How do you sell your beats?

the remix route is a good one too...there is a bunch of ways to go about it. I wouldn't f w/ labels until you have a point of contact besides yourself.

I'd rather have a good lawyer first then a manager.

comb your paper and find some local studios. they're liable to buy exlusive rights to a track if it's good. other than that pick up the latest copy of 'The Songwriter's Market'.

a tip on samples : if you don't have it cleared no one that's legit is going to buy it. friend of mine has been trying to make it happen for like 7 years. he keeps running into questions he can't (or won't) answer and it's keeping him back.

if you're producing 100+ beats a month you should just throw some bread down to burn 500 discs and sell them yourself.

a cat who's writing 1200 beats a year shouldn't have a problem...

good luck!

try selling stuff to tv stations and jingle houses and companies and video game companies and small indie film makers...huge business

TicToc wrote:

tanamo00420 wrote:personally, i hit the corner up and just wait for people to walk by, then say

"yo, i got them beatzz son"

"2 for 5, son, 2 for 5. Nigg@z got garbage down the way, son"

tanamo00420 wrote:personally, i hit the corner up and just wait for people to walk by, then say

"yo, i got them beatzz son"

lmao work ya hustle fam

tanamo00420 wrote:personally, i hit the corner up and just wait for people to walk by, then say

"yo, i got them beatzz son"

Ima hustler ima ima hustler homie!

funny story there are these "gangstas" that live on my block. me and my friends were walkin to 7-11 to get some smokes and we were a lil buzzed and one of them yells at us "were the hinas (girls)" i tell them they at my house waiting. one thing leads to them askin if we wanted to buy coke we say no, then they ask us to listen to their album they made. my friend says "he makes beats" gangster one says "for real thats chill, money right there" they give me there phone number to call them to hook up beats. i called one night chick picks up says "joker is in mexico". the reciept were they gave me there phone number is still hangin on my wall.my beats are wack they are made on fruity loops it wouldnt fit their style. but thats my story.

Nowadayz, cats is buying thier own MPCz and trying to rythme over thier own beats..Thatz str8 wack.. I never seen a rapper do that successfully. It can be done but it can't be the standard, even though its available to do.. i think you have to build your own camp. Get 1 or 2 tight Artsit and link up with a distributor and just keep droppin' CDz and doing shows..It's hard to call ,but look at it like this.. back in the 80z, Def Jam era cats was hustlin' without internet and CD or even tape duplicators, but it seems harder to get put on nowadays. It could be the competetion but as a producer I think we need to network more and share these Artist. No artist nowadays has only one producer...But I can't call it ; can you?

Nowadayz, cats is buying thier own MPCz and trying to rythme over thier own beats..Thatz str8 wack.. I never seen a rapper do that successfully. It can be done but it can't be the standard, even though its available to do..

You don't really hear many rappers doing this but there are some.

EPMD was one of the first. They wrote/rap/produced all their material. Mobb Deep is another self-contained unit although they have been giving up production chores. RZA..although he is doing movie scores and producing for catz overseas. Of course you have Kanye and Dr Dre, when he puts out his albums every 6 years.Outkast's Andre 3000 produed his biggest hits from ttheir last CD is another.

This is a tru thing...You have some but not too many.. I think a producer makes the Artists..A Artist can be sub-standard but a good producer can bring him out.. Oh well, thats' life

Yo, one thing you guys haven't really hit on is that you can sell the right to use a beat, but you can retain your rights as a writer.

In short, you can sell a beat to someone...but if someone else likes it, you can sell it to them too.
That way, it's not like you're creating this masterpiece and blow job joe down the street is the only one who can ever use it.

Have a lawyer make up a generic contract that includes your right to distribute and use your own beat however you want to.

MSCK

Even though the lawyer thing is fine, you can get a bad name quick by selling the same beat over and over.. I was thinking about puttin' my beats under some accepella trax and hittin' up a remix with my best artist and then gettin' it on a some mix tapes..However, whatever, we all need a freakin' plan. If you plan to go underground and sell beats it would be a different plan than trying to get a track on the next Jay-Z out of retirement CD.. That's the difference between the walk and the talk.. a plan. If you don't know where you going you can either end up in the wrong place or back where you started from.. I produce at a high rate, like 200 beats and hooks every 3 months, so I have to start a label because I can't get no effecient action from other companies.. I think I would have to be a Dr. Dre or Sha Money XL behind my camp..Time to get them volunteers on myspace or craigslist.com dawg.. PapaMaka'

Tru4LifeRecords wrote:Even though the lawyer thing is fine, you can get a bad name quick by selling the same beat over and over.. I was thinking about puttin' my beats under some accepella trax and hittin' up a remix with my best artist and then gettin' it on a some mix tapes..However, whatever, we all need a freakin' plan. If you plan to go underground and sell beats it would be a different plan than trying to get a track on the next Jay-Z out of retirement CD.. That's the difference between the walk and the talk.. a plan. If you don't know where you going you can either end up in the wrong place or back where you started from.. I produce at a high rate, like 200 beats and hooks every 3 months, so I have to start a label because I can't get no effecient action from other companies.. I think I would have to be a Dr. Dre or Sha Money XL behind my camp..Time to get them volunteers on myspace or craigslist.com dawg.. PapaMaka'

yeh man i hear that

can i hav a listen to your sound? u got a site or sumfin?

this is very valuable info and answers the question at the beginnig perfectly . only catch on your side is you need a lawyer or someone in law school to do the "wording" for you.

you start out selling beats to anyone who will buy them the CATCH is you do not sell them the "rights" to the beat only permission to use the beat. (however this means you charge less than you normally would) but you can sell the same beat 100's of times.

the person that buys the beat has permission to use the beat rap over it even sell the beat on home burned cds in small quantities or use it as a demo to try to get "signed" or bigger deals.

say your beat and there rhymes. the rhymes of the person that bought your beat are a hit an A&R picks up the MC and says your signed we want that "song" which has your beat on your first album. In the contract that MC signed for "permission" to use that beat it will state that you can use the beat but if you mass produce cd's with a bar code on them then they owe you royalties a percentage of sales of cd with your beat on it. OR if that MC gets signed because of a demo with your beat on it then he owes you $$$$. YO i know what im talking about if you need help or are in this situation where you have people wanting to buy your beats get a hold of me my user name is jimisteele!

oops didnt read all posts before replying and got beat to the punchline.

Like you said you dont want to sell the same beat to more than one person, you can still sell one beat to only one person. but if i were you i still would not sell the "rights" to the beat unless you decide you can part with it and dont plan on putting it on any of your albums. even if you did sell the rights i believe you could still perform the beat live.

i also like the idea mentioned that you work with a selected few mc's that you respect and think have talent but also keep in mind the situation that happened with Kool keith and dan The Automator with the album Dr. octagon. they had a dispute over who got paid what and kool keith the mc of course by law was entitled to 99.99% of profits for the album because he wrote and performed the lyrics. in the eyes of the law if a song has lyrics the lyricist has put in 99.99% of the artistic input of that song. so if you put out an album with an mc make sure you work out on paper that its 50/50 beforehand.