Your Beats & His Mixtape

[Rod Martinez]

Do u think we as futureproducers should think more about our VALUE in what we do? When I come to think about it Value stems from monetary gain in this industry. Pats on the back on Good job,. and vocal tags on the beat are not enuff these days to compete with the rising market of our peers. So my question to you is....Should u charge an artist to use ur beat on his or her FREE mixtape? What's it benifiting you to let a No Name artist use One of ur beats for free????

[901_Rice_Street]

You own the rights.......so with that said....


"Thanks for that hair cut homie.....need a beat? I got you!"

What's worse.........a beat being on somebody's mixtape that only got 200 downloads in 5 years........or that beat still sitting on a computer since Lean Back......waiting on some major rapper to jump on it? Nobody heard it....because of the fear that it will get stolen by a beat jacker. It was the one......that one beat out of the five that was going to turn your life around.

The benefits of giving a beat out is atleast hearing the final product.......some people don't even get that. Dudes are suppose to be hustlers right....you would expect to atleast hear your beat being rapped on on the mixtape.....or even know the mixtape is out......Not even a link for the mixtape.

[iambase]

[edit] **** what I said underneath and see for yourself : http://shouldiworkforfree.com/


You are offering a service so yes..
Should people sell crayons to artists who draw for fun ? yes...

It's difficult to not give away for free sometimes (at least I had that problem at some point) but in the end, it's more a problem of self-esteem. You can give for free but it should not be consistent. Run a business, not a charity. (I was in the mindset of being charitable to niggas but **** it, ain't none of them charitable to us producers).

Now if people don't wanna pay, there are other ways to get you rmusic around, but it is harder (or rather less straightforward) to get into it. Licensing for one. And by the way, if artists don't pay, they either don't respect you or your art enough. In that case, it might also mean that you are not great enough in their eyes. In that case, they don't really want your product, it's just good/different enough for them and for the price tag it's at. In that case, you will have to work more on your craft.

But be sure that people won't respect you more because you give them shit for free. Now the problem is changing your mindset. Don't depend on beatmaking for getting you life changing money just yet if ever. So you will not become desperate when it does not pan out because it's a way to start thinking about short selling yourself.

[thunderkyss]

I'm not even in the game, so take this with a grain of salt.

I don't think selling your beats is going to get you anywhere. It's small time. Small time thinking, small time results. Too much thinking about getting paid today & no vision of the future.

It is a business, it is your product & you need to have as much control of how that product is distributed & presented to the public. If you sell your beats, you're giving up control to the rapper to do with it as he wishes. If you're not working with the artist to develop the finished product, you're not much of a producer, your the talent. The drummer, if you will.

You need to focus on building a crew, like NWA, like the Wu-Tang Clan, like public enemy, like the Neptunes. Find a group of artist, form a partnership with them, collaborate with them, promote them (or form a partnership with a promoter). Figure out the money thing up front & make sure everyone agrees. If no money is coming in (say a mixtape freely distributed) no one gets paid. If you've got a group getting paid to do a show, everyone involved gets a cut (figure the cuts out up front; 10% for you, 5% for the promoter, 10% for future investment, 50% for the performer(s) or something similar).

The goal is a record contract. At first, you're going to get what you can get & make the most out of it. As you get better at your craft, target better artist, target a better promoter, drop dead weight, even pick up other producers. If you are who you think you are, if your work ethic & talent is all that, you'll blow up, your crew will blow up.

Either way, there's more of a future there, than selling beats.

[Lets Network]

listen to yourself, your answering your own questions.
set aside a few free beats and let the trolls eat....
most businesses offer some type of free products or services. use free beats as a gimmick.