewbaccaBeats.com -- hands down. I've never come across a beat I didn't like there. They offer both exclusive and non-exclusive beats, and PLENTY of different styles. As for customer service, I've spoken with Drew (the owner) over the phone and through e-mail on multiple occaisions, he's very friendly! He's never charged me extra to change little things around with beats that I bought from him (like structural changes, or adding an extra chorus). He even sends me tracked out versions of the beats in the mail for no extra charge.