Tips and Tricks for Newbies
If you have experience in creating music and you are good at tweaking midi controllers, you may consider making money out of selling the tracks that you produce online. Yes, selling beats/instrumentals online can be the only job that you need to do, if you know your way around the various audiences that depend on purchasing and using tracks that are available.
Why Selling Beats/Instrumentals Online Can Be a Great Business
A lot of producers that know a thing or two about selling beats/instrumentals online make $20.000 or more extra income out of beat sales, which can improve over time. Instrumentals, one-shots, sampled materials and beats that can be used to sync with vocals run a lot of industries in music and media. The gaming industry, especially businesses that focus on mobile development, and film producers are very dependent on people who are selling beats/instrumentals online.
When it comes to the music industry, a good number of up-and-coming and established artists depend on samples or beats. Thanks to the feat of artist/producers like Lex luger, Daft Punk, Skrillex, Mike will made it, and T-Minus, people have learned to appreciate beats, because of a certain attitude that they lend on a single or an entire album. Singers and producers have also learned that the quality of instrumentals and beats that they use can create a certain clout when it comes to fans across genres, and that could create a lot of buzz. That alone can make selling beats/instrumentals online very profitable.
Selling beats/instrumentals online: Getting Started
The first thing that you need to do is to know who you want to sell to. By now, you should be able to identify the genres that you are able to produce, and that would largely dictate the type of music that you can sell.
Depending on the genre that you know you can produce, identify the types of audience that are likely to buy your music. If you have tons of EDM, dubstep, and hip hop tracks, you have a big chance of making it to the gaming and clubbing communities. If you produce chillout, RnB, jazz, and world fusions, then you can be welcomed by a lot of artists who are producing documentaries, music demos, and a whole lot more.
However, how you allow others to use the tracks you produce can also be a major game changer. In short, selling beats/instrumentals online may not mean that you are attracting certain music users that work specifically on genres and tempos. You can attract anyone who is looking for fresh music, if you know how to market yourself. That offers you an entire universe of music enthusiasts who need music for their own craft.
Selling beats/instrumentals online: How Can You Sell Music?
The next thing you need to know is how you can make people listen to your produced tracks, and how you can give the information that you are selling music. You can create your own website that would catalog all of the beats that you are selling, or you can sign up with music selling sites that allow selling beats/instrumentals online under your name. You can also sign up with Soundclick and get a custom theme, but that would cost money.
If you don’t want to spend too much money without selling a single track, the best way to sell is through online music communities such as SoundCloud, ReverbNation or BeatStars. You can also upload your beats on YouTube. Include your email information and other details on how people can purchase your beats. To make transactions faster, you may want to make online wallets, such as PayPal or Google Wallet, which would also allow you to sell your beats internationally.
Now, here’s the moneymaking part. Once you are ready with your catalog, site, or community upload, you have to make sure that your music is licensed. You may choose to upload a few tracks and let others download them for free, but when it comes to the other more intricate or “better” tracks, the best and the easiest way to turn them into income is to make people purchase their licensing. Also take note that selling licenses would be the framework of your business, if you are planning to make selling beats/instrumentals online your full time job.
What are those licenses, anyway? Lease licenses or non-exclusive licenses are great if you are selling beats/instrumentals online that would put a limit on the sales that your buyers can make out of the tracks that they get from you, essentially because you still have the rights for the beats that they used. You can earn $1 to $50 out of tracks that are licensed this way. Exclusive licenses, on the other hand, would allow your buyers to have all the rights to the music transferred to them, which means that they can create unlimited sales out of the tracks that they purchased from you. Since you are waiving all your rights, that would mean a much bigger income too, ranging from $50 - $1,000
Once you setup a website, or become a member of any site that allows selling beats/instrumentals online, you may also want to promote and purchase works of other producers. That would not only make you more money, but you would also promote other types of music that your fans and regular customers may also like. That makes your producing clout bigger, while making your community welcome fresh music from up-and-coming producers. You may also want to sell mp3 tracks that would help you create money if you are not receiving orders for your tracks yet. Just remember to organize all the tracks that you are selling so that clients can easily view lists of genres, tempos, instruments, and chords available
Make sure that you keep all these things in mind, since these are the steps that launched careers of the most powerful independent producers online. Selling beats/instrumentals online would also mean bigger networks, and if you are planning to infiltrate the music business, being a good beats entrepreneur may land you the break that you need.