Quit Giving your beats away!

tekboi

Beatmaker
ill o.g.
Producers, quit giving your beats away! Ya’ll are fucking stupid man, what do you think that does for the rest of the good producers? It makes it harder for us. By selling beats for almost nothing or giving them away, you’re compromising the value of the art. People no longer respect the process and the hard-work that goes into it because you’ve made it seem like it’s nothing.

Sites like Shadowville are ridiculous. If I made all of my beats “free Downloads” wit no tags, do you think people are really going to come back purchase a beat that they just downloaded for free? of course not. The fact of the matter is, most rappers are up and coming. And most of these up & coming rappers are cheap assholes. They search the web night and day for free beats, and when they can’t find decent tracks for free, they try to sway good producers into give them free beats. Some of them feel that they shouldn’t pay for beats because “there are too many producers out there”. Or because they don’t make money from their music. This is the stupid logic that’s running hip-hop right into the ground. So, if you’re a producer that’s seeing a decline in sales, this is why.

No, it’s not all about the money for me. When I first got started producing music, I have NO intention of making money from it. I simply did it because I enjoyed making music and it helped me get through some painful times in my childhood. But, this does not mean I will give beats away everyday. I would sit on all of my beats before I did that.

I understand that sometimes you have to give away a couple just to make a name for yourself, but eventually you have to become serious about your work and let people know you’re a serious producer. Nobody should consistently give away tracks to artist. Artists make their money, if not from their albums, from shows. But if they can’t sell albums it’s because their music sucks and nobody wants to pay for that shit. Even if they don’t make money, that’s their problem. It doesn’t entitle them to free tracks. It’s called the music BUSINESS. The keyword here is “business”. So, me giving you free beats is NOT the business. It’s more like charity.

After reading this, hopefully some of ya’ll young producers out there will learn to value your work and quit letting people convince you that’s you’re a run-of-the-mil producer. Otherwise, you’ll be just that.


if this doesn't apply to you, please ignore.
 

UNORTHODOX

Father Timeless
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 44
I feel you but I'd suggest, if you're trying to make a bit of a career out of this, JUST making beats aint gonna cut it. You better learn to DJ, mix, promo, etc. Make yourself an asset. Beats aint nothin, I'm a artist that LEARNED to make beats cause I wasnt satisfied with the beats available. That took all of a year or two. DJing, mixing, video, video editing etc. are things I'm STILL getting down packed. diversify your bonds. Use beats to offer other services, things that are WAY less frequent. Think of them as a loss leader.
 

Shonsteez

Gurpologist
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 33
Dog you cant escape this regardless tho, all you can really do is do you, hold your own, and hopefully let your work speak for itself. Theres ALWAYS gonna be some younger cat out there giving away their beats + not everyone is in this for the "same" reasons. You gotta consider the fact that music isn't soley a cash cow or a revenue stream for everyone...some of these cats just want to make music and share it with the world...point is, everyones got their own reasons - stupid or not...so really, theres no use getting mad at the fools givin their ish away for free. It is what it is.
 

lion-ucs

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Dog you cant escape this regardless tho, all you can really do is do you, hold your own, and hopefully let your work speak for itself. Theres ALWAYS gonna be some younger cat out there giving away their beats + not everyone is in this for the "same" reasons. You gotta consider the fact that music isn't soley a cash cow or a revenue stream for everyone...some of these cats just want to make music and share it with the world...point is, everyones got their own reasons - stupid or not...so really, theres no use getting mad at the fools givin their ish away for free. It is what it is.

They're crappy most of the time anyway
And if they settle for garbage beats, they got a garbage song. Unless they're some kind of magic artist with the supernatural ability of turning shit into solid gold bars.
 

Sucio

Old and dirty...
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 304
I find it extremely contradictory to say anything about giving beats away.....yet on your site...if you sign up you can get free updates and free beats...

And no, there aren't many (if any) haters on this site....And to bring that word up so quickly tells me you have security issues.

Don't blame those who give beats away for your lack in revenue. Because for every program you pirate, song or movie you download illegally is doing the same thing.

And if your beats were dope enough for someone to pay for, someone will pay for it. I'm not mad at those who give away beats and sell beats for $10 a pop. They are:

#1 - getting their name put out there in various markets with various artists.

#2 - using that exposure to possibly profit from it in the future.

#3 - making a few dollars on their music.
 

StressWon

www.stress1.com
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 68
then in turn should emcees start chargin producers to spit in their beats. Its a two way street. I give away beats and I sell them. I don't mind these bedroom producers saturate the business end. It comes wit the territory. If ya shit is dope, people will pay for it
 

Sucio

Old and dirty...
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 304
Word.

But an emcee would never charge me...because I'm that dope.
 

skidflow

Boom Bap is precious art
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 220
then in turn should emcees start chargin producers to spit in their beats. Its a two way street. I give away beats and I sell them. I don't mind these bedroom producers saturate the business end. It comes wit the territory. If ya shit is dope, people will pay for it
it is mad emcees that charge to spit over your projects though...but you right...its a two way street.
 

tekboi

Beatmaker
ill o.g.
appreciate the responses, I wasn't trying to call anybody on the site out in particular. I'm just stating how I feel about the production game right now. Like I said, if it doesn't apply to you, ignore. The people disagreeing are usually the people who it applies to the most.
 

tekboi

Beatmaker
ill o.g.
I find it extremely contradictory to say anything about giving beats away.....yet on your site...if you sign up you can get free updates and free beats...

And no, there aren't many (if any) haters on this site....And to bring that word up so quickly tells me you have security issues.

Don't blame those who give beats away for your lack in revenue. Because for every program you pirate, song or movie you download illegally is doing the same thing.

And if your beats were dope enough for someone to pay for, someone will pay for it. I'm not mad at those who give away beats and sell beats for $10 a pop. They are:

#1 - getting their name put out there in various markets with various artists.

#2 - using that exposure to possibly profit from it in the future.

#3 - making a few dollars on their music.

smh.... you need to re-read my post. Obviously you have reading comprehension issues.
 

DJ Excellence

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 265
Depends on the situation, let's say you give away a beat but end up getting a good placement that'll get you noticed ... would it still be shameful? Hell nah, ... all your big name producers have done this early in their career, it's called paying dues.

on the other hand to many selling beats equates with complimentary income , times are hard and we all need to eat , in that case your argument def makes sense.

There's no right or wrong answer really.
 

spartan265

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 1
Internet beef. Anyway, I think it doesn't make a diffrence either way. Even if every single producer on this site gave their beats away for free it wouldn't dent the income of top producers. I.e kanye, timbo etc. Because their beats are that good and people pay for quality period. So imo, the fact that people are flooding the market is a scape goat that mediocre producers use to draw away from the real issue which is: people aint buyin your shit. That's just my perspective. Not tryna say that's you or anybody else.
 

thedreampolice

A backwards poet writes inverse.
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
the fact that people are flooding the market is a scape goat that mediocre producers use to draw away from the real issue which is: people aint buyin your shit

I agree 100% I make good money on my beats, I don't care one bit if someone wants to give some away. Hell if I find an awesome project that I believe in I will give some away just to help the artists and guess what happens? When they do have money they always spend it with me.
 

tekboi

Beatmaker
ill o.g.
Internet beef. Anyway, I think it doesn't make a diffrence either way. Even if every single producer on this site gave their beats away for free it wouldn't dent the income of top producers. I.e kanye, timbo etc. Because their beats are that good and people pay for quality period. So imo, the fact that people are flooding the market is a scape goat that mediocre producers use to draw away from the real issue which is: people aint buyin your shit. That's just my perspective. Not tryna say that's you or anybody else.

But that's just it, i'm not talking about the "Top Producers". That's a given...

I'm talking about up & coming producers which is all of us. I sell beats often enough, but I have noticed a decline over the years and I posted the reason. It has nothing to do with quality of beats. google 'beats' and you'll see just how many wack producers make alot of money.
 

UNORTHODOX

Father Timeless
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 44
what do you expect to get form sellin beats? where do you expect to go?
 
Top