Do you have a stash vault?

A

AG Beats

New member
So what do you do?


Immediately upload every track you make for critique/showcasing? Or do you make a track and let it marinate for a day or so before you review and release it?

Do you keep your 'bangers' in a vault to keep them exclusive and release other stuff?


Right now Im mainly releasing almost everything I make just cause I dont have any real buzz yet and im trying to show off or whatever, but have recently started a folder for my exclusive shit. right now I only got one full beat in it, but thats where stuff Im trying to keep secret will go.

That way I can have something for the artist who says, do you have anything no one has heard before?

I was thinking that maybe the reason you dont hear, SSO, vybe, etc beats all over the place is cause when they put them on SC for everyone to hear, they loose exclusivity. Of course they have some placements, but id almost bet that the artists said let me hear whats NOT on the soundclick... cause their beats are definitely 'industry quality' and im speaking in terms of clean mixes etc etc.


Obviously you want to release shit for people to hear until you have regular inquires from artists, an HD full of unheard beats will get you no where, but im thinking it may be a good idea to keep some stash heat as well. Input? Lets talk about real shit on here that will help us better our craft not gossip about other dudes (rappers/producers who already made it)
 
I closed my vault. All it is, is old beats that nobody wanted.


Right now, I don't make beats unless someone cuts me a check first. If I sit down to make a beat, it's because someone has contracted me to do a song, or I'm creating a song for licensing purposes.



But I'm not sitting in my studio, spending countless hours just "making beats", in case someone wants one of them.



That operating procedure has always been very crazy to me. In any other business, if someone wants your services, they don't ask you to "do the work" first, and then if they like it, they'll pay you. They make a deposit on the work, and then pay you the other half upon satisfactory completion.


Only in "producing" can someone say "yeah, send me some beats", and you spend a month working on beats, and you send em off and they say "ehhh...I don't like any of those.


So you just wasted your time.




I'm not doing that anymore. Write the check, or I'm not even turning this equipment on.
 
Thats interesting troup, what do you suggest to people like me who are still building everything? Im about a year into all this so far. A lot of the sitting and making beats right now is practice for me, trying to find my sound, plus i just enjoy it.


Also, do you get regular licensing placements? I recently signed up for....shit i think its pump audio....? Im waiting to be green lit right now. Any other avenues I should look at? Ive heard of rumblefish but what do you do?
 
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AG Beats said:
Thats interesting troup, what do you suggest to people like me who are still building everything? Im about a year into all this so far. A lot of the sitting and making beats right now is practice for me, trying to find my sound, plus i just enjoy it.


Also, do you get regular licensing placements? I recently signed up for....shit i think its pump audio....? Im waiting to be green lit right now. Any other avenues I should look at? Ive heard of rumblefish but what do you do?
Click to expand...



What do i recommend? Study the greats...keep practicing...I mean every day, for hours a day. You get out of it what you put into it. Don't try to know everything right now. Pace yourself, because there's more to know to this thing than you probably realize right now.


Umm...I guess you can say I get regular licensing placements. But they are all deals I put together like 4 years ago.


Hell, I logged into my PRO account today and noticed that I had some stuff placed on Country Music Television! I was like uhhh, ok! lol



I don't know much about the placement services (Pump, Rumblefish, etc). I took my music directly to the Music Supervisors, and built relationships from there.
 
i make beats for fun, but i dont work on anything specific unless theres something in my bank account to show for it. for the most part

its good to be prepared but most times you gonna have to submit newer stuff anyway
 
most ppl are making at least a beat a day
so you'll have a vault no matter what
but
what you decide to display online or send out to artists is up to you and what they are requesting
that's why having relationships in place is important that way you have artists to shop your beats to
instead of them just sitting on your hard drive.







-Coach Antonio
"Let Me Handle your next Praise Party"


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Yeah, Im coming up on my first year in October/November. I practice all the time, this is almost all I do lol. For my first year in my eyes Ive been very successful. I have learned sooo much and my beats have improved drastically but I have a ways to go.

Did you go to the 'music supervisors' by figuring out who they were from credits or what?



This is interesting to hear that you two mostly do custom works for a check. I see a lot of vids of X Producer "playing beats for" x Rapper.

I guess a good game plan would be to have a vault of your favorite beats you made, a bunch of released shit on mediums like soundclick and personal websites, and keep your skills sharp so you can go in on custom beats fairly quickly.
 
Usually Im sittin on 30 to 40 beats and up. When I start working on projects I become a bit of a perfectionist and that causes me to toss out alot of tracks, so I might have an EP with 5 tracks and 20 beats that didn't make the cut lol. Then beyond that, I make a gang of beats to try out new production techniques and to get thoughts and ideas out of my head.
 
@Tone i make a bunch of snippets in a day, but i normally have to take a break after I go all out and put a bunch of time/effort into a fully completed record. I generally make SOMETHING in fl every day, just may not be finished or ever get finished lol. Actually I probably make about 5+ throwaways a day.
 
j.troup said:
In any other business, if someone wants your services, they don't ask you to "do the work" first, and then if they like it, they'll pay you. They make a deposit on the work, and then pay you the other half upon satisfactory completion.
Click to expand...

That's not true at all. In almost every business that involves selling product, you create the product first and shop the finished product. Very rarely do "made to order" businesses thrive. Except for when offering "services". I look at PRODUCTION, as PRODUCING a PRODUCT. Not providing a service. Mixing, mastering, recording, etc. would be a service.

But in producing, you would think producers would be making music constantly regardless of specific request from a rapper. You're right it would be dumb to make beats for somebody specific without getting paid first. But it's not a complete waste of time because someone else might want those beats.

What if rappers made people pay for their albums before they even started recording? Hip Hop would die.

But if it works for you, do what you do.
 
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AG Beats said:
@Tone i make a bunch of snippets in a day, but i normally have to take a break after I go all out and put a bunch of time/effort into a fully completed record. I generally make SOMETHING in fl every day, just may not be finished or ever get finished lol. Actually I probably make about 5+ throwaways a day.
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I understand that
right now I'm on the laptop and headphones only sometime I go down into the studio and use the MIDI keyboard is all creative mode right now I don't even mix right now strictly make and go on to the next
trying to get together 20-40 hot beats and starting looking at pumpaudio and rumblefish and presenting instrumentals to the christian artists I have been building relationships with

I use to be a snippet dude but I always try to finish a beat in a day
that's why I usually only make one a day

sept. I should be in mix mode
I just put up a mixing cloud in my studio last night
and added some home/consumer grade speakers to my setup along with my monitors I have on stands

so while working on creative stuff I say work on your studio environment and building your brand







-Coach Antonio
"Let Me Handle your next Praise Party"


Make Money from Your Music New Money Marketing Forum
Music Business Professionals Read Their Tips
Elite Services for those Who Want to Attain their Goals
Research and Information Gathering Expert
Building Relationships to Build Success
Get the Information and Direction You Deserve
The Walking On Water Media/Ent. Business Coach Antonio​
 
AG Beats said:
Yeah, Im coming up on my first year in October/November. I practice all the time, this is almost all I do lol. For my first year in my eyes Ive been very successful. I have learned sooo much and my beats have improved drastically but I have a ways to go.
Click to expand...

I'll be at Year 10 in May, and I'm still learning. I learn something new every time I sit down in the studio.



AG Beats said:
Did you go to the 'music supervisors' by figuring out who they were from credits or what?
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Actually, yes. The first time I got lucky. I cold called an Indie Record label in LA, and he just happened to get a new gig being the Music Supervisor for a new MTV show. He passed my music along, and it just worked out from there.


For some of the deals I did, I just watched the credits for TV shows for the name of the music supervisor / coordinator, and contacted the production house. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.


The people doing the Kim Kardashian Show (when the show was still being developed) actually found me on YouTube and reached out to me. That one was pretty shocking.


And other licensing money just comes from knowing people who know people. A buddy might hit me up and say "ay, you got some old tracks/songs laying around you wanna split the licensing on? And I go sure. It's non exclusive and the tracks aren't making any money sitting on my hard drive.


AG Beats said:
This is interesting to hear that you two mostly do custom works for a check. I see a lot of vids of X Producer "playing beats for" x Rapper.
Click to expand...


I just got tired of playing the game. At this stage, people are coming to me to work with me, because either they know my work, or they've gotten a recommendation from someone. Either way, they are seeking me out with full intentions on working with me.

I got real frustrated when someone would ask me to submit music for something, and I spend 2 weeks working on tracks, and they are like "ehhh, I don't like any of these". It was getting frustrating, and I felt like I was wasting my time.

And then those people who you do send tracks to, and they like a few, but no songs ever materialize. Nothing ever happens. Why? Because the music you sent them doesn't have any value. They got it for free from you, so if they sit on their hard drive collecting eDust, they don't lose a thing.

But if they had to X amount for that music, then if they don't do anything with em, then they lose that money. And nobody wants to lose money!


So any client that I get, has to give me 50% of my fee up front, and then 50% upon approval of the finished product.




AG Beats said:
I guess a good game plan would be to have a vault of your favorite beats you made, a bunch of released shit on mediums like soundclick and personal websites, and keep your skills sharp so you can go in on custom beats fairly quickly.
Click to expand...


A good game plan for you would be to just keep on practicing, keep developing your skills, and get your music in the ears of as many people as possible. Doesn't matter who they are.


When you get to the point where you can make records, then make records with artists...cuz beats have no value. Records are the things that sell.
 
For me, when Im about to go in I know it. I just snap into this....mode.....

Idk how to explain it but it just go into production overdrive and normally finish the thing in one go....if not one go its normally like an hour session....break....add to it for another session...break....then I always break a while before I mix/master. Thats just to rest the ears, theyll play tricks on you lol. I normally upload a beat when I deem it to be finished but just like lilro said I look at a beat as a product, the more you have, the more you can potentially sell. And shit if nothing else you upped yo skillz a little lol
 
i got about 75 beats in the "vault" but thats just because no one wants my shit so its not really a vault its a retirement home.
 
@troup,


Thnks for the detailed reply, that's some good game right there. I definitely see your point about the sending stuff in part. Its one thing to make a beat for fun, and then have someone want it, but I can see where it would suck to try and do some custom work then get bluffed on. For me its gotta be me making what I wanna make. When I go in on a specific genre or a specific reason, as of now it sometimes kills my creativity. But that will just get better with time I know that.


This is what FP is for, producers discussing shit like this! Not this, "Rick Ross doesnt really own his diamond chains" "Nicki M slept with bla bla bla fuggin bla" lol
 
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lilro said:
That's not true at all. In almost every business that involves selling product, you create the product first and shop the finished product. Very rarely do "made to order" businesses thrive. Except for when offering "services". I look at PRODUCTION, as PRODUCING a PRODUCT. Not providing a service. Mixing, mastering, recording, etc. would be a service.

But in producing, you would think producers would be making music constantly regardless of specific request from a rapper. You're right it would be dumb to make beats for somebody specific without getting paid first. But it's not a complete waste of time because someone else might want those beats.

What if rappers made people pay for their albums before they even started recording? Hip Hop would die.

But if it works for you, do what you do.
Click to expand...



Well that's the difference in our outlook on things. I provide a service. Producing a record is a service. It involves alot of parts.


Yes, you can sell those beats/songs to other people. But what if no one wants it? You just wasted 40 hours making a song.




Even in the electronics industry, when someone is selling a TV, the Research and Development people GET PAID to do what they do. The manufacturing people GET PAID to put that TV together. That's before any TV ever gets sold.


It's up to Samsung to then go and sell those TV's (their product) to make their money. But the people who provided the SERVICES that went into Samsung's product (R&D, Marketing, Manufacturing, etc) get PAID FIRST.


Artists = Samsung

Producer = R&D/Manufacturing.
 
j.troup said:
Well that's the difference in our outlook on things. I provide a service. Producing a record is a service. It involves alot of parts.


Yes, you can sell those beats/songs to other people. But what if no one wants it? You just wasted 40 hours making a song.




Even in the electronics industry, when someone is selling a TV, the Research and Development people GET PAID to do what they do. The manufacturing people GET PAID to put that TV together. That's before any TV ever gets sold.


It's up to Samsung to then go and sell those TV's (their product) to make their money. But the people who provided the SERVICES that went into Samsung's product (R&D, Marketing, Manufacturing, etc) get PAID FIRST.


Artists = Samsung

Producer = R&D/Manufacturing.
Click to expand...

I see you. I just feel with something as subjective as music, people will pay for what they like. And they will know what they like when they HEAR it. It's hard to pay for something when you have no idea what the outcome will be. With a TV, there's expectations of what the finished product will be. There is a plan for what the TV will be before they start making it. They know how many inputs it will have, resolution, etc. Then it's up to R&D/Manufacturing to create the expected product. Or with CPUs, they want to make what is better than what is already out there, and with electronics it is objective, unlike music. They want it faster, smaller, and running cooler. You can't really categorize music like that.

There was a 9th Wonder interview a while back where he talked about growing musically and changing his style, but when he played them, everyone wanted the original 9th sound, so he had to go back and make what the people liked to hear. I'll try to find it.
 
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When you got people that know your sound, and know your beats and trust your skill though they will pay you. I bet the "industry" producers can demand a deposit before they go in on a custom track....


But something also tells me that they have beats on beats they can show mfs too.
 
lilro said:
I see you. I just feel with something as subjective as music, people will pay for what they like. And they will know what they like when they HEAR it. It's hard to pay for something when you have no idea what the outcome will be.
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That's why I work collaboratively with people, and they approve every step of the process.


If they don't like it, then we go back to the drawing board. They have to approve everything before I get the other half of my money. So I want them to be happy.



But I'm working for 40 hours trying to make something that you like without any compensation. That's insanity.



No...it's VOLUNTEERING. That's what it is. And I don't volunteer anymore.



Nor do I produce for "regular artists" anymore.
 
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