"Beats for Sale, Hip Hop & Rap Music Instrumentals" presents - "Beats for Sale - The Basics on Selling Beats.
Want to get started selling your self produced rap beats and hip hop instrumentals. This article is a great start
author: The Quarter Pounder with Cheese
Often times a beat maker will ask me what it takes to sell my work. It isn’t a piece of cake, but the fundamentals are still rather simple. I will break the main factors down to just a few points, namely the following:
1. Quality of Work
This should be a given, and is rather plain common sense. Yet many aspiring beatmakers think so hard on the marketing and promotional aspect sof their work that they forget the very basic — quality. By quality, I mean both how catchy/original/well-composed the beat sounds itself, but also, the recording quality such as crispness, cleanliness, loudness, balance, etc.
If the beat sounds catchy, but the kicks are too low or the bass is distorted, it will turn off your listeners. If the beat levels are good, but the melody and the bassline aren’t harmonized and sound irritating to the ears, or if the drum pattern is off beat and un-rappable, then it will turn off your listeners. And by turning off the listeners, it will detract your potential buyers.
Improve both your musical abilities and your engineering skills. There are plenty of courses out there to take, friends to learn from, books to read, and internet text to research.
If the quality of the beat is pristine, it will nearly sell itself.
2. Think Outside The Box
This may sound difficult, but the rule is simply don’t confine yourself to your immediate surroundings. I used to operate my beats on a single sub-webpage of a community-driven music website. I saw alot of people paying for internal advertisements to the website to promote their pages, but received little benefits in return. What was wrong? I thought about it and realized the answer was pretty simple — the advertisements were internal and were only exposed to the same community on the website. Why do that when you can advertise yourself on the entire internet?
That’s all the above example is: don’t confine yourself.
3. Professional Image and Courtesy
If there is money involved in the transaction, then you should act like a business person. Do not be a street hustler or pusher when selling your music. You should act professionally, communicate professionally, and present yourself professionally.
One the biggest mistakes of beat makers and beat sellers is having a website or materials filled with spelling and grammatical errors. Even if you can’t design a high quality website, or afford to print high quality brochures or posters, you can at least make sure you have correct spelling and grammar. Would you think someone is a professional business person if he or she can’t even spell correctly? Obviously, there are times when you can be yourself and get a little looser with your writing, such as personal blogs — but you must know when those times are appropriate!
The same applies to communications through e-mail, letter, and phone. Be courteous. If someone demands a refund back, politely ask why and then comply if it’s reasonable. If you act like a true business person, customers will return and also let their friends and associates know about you. They know that they can at least get their money back because satisfaction is guaranteed. In the long-run, you will make more money. Do not be greedy in the short term and jeopardize your future business.
You should always have some sort of written contract granting the customer rights to your music. You do not need to have a 20-page long microsize font contract written by a top-level laywer. All you need is a sentence or two with your name and your customer’s name stating you are granting permission or transferring the copyrights of your work, along with both parties’ signatures.
I highly recommend that you take the time and design a system of professionalism with your own business policies before you begin or continue to sell your music. Separate yourself from the amateurs.
4. Learn From The Best
Take a look at people who sell beats more than you. Obviously, I do not mean mainstream power players such as Scott Storch or Dr. Dre. Do a little investigation into your immediate competition that is selling better than you are. See what they are doing right and compare to what you are doing wrong. I started by analyzing my competition every single day on various independent hip hop music sites such as Soundclick. There is a lot of valuable information to learn from competition and leading performers in sales.
5. Supply Enough Information
Customers will want to know lots of information. You can’t blame them — they are spending money and they want to know that their money is going to be well spent (or that they won’t get ripped off by you!). Therefore, you will need to give as much information as possible without overwhelming the customer. Yes, you need to balance giving too little information and too much information. Both too little and too much may scare off your customer.
You need to supply the vital info — how much your beats cost, what formats you will deliver your beats in, how soon your customer will receive the beats, the technicalities/legalities of using the beat. Moreover, whether it be telephone or AOL Instant Messenger, you should always have an easy contact method with a quick response time for your customers.
If a customer demands to see a sample copy of the contract — go ahead and let them. Do not hide anything, or you will seem too shady to deal with.
If a customer expresses a bit of interest in your beats, but seems a bit hesistant because they don’t know enough, you should voluntarily follow up on them and “sell” your product by providing them more information. Don’t be lazy and wait for them to ask you more questions.
6. Be Real
Simply stated — don’t lie. No, giving yourself a professional image online when you are still working in your parent’s basement doesn’t make you a liar. Saying something that you are completely not, however, makes you a liar. It may seem like a good idea at first, but when a customer finds out you lied, your reputation will be damaged. Even a little white lie could result in larger consequences. Your customer may think that if you can tell a small lie, then you can cheat him out of his money with your lies. Word on the internet travels fast and you rest assured, your dishonesty will not get you paid.
Sure, you could exaggerate a bit to promote yourself but don’t overdo it. Saying you produced for Eminem when you certainly didn’t or you are about to be signed to Def Jam when you certainly aren’t going to makes you look like a fool when the truth is found out. Besides, who’s going to believe you anyway if you don’t have any proof?
Furthermore, don’t break the law. An honest business that lasts will abide by the law. If you sell your beat and guarantee your customer that you won’t resell the beat to anyone else, bound by contract, then you should abide your word (and writing!). Dishonesty and greed could result in your downfall.
7. Invest Wisely
Lots of people have trouble with this one. Money isn’t only thing invested, but time is too. After all, time is money. Make sure you invest in the right things that have clear set goals. You can be a risk taker, but if you clearly see that the goal or reward cannot be achieved do not disillusion yourself by continuing to pursue the false goal. For example, if you work with an artist who you truly know has absolutely no talent and has no future in bringing royalty income to your beats, then abandon ship quickly. Don’t continue because that person’s is your friend’s homie. If you intend to be a true business person, you absolutely must know when to proceed and know when to stop.
Make sure the money you spend promoting your work is worthwhile. Remember to think outside the box. But be careful, don’t lie or exaggerate to yourself. Don’t listen to friends who give you advice but really have not done it themselves firsthand. Research and try to obtain realistic results from past investors of what you intend to invest in. If you do not know how to budget your time and money, let someone trustworthy and knowledgable do it for you.
