What are "beats" and why do people want to sell it?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bobcat
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Bobcat

Bobcat

Future Producer
I always see threads about people wanting to sell their 'beats' - but please explain, what exactly is a beat? Isn't in Hip-Hop slang a 'beat' like an instrumental so others can rap over it? Basically a whole TRACK without vocals/lyrics? Because for me a beat is, well... you know, just a beat. Something like "BOM" or "TOK" or "DUM" or in extreme cases like "KRSH"...

And why the heck would they want to sell 'beats'? I mean the 'beats' I personally am using come from various sample packs (no I don't have my own drum kit to record sounds, boo me) like the Vengeance ones - they cost like 70 or 80 € and include gigabytes of 'beats' and are pretty much the industry standard. But people still try to sell their beats. :hmmm: So please, may a wise person come and enlighten me, the silly and inexperienced Bobcat :angel:

* sell them :shame:
 
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You got it. A beat is generally an instrumental track ready for vocals. People can either buy them outright or "lease" them, which generally means they are allowed a certain amount of plays before they must stop having people listen to the track. It's kind of a like a "try it and see how it goes" thing.

I don't have experience selling beats myself much, but I have many friends who do.

It's also not just hip-hop, it's all genres.
 
But WHY? I mean, first, when you buy those so-called 'beats', do you actually buy an exclusive license? Or does that mean 500 other people will have the same track? And second, how do these people even make money with it? I mean the vengeance packs also have a huge library of 'beats' - can you really compete with them? If it's an exclusive license, it could work of course, but then when I'm thinking of how many people use the vengeance "tracks" it's a bit embarassing when you hear all those sounds that you already know haha!
 
Bobcat said:
But WHY? I mean, first, when you buy those so-called 'beats', do you actually buy an exclusive license? Or does that mean 500 other people will have the same track? And second, how do these people even make money with it? I mean the vengeance packs also have a huge library of 'beats' - can you really compete with them? If it's an exclusive license, it could work of course, but then when I'm thinking of how many people use the vengeance "tracks" it's a bit embarassing when you hear all those sounds that you already know haha!
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I don't sell beats, I sell music. I think you got drum loops confused w/ instrumentals. Tbh I have no idea wht Tf you think uh beat is. Lmao
 
is this a troll thread or something? are you mentally challenged youre asking what a beat is...
 
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tharealphaze said:
is this a troll thread or something? are you mentally challenged youre asking what a beat is...
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Stop being a jerk. The man was asking a sincere question. If you do not know what beats are, step aside and let the rest of us answer the post.
 
No I'm not trolling and I'm also not confusing loops with instrumentals. But I think most people here do - because a 'beat' is definitely not an instrumental, and that's what guys are actually selling. So everytime I see the word 'beat' I'm thinking of a BEAT, a real simple beat, and then I have to find out the discussion is about whole tracks :cry:
 
Bobcat said:
No I'm not trolling and I'm also not confusing loops with instrumentals. But I think most people here do - because a 'beat' is definitely not an instrumental, and that's what guys are actually selling. So everytime I see the word 'beat' I'm thinking of a BEAT, a real simple beat, and then I have to find out the discussion is about whole tracks :cry:
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so when you hear a song on the radio and you like the beat, you say oh wow this instrumental is pretty good i like this instrumental. instrumental.
 
No, I say "Hey I really like this song - but the vocals seriously suck" :)
 
It depends in what context you are using it.

Normally it is used to describe drum arrangements but many people use it as slang for an instrumental.

Let's not overcomplicate this.

When people say they re selling a beat, it probably means they are selling an instrumental.

The vengeance packs are drum samples, not beats. They can be used to make a beat but a snare sample is not a beat.

---------- Post added at 01:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:58 PM ----------

It's the same deal with "Track," people use track to describe a song but really a song is a collection of tracks.

Not technically correct but if you have half a brain you know what they are talking about.
 
What are beats for sale

Dunno about your view of things but "instrumental = beat" most of the time. Like others said, beat would be a track you hear somewhere minus the vocals.
No I do realize how you could get it mixed since lots of people say "oh this song has a sweet beat" which might not necessarily mean an instrumental but in this case it could be "beat = groove"

As for selling beats, what's not to get about people wanting to buy beats ?

Be it exclusive license (which actualy cost alot) or lease, if you're a rapper surfing online and hear a beat that you like and want to drop some lines to, it's only logical that you would be willing to pay for it.
Not to enter a debate if paying for those makes sense since you can find lots of free beats online (and since we sell our beats as leases, I'm obviously not gonna say that you go only after free ones)

I mean, you liked that particular beat, and it happens that the producer of that particular beat wants $5-$15 for download. You won't find that beat for free (unless you rip it off youtube or something but then you will have a tagged low quality version) and since you really liked, I don't see why you wouldn't want to pay a few bucks to get a high quality untagged version of it for download.

And yea when you get a leased beat, other people can have it too. But it's the same case with free beats, and since the latter are free, more people will use it.
Like I said, it comes down to whether you're willing to pay for the beat that you like or you're just gonna say "nah" and go look for free beats.
 
The vengeance packs do have "beats" and whole "almost-tracks-minus-vocals".

@ CycloBeats: Yes and the fact other people may have the same beat aswell is the simple reason why I wouldn't buy any 'beats' but just simply make my own ones. But then again, not everyone produces, some people just rap and don't want to learn this, which I understand... :hmmm:
 
I sell "beats". I actually sell them, like as in, people pay for them on a fairly regular basis. So, yeah..
 
No offense.. but I can't believe this conversation is really happening :)

You're seriously getting caught up on semantics.

I'm an emcee. Emcees don't care about semantics. They don't care if they're using a word correctly lol. An emcee will also say something along the lines of "listen to my new track 'XYZ song', it's a banger". Well... it's not really a track either? But you know what they mean based on the context clues. They are using the word "track" to mean "song".


So... don't get caught up on semantics. You'll lose your mind very easily.. and unnecessarily.

Before I started producing, if I needed music to my verse that I just wrote, I'd ask for a beat. The convo went something like... "Yo, gimme a beat", or "You got any beats I can rap to?". I was looking for an instrumental, w/ rhythm & melody. This should be obvious bro. No offense.

I mean, If I come over your house for dinner and I see you have a full spread of food with chicken, yams, mac & cheese, brocoli, ham, etc.. I'm just gonna ask if I can get some food. I'm not gonna ask "Yo, can I have chicken, yams, mac & cheese.... etc".
 
I can understand where you're coming from as I find that using the word "beat" almost devalues the work, as it almost makes it seem much simpler than it is. So if there is where you're having the problem understanding the meaning I get where you're coming from, but you just have to accept that there is no negative connotations really when someone calls your song "a great beat." I can't really add much more than what's already been said and what I said earlier.
 
No I don't have any problem with it and it's not obvious at all CPhoenix - in the Hip-Hop/Rap scene it is, but in the scene I am in it absolutely isn't and if you tell someone "Yo, gimme a beat" you're gonna get some strange looks - and that's what was confusing me ;) On the other hand, everyone in music says 'track' for song, so THIS is obvious. And the term 'track' didn't come from "This song has many tracks" but rather from which track on a vinyl record it is. (track 1, track 2 etc)
 
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Where are you located?

I didn't realize you weren't from the US. That would explain everything :)
 
From Vienna - like written there ---> :p
I only know a few people who listen to this kind of music, I think it's extinct since the late 80s over here :sing:
 
a beat is as important as the rap of the rappers! without beats there aren't tracks! keep it up
 
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