so what's the deal with free beats

[Deleted member 113336]

just starting out and working on my rap game, and bit confused as to what i can do with free beats in general (those free DL 'only for nonprofit use' ones you get from soundclick or w/e). right now ive given credit to the producer, uploaded the track and offered it for free download which i assume is all allowed. but what if i wanna perform the track at some point and NOT get paid for the performance - so its still nonprofit. would that be good?

 

[Scratch n Beat]

The guy from soundclick isn't going to know if you perform a song off of his beat. I'd say you can pretty much do anything with the beat except put it on something with a barcode i.e. in stores.

 

[Dot_Robinson]

I've always found 'free beats' tacky and desperate.

How can you argue the value of your service when your giving your product away? The quality of production can vary. Even from the same producer. So the idea of 'getting them hooked' with a 'freebie' is solely based on the idea that:

1. The people who are downloading this 'freebie' are serious about their craft.

2. My production is consistent enough to draw people back in.

Ironically, the artist who thrives on downloading 'free' stuff will probably never spend money on a beat...let alone on anything that progress their career ambitions.

 

[Deleted member 113336]

The guy from soundclick isn't going to know if you perform a song off of his beat. I'd say you can pretty much do anything with the beat except put it on something with a barcode i.e. in stores.

fair enough, especially since im across the pond

I've always found 'free beats' tacky and desperate.

How can you argue the value of your service when your giving your product away? The quality of production can vary. Even from the same producer. So the idea of 'getting them hooked' with a 'freebie' is solely based on the idea that:

1. The people who are downloading this 'freebie' are serious about their craft.

2. My production is consistent enough to draw people back in.

Ironically, the artist who thrives on downloading 'free' stuff will probably never spend money on a beat...let alone on anything that progress their career ambitions.

maybe you have some good points, but tbh i'm not too concerned about the beatmaker's business model. plus vybe/juliano free beats tend to be good, and i can find other ones from time to time (bravestarr maybe?).

i wont comment about never spending money on a beat, since that depends on how good my rapping becomes and how far i go with it. but this is only the second/third rap song i'm making, and i'm not going to go buy a beat on a college budget

 

[SoulKool]

I understand you're on a budget, but for the time being, work over free beats but if you are that concerned about legal issues, don't put yourself at risk. Invest in production software and learn how to do it yourself. You'll progress musically as a player and as a lyricist if you can learn to work with both aspects of production.