Your price is your price because....

joey tunez

joey tunez

Subliminalz Music Team
Had a slight run in with this with a local rapper and figured i'd share.

I was working with a young rapper who was known for buying beats from a local big name producer despite not really being "on". you could tell that they probably had a past in the form of him buying beats from the producer before he was anybody. regardless the guy is pretty known now and it was clear that he normally gets beats from him at a pretty good rate.

now one of the unspoken rules about pricing is that it is what it is between one person and that one person only.

in short

You not telling people my price is what gets you your good price.

and here is why.

The second this young rapper broke the rule chaos was created.
Him telling me this producers price instantly made me create an appropriate price beneath him. eg "well "BIG NAME PRODUCER" charges me X so....."
which is fine, problem is i happen to know the actual producer and all it took was one gchat convo to make things really awkward in the next convo.
now i know this is the point were producers usually go all over the top and chase down mac miller demanding he put their name on the youtube page, but i like to go a different rout.
its already awkward enough for the kid getting caught in a lie and truthfully im not even in the position to break the lil homies bank and its not in my character even if i was.

I'm just gonna pull him to the side and tell him that in order for us to have a working business relationship we gotta be able to come to a more honest understanding. He wouldn't like it if i sold his beat to someone else before it went to him.

anyway i was curious to know what you guys thought about telling peoples price. i know its common nowadays to just flat the hell out have your price online but for those who are open to haggle how awkward/difficult is it telling people new to this how discussing other peoples prices aint hot? or do you even feel that way? why or why not?
 
I wouldn't know. Give me a pack of cigarettes and a #3 with cheese supersized and you can use the beat....not have but use. Gotta give me something.
 
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The person who speaks first is at a disadvantage when it comes to negotiating. My suggestion is to ask thlemwhat their budget is first, and also have in mind what you are willing to take for the beat. If someone says they have $50 for an exclusive, and you wanted say...$200 for the beat, tell them your exclusives usually start at $500, they will of course want to talk you down but if you get anything over $200 you won.

If you look at it from the other end and you come out saying you want $200 from the jump, they will still try to talk you down and you will end up not making the sale or getting less than what you wanted for the beat.
 
Don't haggle. Have a set price for everyone.



My studio prices don't change (unless you're family). My songwriting and production rates ain't changing.



Only way someone can say they got a lower rate is if they contracted me before a price hike.



Simple.
 
I have a set figure in my head for an exclusive, but that changes depending on the persons talent... If the dude sounds like Limp Bizkit, I'm going to want more money, because I ain't selling a beat that I can sell to a dope artist, to a shit artist a day earlier, at the same price... I'm happy with my normal price, but if you're wack, I want a compensation fee for having to put my name on something that will probably be a wack project, e.g. album(Please note that the compensation fee usually starts nearly 2 times higher than my original price)... Although, if the songs wack, I'll tell them, and I'll tell them to bring their A game, or they can have a refund... But, then if you don't let me hear a draft, and then publish it, that artist will go straight on my black list. Ain't working with you if you don't stick to the rules I gave you when we first spoke about working together, sort of thing...

I tell them straight what my price is... If they don't like it, they're going to negotiate you down, but then... When I see the rappers going to negotiate, I pull out... It's non-negotiable... If I wanted to negotiate I'd, for example, start off at $1000 and then let them work their way down, but I don't like to **** with people like that.. Art work only start off at the artists price, and rise... They don't depreciate, so why should my art be any different?

You either pay the price or near enough(I'll only go 10% lower - if you go below 10%, I've walked away)... If you do a good job and don't cause me hassle, then I'll through in a little bonus(An extra instrumental maybe - this isn't a deal sweetener, I usually don't tell the artist until I get the money) to increase our relationship. I'm not going to do it everytime, but enough so that you know I'm generous, and enough for you to know that you can build a trust with me.
 
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if it takes you an hour to make a beat and you can sell it for $200 thats good money - sell 10 a week , upscale and you will be in the top 10% of earners within a year.
 
Tried the set price thing. no go.
some beats i make are simple "midi beats" with a bunch of synths that take me less than a day including a mix, i'll happily sell those for dirt all the time.
some take weeks and involve session players that i pay hourly and if a client comes up drooling they are paying full price.

I even tried to give beats away totally for free at a time on a couple of joint venture deals but those have been filled.

honestly i don't care 90% of of the time, but don't lie to me is my point. people don't realize they may be getting a hook up price because you got history. you telling someone your producers price makes no sense
 
joey tunez said:
Tried the set price thing. no go.
some beats i make are simple "midi beats" with a bunch of synths that take me less than a day including a mix, i'll happily sell those for dirt all the time.
some take weeks and involve session players that i pay hourly and if a client comes up drooling they are paying full price.

I even tried to give beats away totally for free at a time on a couple of joint venture deals but those have been filled.

honestly i don't care 90% of of the time, but don't lie to me is my point. people don't realize they may be getting a hook up price because you got history. you telling someone your producers price makes no sense
Click to expand...



See, to me, you're making 2 mistakes...




1) Making simple "midi beats". Every track that you make should be your BEST effort at that time. Why would you only give a half ass effort, for something that's gonna represent you?


2) Don't give people a hook up price. Because people will tell someone else what they paid for it, and those people will expect the same price.




I had the same thing happen. I hooked someone up a few years ago with a rate of $20/hr on some studio time. It was a dude who I went to high school with, so I was giving him the hook up.



This cat went and told like 5 other people, who all expected to come in and get the same rate. One of these people been on that rate for like 3 years now! I recently had to jack it WAY UP (to normal). Needless to say, they weren't happy.
 
naw troup, i may have been a bit inarticulate how i put it with "midi beats". im not telling them that. im just saying i have a lot more wiggle room with those because they didn't cost me that much to make, especially when compared to the fully composed beats with session players etc.

and yeah I understand with the "price snitchin" now lol.
i always understood that you keep price talks quite but i guess the game changed lol.
 
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