What about giving beats away?

This might seem like a stupid question, but what should I know about giving beats away? I've recently been approached by an MC who wants some of my beats. I told him he could use a couple, and I'm not going to charge him because

A) I like the way he raps, and would not mind putting my name on his project.

B) My network is in it's infancy, so I'm trying to grab onto every opportunity I can, regardless of what it pays.

So I want to know if I should write up some kind of contract for this guy? Should I make it clear that he has to pay for the beat if he makes x-amount of dollars off of the song? I searched already, but nobody seems to ask questions about giving beats away.

I just need to know what I'm getting into.

I am interested to hear what you get in terms of responses from others members, but I wouldn't charge him upfront for the beat, instead say that you get 40% or 50% of the profits made off the beat if it's going on an album or something

My thing is this, if the person has a mid to huge following it is okay, BUT i must get credit. That way, if the DJ or ARTIST blows up with my beat, I can have a BIG name on my RESUME and I will push the fact that I "Produced for DJ XX"

mpcking7 wrote:My thing is this, if the person has a mid to huge following it is okay, BUT i must get credit. That way, if the DJ or ARTIST blows up with my beat, I can have a BIG name on my RESUME and I will push the fact that I "Produced for DJ XX"

couldn't have said it better.

Write up an agreement that gives both parties involved equal rights to distribute the finished song as well as equal rights to use each other's name & photo to promote the song

the artist is getting to use a beat they like and you are getting an artist feature that you want on your track

you both will benefit from each other's promotional efforts.


just make sure you each agree on how to list the song name and credits to maximize the cross promo opp


make sure you put in there that they can't redistribute the beat without their vocals on it (instrumental)

#uck giving beats away, but I think it really depends on how much you put into your craft. If your slapping beats up in 5 minutes, then yea, give them microwave beats away, but if your a rare breed that actually loves what you do and takes the time to make sure everything sounds right and enjoys spending hours to get a beat to sound right, the idea of giving it away is ridiculous. Producers giving away beats is the #1 reason why this game is so wack. Dudes like Kev Brown have to resort to selling beats for $200 because the next guy is giving them away. Try to charge someone $50, and I bet they won't respond to your message. Why? Because Lil Ricky is slapping up 10 beats a day and doesn't give a schyt about none of them.
Music is first an art, secondly a business. As a producer, you make the investment to create music by buying equipment, taking a loss by selling equipment you thought was good, taking the time to learn your equipment. These rappers don't give a phuck, and want your BEST beats for free. WTF??? I don't care who they are, charge em! They WILL charge you to lace your beats! Trust me! You will get NOWHERE giving away beats for free UNLESS your giving it to someone significant that will introduce your music to a new audience. No Label, phuckem! No Money, phuckem! None of these dudes have a budget for beats, but they smoke weed all day, and sleep outside a Footlocker to buy the newest Jordans the day they drop.
PHUCK THEM MF'ERS! CHARGE EM! If we all charge, they gotta pay!

^ EXACTLY


My time is worth $. I could be recording, mixing, mastering, hanging out with the fam, smoking, f*cking...whatever...So for me to spend 6 hours on a beat and give it away is a crime. Because 9 times out of 10 these rappers dont appreciate, respect, understand or care what goes into your production. Especially the rick ross wannabe fake 50cent drug lord hustlin broke MC's

Long story short, get your paper. let em know you about your paper and sh*t will be fine. Sure every now and then you might come across an artist that you would like to colab with on the artist tip but these days rappers are bigger leaches than ever....

IF THEY DONT MAKE YOU MONEY THEY COST YOU MONEY......

Interesting perspectives.....


I guess I lean more getting some money....

I got a guy I give them away to...never charge. But I know him very very well and I know if all else fails I'll get credit....money is just a bonus!!!! ...


But I will not do that for joe blow

"I guess I lean more getting some money...."

Everyone needs to. I'm not saying don't ever give a beat away. Should some beats be sold for $20.00? Sure ;the wack stuff! Know your position and charge accordingly. At some point, we all went through the phase of lisenting to a major producers beat and thinking 'I' could have done better!" If you KNOW (not think) you can stand toe to toe with Timberland aim to make Timberland money! If you listen to the radio and everything sounds better than you have ever made, then free or $20.00 is the position you need to play. (Not speaking to you directly.)
I got into photography seriously about 3 years ago. I started off doing free photoshoots. Learned a thing or two, upped my skill, upgraded the camera, learned more about the camera, learned more about light, lenses, composition, editing, worked a few secondary wedding photography jobs, sports photography, etc. Typical Weddings photography jobs are going from $1200 on up..(typically around the 3-4000 mark). As a new wedding photographer, it would be completely disrespectful for me to do a wedding for $300.00. $300 for a days worth of work is nice, but it goes against what the professionals are charging. By charging less, it means that we don't put pride into our craft; its so easy anyone can do it. So what ultimately happens? Everyone with a camera wants to make $300, but to get in the game they charge $100.00. If everyone charges $100 the consumer still wants to find a deal, so they find Lil Ricky that can do a really great job for $50.00. The same thing is happening to music. In fact, every form of artistry has been effected. If you can add water, you can cook a meal. Download some software / manipulate REX loops, you can sound like Dilla.
As a community, we need to say enough is enough! If making music is what you live to do, make a stand! Don't fall for the "I do this for the love" shit! These rappers got things easy! They can record at home with a pro-tools mini box and a USB condenser mic (and most will record at your studio for free!) The idea of paying $50/hour to a studio doesn't enter their mind! Now that the whole "mixtape" thing is here, they really don't expect to pay for beats! Everyone has a mixtape, and no-one is listening to most of them. Don't let these dudes waste your time. Even if you give a beat away, IT HAS TO BENEFIT YOU IN SOME KIND OF WAY! If their not getting 50,000 hits on Worldstar, tell em to kick rocks or shell out some $$$ for your beats!

If you feel the MC is going places, then licensing a beat or two to him for free is probably a very shroud move. Not only will it help promote your name, it could forge a long term and profitable relationship with the MC.

Don't just give it away - make sure you license it properly, with a clear written contract containing any terms you wish to include, such as future royalties, accreditation requirements, etc.

I've given up my time for free in the past, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. But most of my profitable ventures started off with me doing someone a favour, which in turn led them to offer me various business opportunities due to the relationship we'd forged from the freebies I'd done for them.

You just need to learn when 'free' is most appropriate, learn how to differentiate the good guys from the crooks. Sometimes you'll get it right, sometimes you'll get it wrong. But with patience and practice you'll get it right the majority of the time.

As a fellow long time producer I get this question allot and I agree with/ in some respects all the responses thus far, I think it's all relative to the Artist and your relationship with him/her if you think this person has a budget for beats meaning, if he doesn't get free beats from you will he just get them from someplace else or will he have to pay and he's just looking for a deal? Since your asking in the first place would tell me you don't have a strong relationship with this artist, and since you mentioned you like his style...etc sit down with him and discuss your options, and work something out!

(What I do and this has worked for me) since it's so hard to put a dollar amount on beats??? Meaning I have made a beat in 10 minutes and I have taken 10 days to make a beat, which one is better? who knows? I do give away beats all the time and to me it's just part of the networking that I share with different artist and the passion that I have for music/ and not the Dollar, but I know we all need paper so I would suggest to you to tell the artist that the beat is free but your charging for your time! (Meaning the time you took to make the beat, only you know what that's worth be fair and they will understand) I think this way your covered! You get a little money and you can charge for the Beat in the Future, they will anticipate it anyway! Peace

I like the info in this thread

I pretty much agree with everyone replying here. I don't normally sell beats but every once in a while, some rapper trys to sweet talk me for a free beat. Right there and then I stop them in their tracks and let them know that this is work and a beat from me is 2k upfront. Of course, no one will pay that but if I'm gonna give away a beat that took me hours to build, not to mention the money spent on records I buy from all over the world and the time dedicated to listen to those records because I don't needle skip, looking for that untouched sample. Then 2,000 dollars for a beat seems reasonable to me and I can live with that when I give it away. I don't like giving my work to just anybody so the 2k is a polite way to say fùck off homeboy. But thats me, if they pay it then its all good either way.

Being involved in music is a business for the Rappers, and the producers. Rappers are investing the money into themselves. They don't need to pay for 20 beats to do a show, 2-3 songs is all they need to open up for someone, but an arsenal of 6 songs should be all they need. So think about it, if they pay $400 for each beat (and you know their recording for free), they invested $2400.00 in themselves. You can't start any business with $2400.00. You can't rent space and buy inventory for a penny candy store with $2400.00!
I sell beats for $400...not often, but when it happens this is what my asking price is. Typically, most people don't buy, but I find that my asking price usually turns away the rappers that are not really serious about this business. With things going they way they are (no one buying music), its hard to ask $400 for a beat and the artist is barely selling 1000 units. There are a LOT of artists with labels that are not selling 1000 cd's. I know guys that get $25.00 checks from Itunes sales AND THEY HAVE LABELS BACKING THEM. So really, how do I justify asking $400 for a beat and the artist probably won't see a $400 check! Most of these guys are doing shows for free in exchange of a hotel, food, and a plane ticket, or doing shows for a couple hundred dollars. Subtract gas, hotel and some weed, their left with pocket change. Trust me, there isn't that many dudes in the underground scene making decent money anymore.
Still, make sure YOU get something. You don't make beats to benefit someone else. Set a price and stick to your guns. That's how all business work! You don't see a TV in one store for $2000 and go to a different store and see the same model TV for $20.00 simply because they want to attract more customers, or get their business name out! There needs to be some sort of standard between us so we can all get paid.

rap is a joke now its all clones ur craft is way more interesting support OUR own genre of instrumental hip hop/experimental/electronic/a/dj shadow dj krush trip hop madlib dilla type shit make our own genre. just make instrmental albums n make em intersting or have a vocalist sing over dont degrade it with this new fake version of hip hop rappers INSTRUMETAL ALBUMS is my answer YOU dont need no one but ur mpc tables records mixer etc.. and creativity and r ur own act band whatever u dont need no one I'd rather hear your album then someone rapping over ur beats i'd rather hear just all ur beats put 2gether in a creative way for an album n i no more about hip hop then most youngns and its just boring now bt what some people are doing with electronic music example MPCS samplers asrs etc.. check out royksopp, and washed out..washed ot is one dude and a mpc...take it to another level chack out neon indian portishead dj shadow weekend players caia all use samplers and electronic gear and they dont need rappers its bornig to me n the 90's hip hop is gone but we can move on without the mc case he on average just wants to be that guy on mtv n we dont need that guy n out basement when were tryn to make some ill music on our mpcs we just need our gear and our creativity check out metal fingers mfdooms beats stonesthrow records j dilla instrumentals and FLYING LOTUS check out FLYING LOTUS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!