How to sell beats online (without cheapening your brand)

Categories: Music Business

The topic of selling beats frequently comes up during my consultations with music producers as there is a ton of uncertainty on how music producers should monetize their talent. In this week’s live stream we discussed various ways to sell beats online without cheapening your brand or diluting music culture. This video takes a close look at the music business landscape for artists, music producers and content creators and provides insights on how to better position yourself to sell beats online as a music producer. Some of the main takeaways from this stream:

1.) Selling beats online is a viable way to monetize your craft as a music producer.
2.) Beats on their own do not provide enough potential return on investment for artists today since streaming and digital sales do not create a large enough revenue stream for indie artists.
3.) Music producers should not have “transactional” relationships with clients and leads for their beats. Producers need to shift towards providing more supportive services to give artists more opportunity to deliver music content that is meaningful and memorable to music consumers.
4.) Producers should develop a social content strategy that allows them to assert their expertise as a music producer while adding value to music artists.
5.) Producers that are looking to place their music on television need to able to adhere to formats and specifications extremely well. There is no room for high emotional attachment to music made for these platforms as the music is more functional than creative.
6.) Television and Film media outlets are interested in “Type Beats” because they provide the opportunity to express familiar and modern music elements within their video productions for a much lower cost.
7.) YouTube is the new television for many consumers and music producers should begin to explore the market of video content producers when selling beats online.

Watch the full video here: