Make Money Selling Beats Online: The Secret Formula

One of the biggest barriers for upcoming hip hop music producers to overcome is the transition from beat maker to businessman/woman. The music business is called the music business for a reason; it has a product (music) that is promoted, marketed, and distributed for a price. This concept might seem simple enough to grasp, but for many beat makers it is easier said than done. Often times, music producers come from creative backgrounds and have no prior knowledge or experience with sales and marketing. This post seeks to shed some light on the secrets of how to make money selling beats online and provide practical advice to upcoming musicians.

If you’re looking to make money from selling beats, you must understand that there is a simple formula. This formula is as follows:

Music + Targeted Promotion  = Sales

1. Music

In order to do business with other music professionals in the music community, you must have a product or service to sell. As a hip hop beat maker, your product is your music. Now this doesn’t mean just having 1 song or instrumental to market. Remember, we live in the age of the internet; this is a global market place. You’ll want to have a catalog of beats to market and promote to artists, musicians, and music licensing companies.

I personally recommend having at least 50 strong music instrumentals available for showcasing.

2. Targeted Promotion

Likely the most critical component to the beat selling formula is targeted promotion.

Questions you’ll want to ask yourself are:

Where do beat buyers hangout? Online? Offline?

How often do these people buy beats?

How do they communicate? Phone? Social Media? Video Chat?

What will make me different than other hip hop producers?

The customers who will buy your beats tend to congregate in certain areas (online & offline). It is up to you to find these people, network with them, and discover how your music services can provide them with solutions that fit their lives.

You should always be engaged in “soft selling” and building relationships with your clientele.

The specific methods you use to engage your music fan base are your choice, but ultimatlely the key to making money will be through consistently implementing the aforementioned forumla.