Whats good? Ive made thousands and thousands of dollars selling beats. Im better at business and marketing myself than actually producing. But here is what ive found out about the beat slangin game... when you least expect it you are gunna get paid and patience pays off.
1. Get a website... minimum $200 investment - a few thousand dollars, this is your best assest (
www.alkotatrackz.com , my website has made me a ton of money and gotten me some real good ins)
2. Call and link up with any local cats you can. The first beat I sold was for $500 to some local rappers/drug dealers... these are the guys you wanna fuck with... they arent always the most talented but usually put a good ammount of their budget into their actual sound (mixing-mastering) and get their shit out there!
3. Forget contracts... but definately dont front on contracts, if you are talking a few hundred dollars for a one time deal then dont worry about the contracts... $500+ its good to get things in basic writing, but all of these publisher agreements, royalties, etc contracts apply only to larger independent lables with distribution and major record lables. Make sure you and joe schmoe around the way have an agreement of some sort, but chances are hes not gunna get signed.
4. Dont ride your own dick over beats!!! Ive sat around and been my own dick rider over tracks frontin like I was never gunna make anything that good again... thus I wouldnt sell it for some ammount. Dont low ball yourself, but if you are a talented producer youll crank out good material on a consistent basis. The idea is to get your music out there anyway possible and make a little change. But ive missed opptys to get my shit heard cuz I didnt get the phat check I wanted. Bad mistake.
5. Dont sleep on myspace! Get yourself a mypsace page and spam the hell out of people. You and a million other dudes are doing this, but it pays off, again ive pulled in over a G from people on myspace. Let your music speak for itself. Dont be afraid to put yourself out there. (ps everyone makes beats and raps on myspace... so think of the numbers)
I could go on forever with some tips and horror stories. I recently got screwed on publishing for an MTV show, which sucks, but I got to put that shit on my resume... which is good. You will get jacked and screwed and hustled eventually... so keep your head up!
If you need some advice or wanna give me a call I can shoot you in the right direction, so email me at
bangers-inc@hotmail.com (Keep It Bangin Music)
