Tag Your Beats

Lets Network

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If your goal is to make money with your beats tagging them should be a obvious thing to do. If you are just a hobbyist giving away free beats to see if some one likes it enough to record on it just so it can make you feel good , kill yourself! LOL. Just kidding. But damn respect the game. That's like being on the block giving away free product to some one that would normally pay. Sure, you make beats for artists, you got a 9 to 5 and you are just making beats for fun so you are not pressed about making no money off beats. Great so pat yourself on your back because you are just making it harder for producers who are. If you are trying to make money off of your beats and you have those same beats untagged on the net i assure you that someone has your beats loaded up in there program and is recording vocals to them as you read this article. Or even worst, they have them on a cd and is selling them hand to hand to people in there city. Believe me i have been in studios while people were downloading your beats and not even remembering where they downloaded the beats from. So please tag your beats not for me but for the whole beat selling game.
 
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I agree it ruins the market but giving away beats that your going to throw away anyways isnt a bad idea I actually met with a very talented artist through free beats and we have hit it off since then, it has open many doors for me.
 
I just think it sounds ugly and we should stop doing it. If you really want to know who produced it shazam should add a "produced by" section.
 
Do you not feel if the only thing a person does is makes beats for money then that person is putting their selves in a very closed box?

Let reiterate:

If Jay Z only relied on his music to make money in his career then he would not be who he is today. He sells more then music because he clothing line is sure to make more then his albums. Clothing is not the only business venture he has his toes in either and this is what leads him to be the mogul he has become.

Dr. Dre as well (since we are talking about people who make beats) beats by Dre have put him so far ahead financially that he honestly does not have to work for the rest of his life.

We live in a day in age where things are evolving. Hollywood does not hire actors because that is all they are good at. They hire them because can meet society expectations on what is considered "perfect" and they can sing on top of their acting.
 
Some great thoughts in this thread.

I understand where you are coming from OP, and certainly respect it.

But just to add another thought:

If you are giving away free beats every time (like what you were describing), then most likely you aren't the best. You may be good, but if you aren't wanting to make any money and are simply giving your tracks away, then likely you haven't spent enough time to truly be industry competitive. (Naturally I understand that there are many competitive sounding people that give away beats for free, but it's more than likely part of a plan to get more work in the future. Not just willy-nilly.)

So if this is the case, it's simply increasing the TALENT and DRIVE needed to actually make it. If your stuff sounds better, is more captivating, is more relevant to the purpose... then you will sell, no matter how many free beats someone is giving away.

But yes, I would agree that it is definitely making it harder for producers to make much on their work for quite some time. You have to be that much better at SOMETHING. (Whether it's marketing, your actual music, or both.)

Just some free thoughts to add to the conversation.
 
If you starting out dont need to tag your beats since they wont sell anyway but once you get serious sure its a common thing to tag em to prevent stealing . I got jack up many time to before i start tagging my beats but those who steal beat arnt serious artist anyway . Any real emcee will ask for multi tracking so it can be mixed properly . The good thing about posting untag beat is that it will attract more artist to your page and you will see your views go up since some dont like rapping over tag beat and they rap just for fun .
 
I personally think you can't start selling beats, unless you got your name out there. well, you can but you might not sell shit if no one has heard your beats. That's why freebeats are good idea at the beginning... atleast that's the case where i live. when i started i had no connections or nothing. I had some skills but people didnt take my price tags seriously.
 
I agree 100% with this article!!!! I thought I was the only one who thought my beats we're too valuable and I work too hard for my beats to be stolen and used without my authorization and no producer credits! I tag my beats properly and I feel that's what separates the best from the worst... Ppl who tag their beats it shows that they care and they usually produce better beats than the ones who don't. #StraightUp
 
Giving away freebeats is good depending on the situation. maybe you can give away 2-3 beats to bring people to your site
 
I def say tag your beats especially if you're giving them away free. Otherwise their is no connection between you and the artist who's gonna use it. I almost always try to tag my beats. Only way I wouldn't if it's an exclusive and I've already established some type of relationship with the artist Even then tagging your beats gets you notice for other artists who may be interested in your beat.



Tagged beat right there. lol
 
I see the same. if for free beats i tag one Times.
for sale beats I Tag repeatedly.
 
Not sure what y'all say about tagging but i'd never give out my beats for free, i don't care if they suck or whatever.
 
Hi there!

Just the right thread I do not wish to derail at all, but I would much appreciate it if one of you gentleman could please inform me on what a "beat" is? I don't understand the concept of why payment is made for a beat, a beat in my mind could be a lot of things. I know what a beat is in musical context, just not in urban culture. Is it a loop? An entire song ready for dubbing? A trademark groove?

I find it to be a somewhat large source of income for some which is whats got me curious. I've searched google and nothing explains it well. you could pm me if it's of concern that the thread strays off topic. Thanks a million.
 
a beat can be any of those structures you mentioned lasting as little as 4 bars or upwards of 200 bars. The inherent structure is down to the individual beatsmith.

Payment is not dependent on length but on use and deployment by the purchaser: if they expect to sell 5000 copies of their use then they pay a fee related to that number of sales; If they find they can sell more then they need to pay an additional licence fee for further sales in blocks of whatever size the beatsmith wants to sell the licence for (could be 1000, could be a further 5000, seller decides and sets the price accordingly).

Exclusive usage leases are more costly as there is only one seller/user: depending on what the buyer wants to actually own, the costs can quickly escalate

- if you want to be known as the creator of all parts of it and so get all of the broadcast/publishing/mechanical/synchronisation rights and payments that are tied to that, then expect to pay at least 10 x what an exclusive lease would be which is usually is 10 x a non-exclusive lease

Why the hike? Because exclusive means a narrowing of the revenue stream to only only purchaser. Selling all rights further narrows the revenue stream, as the creator is giving up all future revenue streams associated with that track - if it blows up that is a lot of lost money (easily more than 10 x what is paid)
 
Why would you buy keyboards, pad controllers(or even standalone MPC style gear), VSTs, PCs, Laptops, Extra Screens, Monitors, Interfaces, Mics, Sample Packs then spend hours every day learning how to play in this scale or that or how to make that sound just so you can take all that you put together only to put it online and give away beats for free? I agree you should at the very least have a tag on the beat just so niggas know it was you but honestly, you should either admit that you are doing this for fun with some delusions of grandeur or your business model is really sh!tty cause these EDM kids are making money no rapper needed. Hell even they saw ya'll were lacking belief in your own product and created a genre based on your music just to show you that a rapper ain't ish.

Ya'll see this happening and ya'll are still out here trying to sell beats to Lil B and some RnB singing a$$ n!gga.
 
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