One thing I noticed is that when I give a free beat to a credible artist, 98% of the time, they don't use it, even when they BEG for it. So, I STOPPED giving away
free beats. I used to have a "finish your plate" policy where if you don't use any of the free beats I gave you, then forget about asking me for a free beat ever again. Now, for me, it's more like "buy your plate or earn it."
Now, I only offer free downloads. If artists truly want a free beat, I tell them they have to earn it. They'd have to professionally record over the TAGGED version of my beat and if I feel like it's worthy, I MIGHT CONSIDER giving them the free beat (Don't you find it weird that some artists will pay for studio time, flash $100+ on music videos, but not buy your beat?). If they have a huge fan base and are active promoters, they have more leverage.
If you're a producer just starting out, giving free beats is a good thing to do, but when you've been out there for quite a while, then don't go further than free downloads unless you have a plan. I heard my dad say once, "If you're ever going to do something (business wise) make sure there's a great reason for it. Business men always have a plan." So, if you're giving away free beats, make sure you have a plan, and a very good one at that.
One thing I noticed, though, is that if you offer free downloads, people are more open to buying your beats. A guy "robbed" one of my free downloads the other day and cut it in certain places so it can sound tagless (he left my tags in the intro "to give me credit" and contacted me about it. Kind of like saying, I robbed your wallet and here's the money I stole. Don't worry, I left your family picture in your wallet). He released a professional quality music video to it with professional quality vocals and showed it to me. I liked it and didn't complain (actually ended up promoting it). I showed him a new set of beats I had and he eagerly bought a lease to one of them the next day (even though my
zinsta store wasn't working).
Also, as a starter selling beats, I've always wanted my beats to be on someones ipods, mp3 players, radios, etc. If you ever had the same dream, free downloads is the way to go. I heard thats how people like Vybe Beatz got famous. They'd give free downloads, a person would play their track and then the artist would be like, "that beat's so dope! Who made that??" Then the person would be like, "Vybe Beatz did!"
Remember though, there's a difference between free downloads and free beats. Free downloads are short or full-fledged previews of your beat that are "distorted" in some way and can only be "undistorted" when purchased. Free beats are the full-fledged, "undistorted" beats.
---------- Post added at 11:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:55 AM ----------
ppl are only scared when its not copyrighted
True, if your beats are copyrighted, you truly have nothing to fear. People use tags as a temporary replacement to copyright.