llc?
- Thread starter Wesbeats
- Start date
thedreampolice
A backwards poet writes inverse.
Claim it as personal income until you just can’t anymore, once you are making 20-30k a year on music alone then it may be time to get an llc, it’s just not worth it otherwise. Of course talk to an accountant and your entertainment lawyer about it to me sure (you have both of those right?)
The secret is networking, its time consuming and hard work, but a necessary evil to get your music going into the ears of others who might be potential customers. Ive been doing this a lomg time, opportunites never landed on my lap, I had to reach out to people, and ive spent far more money on my passion of making music than I have ever earned from it. Most of my opportunities now are with the younger crowd at the studio, but Im an irrelevant old man now. Cant win, but cant deny the fun and sense of achievement I get to this day when I make what I at least think is a banger, I might be an irrelevant old man but the younger lot respect my knowledge, if not my music lol
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Put a beat tape together maybe 10 beats and just send it out to artists you like the sound of, they might not even reply, but some might, especially if your sound fits their style. Success usually comes with many failures, its being able to carry on improving and coming back better and stronger that separates the wheat from the chaff
Ive been banned on twitter for years so I couldnt tell you about twitter, facebook has some music groups, but Id suggest starting with something like soundcloud, you can host the beats there and reach out to other soubdcloud artists, and other music sharing/networking sites, like reverbnation for example. Open a conversation, tell them you are a fan of their work, and would like to work with them. Email addresses come once you have made a connection and you clicked with the artist. Dont necessarily try to sell beats, try to produce songs that can be released on spotify.
Don't try to sell beats.
Find decent artists to work with. Make dope music.
Then make a showreel / EPK and a beat tape. Send this to artists or other music professionals. If you're trying to sell beats that way, you can list prices or whatnot that way.
It'd probably only be worth trying to sell beats if your beats are super hot, and at that point, if your beats are super hot, you're better off trying to work with good artists instead.
Fade
The Beat Strangler
Administrator
illest o.g.
The issue with selling beats is it dried up REAL quick. Once beatmakers saw they could sell beats and possibly make some decent money they were all over it. So of course it's human nature for people to be all "Oh, word?" and try to do it themselves.
Selling beats is at the point where it's for a small niche of beatmakers that have nailed down those type beats that buyers are looking for. If you make anything other than type beats or whatever is hot right now (type beats) then you're out of luck. You might sell some but it's hard since you're competing with thousands of others trying to do the same thing.
The other issue has nothing to do with the quality of your beats at all, but instead it's about pricing. This has happened in many industries over the years and I even experienced this 15 years ago with web design. It's hard to get clients when they'd rather pay some guy in India $5 to make their website, instead of getting higher quality from someone like me. So the same with selling beats. You can sell them at a price you think is good, let's say $50 for non-exclusive and $500 for exclusive, but there's always going to be someone with the whole "BUY 2 BEATS FOR 99 CENTS, GET 50 FREE!!!!!!!".
The internet sucks for stuff like this.
Selling beats is at the point where it's for a small niche of beatmakers that have nailed down those type beats that buyers are looking for. If you make anything other than type beats or whatever is hot right now (type beats) then you're out of luck. You might sell some but it's hard since you're competing with thousands of others trying to do the same thing.
The other issue has nothing to do with the quality of your beats at all, but instead it's about pricing. This has happened in many industries over the years and I even experienced this 15 years ago with web design. It's hard to get clients when they'd rather pay some guy in India $5 to make their website, instead of getting higher quality from someone like me. So the same with selling beats. You can sell them at a price you think is good, let's say $50 for non-exclusive and $500 for exclusive, but there's always going to be someone with the whole "BUY 2 BEATS FOR 99 CENTS, GET 50 FREE!!!!!!!".
The internet sucks for stuff like this.
There’s gotta be other ways of making money off music? Streaming? Maybe make a beat tape and put it up on streaming sites like apple? You need to already be doin numbers maybe? Just trying to figure out the best way to go . Put a beat up a day ? Just trying to figure out what I should be doin and putting my music lol
Fade
The Beat Strangler
Administrator
illest o.g.
Streaming payouts are insanely low, unfortunately. Whether it's Youtube, Soundcloud, or whatever other site it's all about getting enough eyeballs on your page, which is really hard. This is why you'll see some random person on Youtube that goes viral from a single video where they set their balls on fire or something. From then on they make more stuff like that because that's what the people want. But I'm going a bit off topic.
I've written countless articles about beat selling and they're sort of irrelevant today since it changes all the time. You could still just try to sell beats but it's still a matter of getting people to go to your page and want to buy your beats. So that really comes down to promotion. Taking out ads is one thing, but I'm a firm believer that if you bring something really dope and new to the table, people will want more of it and will seek it out. The way I see it is kind of like when Wutang first came out and brought something that no one else had at the time.
the only good aspect, is kids this day are dumb. They think you have to spend like 800 bucks on a pair of sneakers, 300 on a hoodie and 80 on a pair of socks. so they probably think they have to pay 500 for a beat at least.
that's not including the ones who want everything for free, or the ones who fool themselves thinking 'great deal' getting beats for 5 bucks each.
that's not including the ones who want everything for free, or the ones who fool themselves thinking 'great deal' getting beats for 5 bucks each.
Fade
The Beat Strangler
Administrator
illest o.g.
Yeah but the pricing aspect is so weird. The best thing is to see what others are charging, but it really just comes down to what YOU think your beats are worth, but therein lies the problem - YOU think it's worth let's say $5K, whereas the average buyer is not looking for that. They would rather spend that on whatever. $5K is for those that are serious, and from what I've seen, I don't think the serious buyers are browsing beat selling websites, but I could be wrong.
However, the old school way was to make beats, hook up with local rappers that wanted beats, and you just worked together until they got a deal. If they did, then you as a beatmaker/producer would get credited and it would take off from there. It's just so so so different today.