The Lokkz
The Lokkz Music
So first i want to start off by explaining why you shouldnt give away free beats.
In my opinion and in the opinion of plenty other professional producers and engineers, giving away free work is only crippling this industry by helping create artists that only want free stuff. Artists are beginning to not understand the value of our work and act like they are doing us a favor by using our stuff because it gives us exposure.
Lets say you have a young artist who is new to the game. He writes lyrics and practices over instrumentals of popular songs. He is now ready to make original music and start building a name for himself. So he goes online and searches for beats. Either his first impression is seeing people offer free beats and it becomes a norm to him instead of an extra incentive. He then expects it instead of appreciating it. Or he could be going through with buying a beat and one of hisbrapper friends comes to him and is like, no dont buy beats. You can get plenty of beats for free.
If we keep giving work for free then this mindset will grow and grow. We will continue to see less sales and have more unnappreciative artists. This will also cause artists to not take us serious. When they see you giving your stuff away, they immediately think that you are still an ammateur and doing it as a hobby and it makes you seem desperate. You have people like anno domini beats giving away hindreds of heats away just for signing up to their mailing list. Every artist i know has never taken them serious and plus i have never heard them doing any projects that are circulating other than low budget artists that release stuff with their production. Now they may like having cheap artists as their target. Food for them. But that is what they will always attract. The minute we stay firm on our value and not let people get our music for cheap, we will start attracting more serious artists who will pay the right prices. I could go on about this but the point is. Stand by your beats, by ypur mixes, mastering, stand by your time!!! You are professional so act like it. If you were to go to a website design company, they dont have free designs for you to use that will be worth it. If they do, They have simple ones that have their logo and ads all over it. And noone wants to use those.
If you are just starting out, by all means do free work to build your portfolio. But have a limit. Work on your friends stuff and find a few people to work with, then after those projects, dont do any work for free!!
So my 2nd point, since i stoppes giving away beats for free, i would like your help brainstorming on a new offer for an email list. Im thinking we can do stuff in terms of tutorials, tips, maybe video tutorials, it needs to be something that will intrigue them to sign up for the email. Most people are only wanting free beats so it has to he somethinf that can compete with that but doesnt straight up give our main products for free. So if you have any thoughts on this topic, please lend me your thoughts and lets discuss this more.
In my opinion and in the opinion of plenty other professional producers and engineers, giving away free work is only crippling this industry by helping create artists that only want free stuff. Artists are beginning to not understand the value of our work and act like they are doing us a favor by using our stuff because it gives us exposure.
Lets say you have a young artist who is new to the game. He writes lyrics and practices over instrumentals of popular songs. He is now ready to make original music and start building a name for himself. So he goes online and searches for beats. Either his first impression is seeing people offer free beats and it becomes a norm to him instead of an extra incentive. He then expects it instead of appreciating it. Or he could be going through with buying a beat and one of hisbrapper friends comes to him and is like, no dont buy beats. You can get plenty of beats for free.
If we keep giving work for free then this mindset will grow and grow. We will continue to see less sales and have more unnappreciative artists. This will also cause artists to not take us serious. When they see you giving your stuff away, they immediately think that you are still an ammateur and doing it as a hobby and it makes you seem desperate. You have people like anno domini beats giving away hindreds of heats away just for signing up to their mailing list. Every artist i know has never taken them serious and plus i have never heard them doing any projects that are circulating other than low budget artists that release stuff with their production. Now they may like having cheap artists as their target. Food for them. But that is what they will always attract. The minute we stay firm on our value and not let people get our music for cheap, we will start attracting more serious artists who will pay the right prices. I could go on about this but the point is. Stand by your beats, by ypur mixes, mastering, stand by your time!!! You are professional so act like it. If you were to go to a website design company, they dont have free designs for you to use that will be worth it. If they do, They have simple ones that have their logo and ads all over it. And noone wants to use those.
If you are just starting out, by all means do free work to build your portfolio. But have a limit. Work on your friends stuff and find a few people to work with, then after those projects, dont do any work for free!!
So my 2nd point, since i stoppes giving away beats for free, i would like your help brainstorming on a new offer for an email list. Im thinking we can do stuff in terms of tutorials, tips, maybe video tutorials, it needs to be something that will intrigue them to sign up for the email. Most people are only wanting free beats so it has to he somethinf that can compete with that but doesnt straight up give our main products for free. So if you have any thoughts on this topic, please lend me your thoughts and lets discuss this more.
