Selling Beats Question?

i got a few questions i need answering about this.

what percent would you give to someone who can sell or lease your beat for you? im going to get people to expand the hustle and need to know the standard rates.

do your beats need to be engineered before you sell them. and how do you hand over your beat just a cdr with 1 beat or every track broken down so they can engineer it again if need be?

can you tell me the difference between exclusive and a lease.

i hope you can hook me up with some information as i have got the hottest shit and im going to the top. (i bet everyone here thinks this, but i am actually this hot)lol

look foward to reading some knowledge.

I can't really tell you how to sell beats, because I don't make a bunch of money off my tracks, but what I can tell you is to first enjoy what your doing, and keep getting better at it. I see/hear so many producers trying to sell beats. It's like we all hear the stories about how such and such sold a beat for $100,000, and that's the main reason a lot of people get into producing. The producing game is wack.. it's like being a drug dealer in this day and age. It's not like it used to be in the 80's! Nowadays, you have kids making hot tracks on their parents office computer!! To have a studio 20 years ago would have costed you a lot of money, but now, you can buy a SP-303 for $200 and make a hot beat with nothing else! So the game is flooded with a TON of wack music, and a TON of good music (because we all know a few really good producers out there!) You can't sell a beat for $800, when a kid is giving away his best ish for free. So my question is what is making you different? If you make a good track, and you have 10,000 producers in every city and state that make good beats, what makes you different? Why should anyone spend money on you when they can go to someone else?
You have to distinguish yourself and be different. That's why most artists (pictures, drawings, musicians, cooks, etc) are different. The way they look, dress, act, it's a lifestyle. When you REALLY get deep into the music, you will change because being different is not easy. It's so much easier to be like Kanye, or timberland, or the neptunes, or whoever we idolize, but we are all individuals, so be yourself, and enjoy you! After you do this, the rest will come.... money, women, STD's, false allegations/lawsuites, drugs, etc..
I've delt with some major minors (local MC's that are close to getting out there) and when I was trying to sell beats, it never happened for me. When I stayed in the lab and constantly made tracks and GAVE away beats cd's, they majically dropped in the right hands. You have to give in order to recieve.

thanks for the reply i understand what you say but i have been producing for two years i have developed my own style and i feel that the world isnt ready for my beats and so do the people who hear them. im on some next level shit and it is all about the music for me i dont use wack equipment i use the proper shit mpc digi 002 mackies, all i want to know really is if i have to fully engineer the beat before i sell it as i havent found a great engineer yet another point i am trying to make is im from the UK and the hip hop beats out here are weak and i have the hottest shit to sell in the country so i want to market my shit right. drop some more advise please.

You don't have to do anything to sell the beat except create it. You can leave the mastering to the user that buys the track because he still has to put his voice on the beat. I sell my tracks raw.. straight MPC to CD, and I leave the rest to them. When the buyer is ready to lay the beat/vocals, I take my MPC to the studio and track it into the recorder. Since you have the luxury of owning protools, I would probably track the beat (seperate all the sounds) and save it as a file so thet the engineer can load your file up and do the mixing. Saves you and the engineer time.

SCI wrote: im from the UK and the hip hop beats out here are weak and i have the hottest **** to sell in the country so i want to market my **** right. drop some more advise please.

climb off your own jock? lol - nah f'real though, there's some tight as **** beats over here. love em or hate em, the creators put shit down hard. lewis parker didn't get on ghostfaces album by accident, vadim doesn't work with all the people he's down with by accident, p brothers likewise, 2tall doesn't have an lp with dudley perkins & georgia-anne m. by accident... adam f & redman... mark ronson & nuff folk... whether you like it or you don't, there's plenty of hot shit coming from UK heads.

my genuine advice is - knocking peoples shit isn't going to get you on.

first things first -

and this was addressed in another thread in this forum....

get/make/download/find & copy a "producer/artist agreement" -

this is basically a legal contract that states your name, the artist's name that is buying the beat, and name of beat, as well as other info like whether it is exclusive or leased, and any time-frame matters, percentages, royalties (if applicable), production credits, etc...

you can get a copy of one with "fill-in-the-blanks" spots on it off the net, maybe? if not, check with a music attorney - but online is the best resource for this, as you should not have to pay. maybe get the knowledge as far as what is on it - and just re-type one out. then get it SIGNED.

next,

exclusive beats vs. lease (or non-exclusive) -

this is up to you, my friend...

exclusive means, you sell it once - to one person/entity, and they move on it from there, doing their own thing. you could make out in the contract that you would be paid a fraction/percentage of royalties, should the song they make with your beat "hits" - but usually for underground producers (and many big name ones) - it's a 1-time payment, and the beat is their's under contract. you also should note that they cannot re-sell the beat to another artist, and that you should be given producer credit on the track/liner notes, when it makes it to CD/Distribution/ETC...

so yeah.

lease = you are not giving the artist exclusive rights, basically - you are selling it to him/her, and then to other's as well, and they generally pay less, but you still own the beat - and if it's a really catchy beat that is in demand - then maybe it might be more worth it to you to "lease" it to 20 different artists to use on demos/records for $150.00 each or whatever you want to charge, depending on the strength of your production/name/talent - rather than selling it to one artist for $1,000.00 - you do the math and check what you want to be ultimately.

i personally play live instruments on all the beats, work with session players, and a number of producers, and so i sell exclusive beats ONLY... i think it's kind of "blah" to sell 1 beat to 50 different people, but if you're in the biz to make money fast, then this might be an option for you - it's not a bad thing...

i myself work more on selling a beat exclusively, making it hot as hell, and convincing that artist to show it off to others (which they do automatically) - which then sends more referrals - this is key in the business. the networking...

my friend, if you have more questions, you can pick up a few books, contact an entertainment lawyer, or you can PM me, and maybe i can be of more help...


oh, and as far as engineering - which you were talking about - if the track is hot, and you say your skills are up-to-par, or beyond that - then i would imagine that the mix-down would/should sound hot as well - you don't want to sell poorly mixed music, especially if you wish to succeed. however, mastering is not your job. get a proper mix, and use good monitors/headphones - have several listens at different distances, bring other good ears in to listen to the final mix, and then lock it up to track and get it in the hands of the artist -

mastering the final product with vocals on it, is their job - just make sure it sounds good before you get it to them, so it's double-as-good when they master it.

also, to address your last Q? - i've seen beats broken down into each voice/instrument laid as a seperate track onto CD - so the artist can mix it down themselves if they want, as well as your final mix, and I have seen trusted beatmakers/producers give the artist a finished-product, .WAV file straight up with it already mixed - and that is sometimes what these people want, or come to that beatmaker/producer for - for their ear, and fresh mixes.

anyhow.

peace and love player,

sol-t

ps - as far as prices go, or "standard" prices - it depends. some really hot beats coming out of small-time beatmakers sell for only $150-200.00 exclusives, but of course you have to find these people, and it's usually the guys who love to make the music, but have no (or little) clientele - just trying to get their name out. i've heard mediocre beats that have sold for upwards of $2k from underground producers/beatmakers, just because the name is on it - that name brings a lot of attention sometimes...

so, you be the judge and see what people are willing to pay, plus the strength of your talent, and maybe increase as it goes and your name has local fame - which should develop into more - take kanye for instance - local chicago - to nationwide, before he was even signed to a label....

good luck.

one other good thing to note:

i threw around a lot of "producer" and "beatmaker" in this rant... but... being a beat maker is not the same as being a producer - a producer is altogether a different beast and wears many hats in this industry... peace brotha.

sol-t wrote:oh, and as far as engineering - which you were talking about - if the track is hot, and you say your skills are up-to-par, or beyond that - then i would imagine that the mix-down would/should sound hot as well - you don't want to sell poorly mixed music, especially if you wish to succeed. however, mastering is not your job. get a proper mix, and use good monitors/headphones - have several listens at different distances, bring other good ears in to listen to the final mix, and then lock it up to track and get it in the hands of the artist

word to all that plus the classic one that's so true it's become clichéd - A-B it with other shit you listen to yourself. i'd say it's more important to do that when mastering but it certainly helps on the mix down too. you don't need to get too carried away with it (unless you're a mastering engineer too) but often just a quick comparison with a handful of tracks of the type similar to your own will let you know your levels are right etc.

sol-t wrote:i threw around a lot of "producer" and "beatmaker" in this rant... but... being a beat maker is not the same as being a producer - a producer is altogether a different beast and wears many hats in this industry...

totally true. again, another cliché but it's one for a reason.

the way i look at this is like this......

unless u have some respect from the industry, u get nothing.
nobody knows u. give ur shit out and build a buzz.

dont give nobody any 'tracked out sessions' unless u wanna get jacked.
GIVE out strickly audio cds that sound 'good'.

thats part of how i plan on doing it in the near future.

definitely can go that route to man, it's a good idea -

however...

agreements on paper.
contracts.
even if it's just saying that they WILL NOT be posting this beat up on the net, transferring it to other entities, etc...

keep the legal part in mind,

hence - show BUSINESS.

i don't say this to be an anal prick, but rather just so good people are "covered" if and when that bad time comes round... and if you indeed, get big enough -

then, you will definitely want to be able to look back and believe you did everything the 'right' way - and saved yourself a big mess later...

safety.

I mix and master all my beats before I even put em up on Soundclick. That's me though...

If your just starting out as far selling beats shop it to an up and coming MC or group or if your lucky enough somebody who's known worldwide. Sell it for a really good price like 250.00 dollars or less. Even if your beat is knockin like a muthaf-----, you still have no name. Use your best hip hop judgement to analyze that MC's lyrics, business sense, networks, record deals, etc. Somebody like a Papoose 2 years ago would be a perfect example. Sometimes having a beat on a Rappers LP that has a good chance of blowin up will get you more recognition and a bigger name which in turn equals bigger paychecks in the future. Of course this is all assuming that your beats are hot as sh*t and you have your business sense together. Just one side note try to be involved in the production of your beat so that way the finished product coincides with the feel or vibe of your beat.