Can you use loops to make instrumental beats and then sell them?

Answer 1

The answer is yes and here is 7 tips on how to sell beats online successfully

1) Get Your Beat Right

You might be able to get away with average sounding beats, but the better sounding your beats are, the more they'll be in demand, you can charge a more premium price and your popularity will increase.

Assuming that you already know how to make beats in your chosen genre, whether you're making rap beatsor making Dubstep, you need to get it sounding great by mixing the track correctly and using properly mastered sounds.

If you purchase sound kits and samples from a reputable source, the sounds will already be mastered to the highest quality, but sounds you find elsewhere may not be, so bear this in mind.

2) Sorting Out Copyright Issues

The last thing you want is to spend hours upon hours making a hot beat, only to find out that you're unable to sell it because of copyright issues.

First things first, make sure that the samples you use are royalty free. This applies to creative content (melodies, vocals, sounds etc.) you take from movies, TV shows and other songs.

3) Market Yourself

It doesn't matter if you make the sickest beats in the world, if hardly anyone can find you, then you have little chance to move many units. There's a tonne of competition online so you need to separate yourself from the rest by offering something different.

This is where good marketing comes in. You don't need to have a huge marketing budget to push your name out there, because you can still build a good momentum without it.

A few ideas include:

• Build a website to showcase who you are and your music. This is a must for this day and age. One of the best and easiest web building platforms is WordPress (which is what I used to build this site!).
• Create a brand around your music and be consistent with the theme. This allows people to easily identify who you are.
• Upload your music to Youtube, which is a huge platform for people to hear your stuff. It's a good idea to overlap your beat with some repeating vocals stating your brand. For example, "Make Beats Forever, the best guide to making the hottest beats!". This way, people cannot steal your instrumental.

We often hear stories about great marketing strategies that barely cost any money to produce, yet they still create a huge buzz. This goes to show that a little creativity can go a long way.

If you want to find out step-by-step how to market your music production brand online to make more money, I highly recommend you to check out the How To Sell Beats Online Like A Pro course (read my full review here).

4) List Your Beats

If you have your own website (which I highly recommend), you can sell your beats on there. All you need is an online shopping cart installed and an online payment processer such as Paypal, then you're in business. The great thing about selling beats on your own website is that you have full control over how it's all presented and there are no commission fees.

Another option is to use other online platforms to sell your beats such as SoundClick.com (probably the largest community),BeatBrokerz.com, BeatStars.com and RocBattle.com.

They all have different commission structures and presentations so you should visit as many as you can and list down the most suitable for you. You should list your beats on as many suitable platforms as possible to increase your chances of selling more.

5) Decide Between Lease & Exclusive

When you start selling your beats, you'll come across two methods of selling them - Lease and exclusive.

• Lease: Loan your beat out to music artists as many times as you want for a low price.
• Exclusive: Sell your beat once to a single artist for a premium price.

In the world selling beats online, leasing your beats is far more effective than selling it exclusively. This is because someone is far likelier to purchase a beat he just heard for $20 rather than for $200.

Plus, when you lease your beat, you can sell the same beat 10+ times at $20 a pop and make $200+ anyway. Combine this with the fact that you can cross over different platforms and sell the same beat, this equals to a lot of money in your wallet.

6) Give Away Free Beats

You may want to consider giving away some of your beats for free if it means that you'll gain more exposure. For example, a prominent rapper or DJ may listen and like one of your beats, so you can strike a deal with them. In exchange for them using your beat, you have to be credited and/or given a shout out on the track.

You can also create a list of free beats and market those. You'll find that many artists will jump on the track and do a freestyle over them, and if you're fortunate, a well-known artist may just end up using them also.

7) Build Long Term Relationships

You need to network effectively if you want be successful at selling beats online. Use social mediaplatforms such as Youtube, Facebook, Reddit, Google+ and Twitter to really get your name out there and start building long-term relationships.

The more people who know and recognize your work, the better your business will be. You can then sell your beats directly to different music artists for a higher price, and perhaps even work together with them to produce a track.

It's all fine and dandy selling your beats on beat selling websites solely for making a bit of money, but if you really want repeat customers and build your brand, then you need to think of building a clientele of artists to work with.