To be honest I find it hard to believe anyone is really making money selling beats to artists online. JohnnyJuliano has millions of plays and is at the top of soundclick and only gets a couple sales a day. He said this in a video
hip hop/rap is just too saturated with fakers and liars..you have to basically go through 1,000's of fakes just to get to one serious artist who cares about what he is doing
I'd say focus on placements/licensing to games/tv/film or start making other genres if you want to survive as an artist
Also depends on the type of beats you make I think, cause more serious "lyricists" rap on slow simple beats. Fast mainstream beats are usually for the "entertainers"
Sucks really