I'm afraid of being robbed!

B

BruceWillThis

New member
I'm somewhat of an introvert and I've been making pop beats for 4 years but only a few people have heard my stuff. Last year I started to realize that I was stunting my development by not getting feedback. In the past, if I knew someone was going to listen to my tracks, I would push myself harder to be more polished.

Recently, I became more outgoing and developed a few friendships with a couple producers over the Internet. I started trading beats/tips with this particular dude (let's call him John). John normally gives me detailed evaluations about my beats including the mix, development, transitions etc. John also sends me his tracks and I try to return the favor.

Anyway, this was going well and I became way more productive and polished as a result of these exchanges. However, last week I sent him a beat and he remade the entire beat!

Since then I haven't been able to shake the thought that he could easily remake my beat and call it his own. My beats are not registered because it would be too expensive to register a copyright for every single beat as soon as I make them. Besides most times, I create the beat then email him immediately after rendering because I want/like quick feedback. I'm not concerned with him stealing my old stuff but since I'm pushing myself to be more unique lately, I'm worried about sending him stuff in the future.

To make things even worse, I started writing/singing hooks for every beat I make and I desperately need some feedback on them. I'm too embarrassed to send my beats+hooks to my non-producer friends/relatives because they will most likely think the lyrics are about me or my life. Also, they will judge the song based my singing ability even if I tell them that a real demo singer will redo the vocals.

I'm not ready to start shopping my tracks because I don't think my stuff is unique enough yet. My goal for this year (2012) is to develop my own sound.

Anyway, how do you guys get feedback without worrying about getting your ideas or tracks stolen?
 
Cassell said:
Is this a trick question..?
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You would Think so, right?

@BruceWillThis:

Post your music to any of a million sites and choose the "do not allow download" option. This will allow people to hear, but not grab your music, generally speaking.

Peace.
 
If somebody stealing your ideas take it as a complement and keep it moving. If you made one hot track you should be able to make a lot more. It's not to much you can do unless the track becomes a big single or on a major album or something.
 
As soon as you put ANYTHING idea out of your head, regardless of if it's music, lyrics, electronics, ANYTHING...as soon as it becomes a tangible reality, it can be stolen.

Look at how many people stole timbalands ideas. How many people stole dr dre's ideas?

It happens. And you can't stop it.

Hell, how many iPhone clones are there out there??


Just make your music, and if someone tries to copy your ideas, consider it a form of flattery...cuz your idea was good enough to be copied in the first place.


Put that "I'm afraid if being robbed" idea out of your head. Because when you feel like that, your music isn't even good enough to be stolen, and by the time it is good enough to be stolen, you won't care anymore.


Trust me.
 
don't worry about it until you hear it on the radio, then you can start claiming shit and sue the **** out of him i guess
 
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im sure another producer wouldnt take the time to steal all the beats you send him unless he sucks majorly. plus, why would you only want 1 persons feedback? everybody has different ears and everybody has different opinions .. your best bet is to upload it to somewhere like soundcloud... but as for being afraid of your beats being stolen.. i could name a couple producers off the top of my head that have gotton placements because their beats got stolen and put into the right hands.. you never know what'll happen.
 
Polish your image, create a brand, get a logo, have a youtube channel etc. Put yourself out there so people can see your face.

People can steal Timbalands or Dr Dres techniques and sounds but they will always be perceived as clones, because we know where it originated from. Your goal should be to develop something around you so in the case someone does copy you, people will know where it came from.

If you are a nobody and noone knows or heard of you and you are sending your music to someone who is recognized even if it's on a smaller, indie scale, he can steal/copy your music and have everyone believe he did it.

On another note, you are only as good as your last song. If someone steals a track from you, make a better one.
 
Just zip your session folder and upload it to a filehost/your gmail on the day you make the track and before you send it out. Simple as that.

Even though I am great at analyzing songs and if a track/song has the potential to be a hit, that doesn't mean I can do it for all songs/tracks, all genres with the same precision.

You shouldn't trust a man of one book, as the saying goes and you shouldn't rely on the feedback of a single individual, especially if that's the (as it seems) only person you get feedback from.

That's the wrong strategy from the beginning.

I recently remade a track a friend sent me (because the production was mediocre and it contained a sample which needed to be replayed) and sent it out to writers. If I was an *******, I could claim 100% of the song being "my idea", but I won't. That's why people trust me with that stuff. I had songs literally "floating" throughout the industry for years and have listened to some mediocre shit someone did lately and he went out of his way to literally SAMPLE the intro I played on the guitar and loop it throughout the song. I LOL'ed inside, because the song was sooooooooo bad. I won't make a "Polow stole my beat"-thread and I won't name names, but I thought it was...........FUNNY. That's all.

It's NORMAL to be inspired by TOP NOTCH stuff you hear. Dude, when you work for months on some major artist's album and hear 20-30 different songs, you sometimes (when it's good!) hear a song and think "damn, now THAT'S a nice production".........you drive back to the studio and feel inspired to do something that is even BETTER.

All that reclusive "I just wrote a Mona Lisa of a song!"-selfcentered-"I'm a genius, it's just that nobody will ever know!"-shit is counter-productive.

And no, just in case you care, no, you are NOT that good. Otherwise all the other producers in the industry would already try to copy your style. But neither Dr.Luke, Timbaland, Max Martin nor Pharrellizzle have heard your stuff yet, and if you continue to rely on that one guy as your ONLY source of "productive criticism", it will stay that way forever. lol
 
Put out some songs not beats. Someone steals a beat idea, so what. Someone steals a beat idea and make a hit song......that's the problem. Someone steals a song idea.......that happens often but you get more action on your song by someone doing that when you let it be known. Just my 2 cent. I never put songs on the internet until it's ready for whatever it was meant to do. Somebody steal a beat idea, I pull a Vanessa Bryant technique on em. I want yo laptop, fruity loops, and your fruit of balloons foo! No....fruit of balloons.....not the loons.
 
I know of way too many people who have that same mentality as you: "Im afraid someone is going to steal my style/ideas". Most of these guys with that thought process never succeed in music. Not saying you won't succeed, but I'm saying having that mentality holds you back.

The fact you said you don't think you have a very unique style makes worrying about someone stealing your beats or ideas moot. I'm not saying its fair or justified, but if you are that worried about what you have, just put a product together and build your brand. A style doesn't become "a style" until you actually do something with it.
 
BruceWillThis said:
My beats are not registered because it would be too expensive to register a copyright for every single beat as soon as I make them.
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I dont know if anyone else mentioned it yet...but do your damn homework man..

Yeah, you can go copyright each individual song and pay for each individually.......OR you can compile a disc with 20-30 beats...and get a copyright package.. that way you'll get copyright on EACH track, for basically the price of 1...might be extra fees here and there for the package deal..but it can be done.

Goto the Government's copyright website, and do some homework.
 
Try to do sampling in snippets if you think the it will provide enough material to receive feedback on and don't allow them to downloaded, but rather streamed.
 
shit ill take a listen and not steal just pm me.

but on another note, upload to soundcloud or something and disable downloads. if someone were to steal and recreate something of yours you always have an upload date to prove them wrong. cant exactly make a copyright claim but you can sure as hell embarrass dude if it comes down to it
 
C-Enes said:
upload to soundcloud or something and disable downloads. if someone were to steal and recreate something of yours you always have an upload date to prove them wrong. cant exactly make a copyright claim but you can sure as hell embarrass dude if it comes down to it
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Actually I think you can. Even if you filed CR after you released your beat. If you can proof your creation with dates you got a case. At least that is my understanding.
 
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