Give out your best beats for free?

I was in the same position. I was giving a cousin beats for free, studio time for free, and he SUCKS!!! I would do all of this work for him for free, and he would never hold up his end of the bargain. Never got stuff mixed, never made the calls he was supposed to make, kept lying to me about "i got a meeting in New York next week, can you make me a package", when in reality he just needed some CD's to hustle to people to get some quick change.

My work had no value to him. So he just sh*tted all over me, and used me.



When i started charging him $200 for a package (beat, recording time, engineering), then all that changed. He ain't recorded a SINGLE SONG since I stopped giving him stuff for free.

I even charge him $20 per CD for me to burn when he wants to "send out a package". Now he's only hitting me up when he REALLY needs a CD...which has only been about 3 times, instead of him needing 20 CD's every month.
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WOW unfortunately that sounds way 2 familiar...
 
what about someone who's actually talented? should u charge them?

i got a friend whos pretty good at R and B and im producing his album, no charge, but he respects my beats. I gave him a few beat cds in 2007 and a few weaks ago (this is 2009) he brings over the same cd its not scratched or broken. I dont even have those beats no more myself.

That blew me away because my other friend who i give beat cds to loses the cd as soon as i give him the beats. I always joke about how he loses them. My theory is he gets home walks outside, closes his eyes and just throws the cd like a frisbee as hard as he can so he'll never find it.




anyway i got another friend i'm doing his album for so cheap it's embarassing to say how much im charging him. I been having a feeling he dont respect my music or something, do you think i should charge this guy more? Everything i tell him to help his career goes in one ear and out the other. he just doesn't understand what's good for him, and im trying to help, but theres no use in helping a fool who dont listen. i been thinking about just calling it off.

if anyone has some advice ill take it into consideration
 
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j.troup said:
A major artist wouldn't take your beats for free. You'd have to pay him to get on your beats.


That's what I'm trying to tell y'all. The people who you WOULD give free beats to that you can actually BENEFIT from it, would tell you to PAY THEM in order to get on your beats.



But hey...learn the hard way. All I try to do is impart a little wisdom, from someone who's actually BEEN there, and not just speculating how it SHOULD work.
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Thats what you've experienced bruh. I've had a major artist call my phone WITHOUT me giving him my number, my homeboy had one of my beat CD's and he let this rapper listen to it. Dude hit me up talking about let me hear what else you got. I let him listen to a few beats and he wanted 2 and he told me to hit him up the next day.

I told ALL my boys in the hood (HUGE MISTAKE) and they were like hit this n1gga up for $5000 for each track and I let them influence me so when I told the rapper how much I wanted to charge, dude was like naw man and he never hit me up again, 6 months later his CD dropped and he had a number 1 single for a week and went gold.

If I would have lowered the price and negotiated higher points on the album as a business man a NOT a "hustla" I'd be in a much different positioin right now. Everything happens for a reason so I'm not trippin.

What I learned:

1. Eliminate dumb and broke people from my circle.
2. I have to start somewhere and I'm not going to start out selling beats for $40,000 a pop.

Honestly, there is no right or wrong answer to this because it really depends on your situation and who you're involved with. Simple as that.

*I know for a fact that a certain iconic producer used to give tracks to Jay-Z for free so how can I charge a somebody for a track with no major catalog behind me, again depending the situation*

Oh yeah, Troup, I'm not speculating, this is what I"ve experienced first hand.
 
Thats what you've experienced bruh. I've had a major artist call my phone WITHOUT me giving him my number, my homeboy had one of my beat CD's and he let this rapper listen to it. Dude hit me up talking about let me hear what else you got. I let him listen to a few beats and he wanted 2 and he told me to hit him up the next day.

I told ALL my boys in the hood (HUGE MISTAKE) and they were like hit this n1gga up for $5000 for each track and I let them influence me so when I told the rapper how much I wanted to charge, dude was like naw man and he never hit me up again, 6 months later his CD dropped and he had a number 1 single for a week and went gold.

If I would have lowered the price and negotiated higher points on the album as a business man a NOT a "hustla" I'd be in a much different positioin right now. Everything happens for a reason so I'm not trippin.

What I learned:

1. Eliminate dumb and broke people from my circle.
2. I have to start somewhere and I'm not going to start out selling beats for $40,000 a pop.

Honestly, there is no right or wrong answer to this because it really depends on your situation and who you're involved with. Simple as that.

*I know for a fact that a certain iconic producer used to give tracks to Jay-Z for free so how can I charge a somebody for a track with no major catalog behind me, again depending the situation*

Oh yeah, Troup, I'm not speculating, this is what I"ve experienced first hand.
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haha well as long as you got a few other chances to work with majors i'd consider this as a valuable lesson in business tactics...
but if u never had a chance like that afterwards i'd say you ****ed it up ;)

but i feel you on that whole influence thing man! people who dun even have a clue what they actually talk about have a certain ability to guide you into dumb things!
guess its mainly because they pull the most simple conclusions out of the most obvious things without thinking real deep about it and you eventually get caught up in that ish...

"Oh he got money charge dat nigga 8000 a pop"
 
SannyBoi said:
haha well as long as you got a few other chances to work with majors i'd consider this as a valuable lesson in business tactics...
but if u never had a chance like that afterwards i'd say you ****ed it up ;)

Lol, I did mess it up but I've learned from my mistakes.



but i feel you on that whole influence thing man! people who dun even have a clue what they actually talk about have a certain ability to guide you into dumb things!
guess its mainly because they pull the most simple conclusions out of the most obvious things without thinking real deep about it and you eventually get caught up in that ish...

"Oh he got money charge dat nigga 8000 a pop"
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Yeah, I'm blessed to work with individuals who are married with kids who aren't concerned about all of that BS. I'm way younger than them but they are very supportive of me and only ask that I give my best.


I'm working with a few A&R's so my perspective on music is totally different I've matured drastically over the years through experiences like the one I've mentioned already. I'm not saying Troup is wrong, but if I take his "wisdom" and use it for every situation I encounter, its not going to work.
 
i see it as whether artists or producers, you have to invest in order to succeed.. i was reading Troups posts and he make a lot of valid points.. so does Justbleazy. Every situation is different.. Just have to handle them correctly.. but I'd say get something for your time and efforts.. if hes paying for the studio time, getting tracks mixed, getting it pressed up or whatever.. im sure he can fit paying for quality tracks in his budget.. especially if he's serious... and one of the most important things is to have PAPERWORK on whatever you do.. make at the end of the day your work is protected aw man I've learned the hard way on that one.. working on the "homeboy agreements" is a no-no...

eitherway...

good luck!
 
true true

LeodPenrose said:
I give out free beats to people with a buzz....
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word up i agree with everything troup and everybody saying but i agree wit ^^......its all on who you work wit honestly....i give out free beats cuz all who i work with is on it..... they do shows got albums out mixtape heavy hitters....who got connects wit real deal dudes like its all who you work with....make dudes who you dont know or dont work with on a regular bases pay on the real cuz you dont know they work ethnic nah mean keep it 100%.....if ya peeps who you was giving free beats to makes it they gotta get at you wit something in return if they ya true peeps thats why you should only give out free cats who is buzz'n and actually grinding and making a name for themselves......cuz when dudes dont know you hear you make beats and be like lets do something but then find out you charging dudes in the hood aint tryna hear that at least 70% cuz you do find dudes thats grinding and do respect what all goes into this music and networking....but theyll be like who you bro you aint nobody yet bro i pay 15$ even 20 for a actual artists album what makes you think imma pay 20 to 50 to event 100 dollars for 1 beat for you a up in comer like me??......things work like that sometimes so i agree on both sisdes if i wan..lol but its all on who you know and working wit
 
To Leonards quote ^

Ride that coattail haha.. nah but really.. that's what I've been doing... and it's been working out way better than I thought it would.

But TROUP!! If you're still lurking this thread.. Why doesn't that work? Unknowns are popping up, if you land a good amount of beats on this upcoming's work.. and dude starts turning heads..?
 
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