I was thinking and I came to the conclusion that I am ready to sell my beats.
What I am asking is:
Is there anybody SERIOUS to make business with, to help me get started for real?
I mean, I tried a few times, but with no success, I once sold a beat over roc-sh*t, and still didn't get my money yet, and that's it.
I wanna start moving in this 'game', I wanna have "a destination" for my creations.
Reasons? I really could use some money, AND some personal reasons, which I won't tell now.

Let's see if someone is willing to help out.

PS: I hope I posted in the right place, I know similar posts were posted before, but now it's 'my own thing'.

iam trying to get myself going in that direction...but iam 2 lazy 2 organize & start

I'm a tad pressed for time atm, I might come back to this tho.

The problem whit this thing is the following. Either you try to find someone/something to market promote and distro your work and concentrate on the music making. Or you decide to create the space where to unload yur creatibve juices by yourself.

Now the pros of doing it the first way are that you will need to spend a minimal amount of time doing other things than music. The cons you have already experienced. These sites don't sell or promote your music only. They do so for hundreds and thousands of artists. Thus it is very easy to get lost in the crowd. How to remedy that? Well marketing.. but was then your back into doing it yourself. Or you can just sit back and hope for the best, and see if that quarterly check will ever drop.

Doing it all yourself means you get to do it your way, you get way more control over how and to whom your music is exposed to. And so and yada yada.. BUT and there is a big BUT in here. To get it right (accidents happen and you might get lucky but that's not all that common) It will take ALOT of planning and some serious work on your behalf. Often so much so that it will affect your ability to work with the music itself.

Then there are all those grey areas in between, but in general that's it. So you either give over and hope for the best, or take it upon yourself and work your arse off without any quarantees of it working out.

i think 90% of the warbeats population is serious about it, its just that some put more energy into it then others.

working together is all good but like sab says it has pros and cons (like everything in life.. exept milk.. thats jut plain good for you)

im not that experienced on the subject but all i can say is, make sure theres strict rules between you and your partner. ...i know what ur thinking.. no i didnt mean that the gay way..

alot of us producers out there are lacking in knowledge of the business/corporate side of music production, if you visit the site in my signature below, these guys are platinum producers who are giving back and helping out aspiring producers like us...their "kit/course" is amazing....you get a 5000+ sound beat kit, contracts, useful videos filled with advice, interviews, contracts, and best of all, these guys are really accessible...the communication between me and them makes it seem like we personally know each other...the price you pay is very small for what its worth, but they might be raising it soon......

ALSO - if you purchase the kit..you get access to a website they run where you can upload your projects, with the possibilities that they present it in listening parties with artists that they work with.

seriously...dont miss out..

i got this out of desperation, as i was in the same state of mind as K-Ta-Klysm, but i do not regret it at all
this thing is worth thousands of dollars

good luck to all of you

PS - yes it is an affiliate link, idk if this is illegal in these forums, but if you do find this valuable of your attention, please feel free to use my link (besides, its the same price for you anyway)

Thanks Sab.

Now, what I was asking is help from someone who got all that: put my beat on their page, of course, for a price (cut from the eventual sales). This is how I wanna get started. Then, I would probably take "the hard road" (after I get known a little).
I've seen that before, so I'm not asking for a revolution

my advise....if you want to be serious...as a producer..

find someone who is serious...as an artist....best promotion you can get...period.

and look for a manager...someone who will put your music out there for you and handle the deals you make.

I think toointegrated is doing well with his.... ask him.

-=Rate My Beat=-




-=Rate My Beat=-

There are many people that are serious. Serious can be defined in a few different ways. They can be serious about making money, serious about making music (a passion for it), or serious about both.

I've been producing beats and local artists for over 5 years and selling beats for about 2 years now.

These are my opinions.

I don't use any of the "beat selling" web sites. They all just seem like a scam to me and people get referrals from your business and it seems like everybody else is getting a chunk of my change (especially the people that run the site).

I do a lot of myspace promoting, still havent jumped onto the twitter thing yet but I'm considering it because its increasingly popular nowadays. I first started selling most of my beats on myspace. Add a lot of friends, comment, promote, give away free beats. Regardless of what people say, myspace is still very popular and still obtaining new users, just be sure to direct your promotions toward a demographic group that is more likely to purchase beats (such as rappers, DUH! lol).

Over the months, i've rebuilt my web site and sold more beats on there than i have myspace so far. You really need to take control and do it yourself if you want to make something happen. It wont just happen out of thin air. Either that, or you can get lucky, know someone and they will make things happen for you (this is rare).

If you don't already know... you'll soon find out that people like to talk a lot.. Don't get discouraged when someone claims to be about it and want to purchase several beats from you and then... THEY DONT. This happens to me all the time. A lot of people bull ish and thats just the way it is. Separate yourself from them by being cool and professional with everyone. Even if they show disrespect to you or your music, have common sense not to stoop to their level. They are not your responsibility, just keep doin your thing is what i say.

I've never had a manager or anything. I am currently working with several artists in Georgia and even 1 in Texas on multiple projects and I run my web site at the same time. If you want to get heard, you have to have good stuff and you have to get as many people on your material as possible.

If you have a passion in making music, do it for that passion alone and not for anything else. If you make music only to achieve large sums of money, you better turn your head and go into some other form of business. Beat selling is not a lucrative business unless you are well known and established. If you want to succeed at this, you really have to eat, breathe and sleep with your beats. Hit the streets, hand out beat CDs, hand out mix tapes with songs you have produced (i need to do more of this).

Become the beats and express your true emotion through your music. A lot of people tell me I have a lot of emotion in my songs and people really seem like they feel it a lot because its different somehow. I don't believe that you will get anywhere with anything trying to be like someone else. Sure, you can imitate sounds and styles of music, but your own little touch of passion will separate yours from the rest.

I know im babbling, but I learned everything on my own (other than internet tutorials and stuff like that), never had a teacher for music or marketing and stuff like that. This has just been the basics of my experience. Yeah, there is a lot more in between but that is the gist of it so far. Hopefully that helps and if anyone has any questions just holler at me.

peace

oh yeah, if anyone needs, i have a full list of like 100 contracts. dont buy into people that sell you contracts, that is pointless. just holler at me on issoproductions@gmail.com and i can send you the contracts free. they are all music related, too.

Now, OF COURSE I don't make music just to get money - that's stupid and results dirty south or 808 and heartbreak (never heard it, but I already know what it sounds like).

Thing is, I certainly can't go out and expose my stuff - there are no artists willing to buy around here, that's why I plan selling over the internet.

And you're right about beat-selling scam-sites. I see them like that too.

I also had some people asking about my beats but guess what? "No free beats? 'wink wink'" F NO!

Also, I gave away a beat to some pretty known artist... but he seemed like an unprofessional jacker. He told me he will contact me to see if he will use the beat but nothing till now. I will see that when the next album will be released.

You guys...

You see the beat selling sites as scamss...?

In this topic here, I gave a few tips on beat selling.. These tips were obtained by me by one of those beat selling websites.. Read those pointers, and tell me if you would've ever thought of that by yourself.. and those are just a few simple tips from the total package of knowledge they have to offer..

This whole beat selling thing over the net is a new market.. and if you wanna make alot of money it's just a simple case of marketing.. Nothin' else. Your beats don't even have to be "OMFG LEGEND!!" to sell that great.. I mean there are dudes that make $ 2000,- on soundclick alone EACH month! You will notice that their beats ain't "all that" naww mean.. BUT they do know how to do their marketing.

If you wanna do errr'thang by yourself that's cool also.. but if you have no sense of how a 'market' functions you will never be able to "really enjoy the finest apples from the tree" if you know what I mean...

i agree with TI on this thing about marketing

Marketing really the most important thing.I've read some books about marketing and I'm doing everything step by step but it takes some time.

^ true

lol it would be cool if you have good friends who are willing to market u 2 XD

The issue I have with Myspace and other sites is that people can easily rip music off the page, might it be through some program or just holding a mic up and recording. What do you guys do to counter that? Put like an electronic voice-signature every couple bars or what?

I would assume that not all the beat selling sites are scams, but I have a feeling that they all get a commission off of your sales. Its really about how you want to go about your business. I don't have the slightest doubt that a few select people do make a decent living off of beat selling web sites and I know for sure that some people do it off of soundclick. Marketing is a big key in the music industry. You just have to keep pushing your material and put it right in the publics face EVERY day. you cant come out with 1 new joint a month and expect people to keep coming back. Maybe 1 beat a day, every 2 days or 1 a week if you can keep up with it but I know a lot of folks have real jobs and other stuff to do. I usually try to keep it to 1 beat every 2 days or at least 1 a week

As for people ripping and stealing your music, deal with it because its going to happen regardless. You arent the only one getting your stuff jacked. The entire music industry is getting jacked, oh well. Even if you tag your beats, other producers can most likely create what you have created or something similar to that. It really isn't that hard, people do it on warbeats all the time (REMAKES)... tagging is somewhat of a safeguard, but i pretty much stopped doing it unless i was giving the beat away for free. i personally think its annoying to hear a whispering tag throughout the entire beat

if people are serious about their craft, they will put a price on it and pay you for what you do, thats the bottom line

you gotta spend money to make money, and if you cant make the beats yourself, you gotta pay someone to do it (people like us). that goes the same with pretty much any trade in the world

you gotta spend money to make money

thats the realest thing i think someones said on this forum

the thing is i cant really complain about not getting enough plays on sound click or whatever cause its not a VIP page, and on that site no one gives a ish about your music is you're not VIP.

some people will disagree but its true.. you get higher rated in the charts with VIP, the page looks better (marketing!!), its just a fact.

at first i thought i could be making money selling my beats online then i realized that my style of music isn't really well recieved over places like sound click or myspace, and even if it was i'd be dealing with the sampling issues (even though i see a few beats get sold over those sites without clearance).

i think the best bet to really beak into this thing is to give a demo to someone you know in the industry, you got to know someone..or else you'll just be another fish in the huge sea of online beat selling websites. I actually had someone from a starting recording studio in my area want to get me in the studio, but I'll face it I'm more comfortable making beats at home and am a little intimidated by how much i would have to switch up making beats in a new setting

I've had people who i give beats away too be like "ohh you should really be selling these," but thats just the thing.. I know they won't pay for them..so.......lol  I see my myspace plays as like friends who like to listen, not as prospective clients you know? I would eventually like that to change though.

^ I will get to you about this in the morning =P I gotta dress myself for a party XD.. Gon' be some heavy blazin' and drinking again! + I'm responsible for the music ^o^!
But I will get back to you on this matter ...