Turning one’s passion into a source of income is one of the main ambitions of any musician. There are several ways to achieve this aspiration and in the next paragraphs I want to tell you about a new trend that could interest you a lot.
In recent times, in fact, thanks to the increasingly massive use of digital sounds in the process of composing songs, a particular frontier of electronic commerce focused on the purchase and sale of beats is gaining ground . Here too, however, attention must be paid to various aspects in order to build a functional and effective promotion strategy.
How do you say? Are you keenly interested in challenging yourself in this emerging market? I have good news for you: you have come to the right place, at the right time! If you dedicate some of your time to me, in this article I will show you how to sell beats online through the best dedicated sites and how to adequately sponsor them through the most popular music sharing platforms. Are you ready? I just have to wish you a good read and good luck with your new project!
Index
- Preliminary information
- Sites to sell beats online
- Airbit
- Beatstars
- Sites to promote beats
- SoundCloud
- YouTube
Preliminary information
Producing an engaging and well-structured beat, as you well know, is not at all simple, but it is undoubtedly the essential starting point to start this new adventure on the right foot. In addition to creativity, which represents your unique and unrepeatable artistic expression, it is essential to take care of the audio quality of the tracks: for this it is essential to choose the right DAW , suitable for the musical genre you are inspired by.
FL Studio is one of the most popular music production software in this sector, as it provides a wide range of features dedicated to the production of rhythms and allows the integration of countless plugins , easy to install and extremely functional for the purpose. Even Ableton Live , in addition to being very intuitive to use , is particularly focused on this area. If you have a Mac, you cannot fail to consider Logic Pro X , thus investing in a very professional product, preferred by an illustrious audience of prominent music producers.
Last, but not least , it is crucial to take care of the mixing phase of the final product: in this delicate step of production it will be essential to recreate as many listening modes as possible, simulating those of your potential customers. So make sure you have the right set of headphones and speakers , alternating professional and standard instruments to determine if your loops “work” the same way.
Sennheiser HD 400s Circumaural Microphone Headphone with Remote Controls, …
See offer on Amazon
Shure Srh750Dj Professional Quality Dj Headphones, Black / Gold
See offer on Amazon
MACKIE CR-X 3 Studio Monitor
See offer on Amazon
Yamaha HS5 MP (Matched Pair) – Pair of Monitor Speakers Active Speakers P …
See offer on Amazon
Sites to sell beats online
You have completed the creative process and it is time to display the final product of your labors on the virtual showcases of the main sites for selling beats online . In this guide I will show you the operation of some resources visited by many producers, who are constantly looking for stimulating and original sounds.
Airbit
Airbit is a very popular site for artists from different musical backgrounds. To register as a seller, access this page , then click on the central button Let’s go . In the screen that appears, fill in the fields Name (name), Username (username), Email and Password and Confirm Password . Click on the Sign up button belowto complete the request.
Alternatively, you can choose to register with your Facebook or Twitter accounts , by clicking on the appropriate buttons at the bottom of the same window, through which you will be redirected to the authentication forms of the respective sites.
Once this phase is complete, you will be offered three subscription plans . The Platinum costs about 17 euros per month and includes unlimited upload of songs, affiliation with YouTube for monetization and with Google Analytics for the analysis of your store. It also allows you to take advantage of different integrations with social networks and thus acquire greater visibility.
In the Gold subscription plan , (8.50 euros per month) there are many of the functions seen in the Platinum, but the upload is limited to 50 songs . One last possibility is that offered by the Basic plan , which is completely free, but limits the upload of beats to 10 and does not allow any of the integrations seen in the Platinum and Gold.
If, therefore, you choose the Basic plan, click on the Select button and you will be redirected to the next step. If you choose a paid subscription, a 15-day free trial will be activated by clicking on the Start Free Trial button corresponding to the chosen plan . You will be shown a screen where you will need to enter your credit or prepaid card information , i.e. Card Number , Card Expiry (expiration), the CVC (three-digit number on the back of the card) and the Postal Code ( CAP) and click on the Start Trial button . If you have a PayPal accountyou can, alternatively, choose this payment method by clicking on the Pay with PayPal button , which will send you back to the service site.
On the next page (from here the path is identical for all plans) click on the Start button . In the new page you will be able to upload your profile image by clicking on the Click to upload button : you will see a window that will allow you to browse the documents on your computer. Select the image with one click, then click the Open button to import it. Then click on the Country drop-down menu to indicate your nationality, then click again on the country of residence. Type the name of your city in the City field , while in Bio you can optionally enter your own description, to highlight your artistic training.
In the Social Profiles section you can enter the public username of Instagram , Facebook , Twitter or your YouTube channel . Click on the Next button to proceed to the next step, in which you must enter the e-mail address associated with the Paypal account to receive any earnings (you can still specify it later).
Click on the Next button and you will be offered a screen in which to define the cost of each type of license relating to the beats you will sell: they can be Basic , Premium , Unlimited and Exclusive . By clicking on the arrow located at the bottom, next to the View item , you can check the characteristics of each of them.
The price, defined in dollars, can be changed by clicking on the relevant box and typing the desired value. In the Contract Information section below , you must enter your name or that of the company you own. Then click on the Next button and you will see a promotional screen regarding the Infinity Store additional service . Then click on the Next and Finish Up buttons to complete the procedure.
Now you are ready to sell your beats: on the new page that opened, click on the Go button ! within the Start Selling Your Beats box . You will immediately access the Dashboard : first screen with a very intuitive interface. Here you can quickly monitor the sale of your beats through a series of graphs relating to earnings ( Earnings ), the number of beats sold ( Beats Sold ), those listened to ( Beats Plays ) and Free Downloads ( Free downloads ).
In the left menu you can access various features. By clicking on Insights , you will have greater detail of the generic values shown on the dashboard, with a view full of details (such as the nationality of the users, the gender, the type of license acquired). By clicking on the Promotions item below , in the left menu, you can define any promotional campaigns following the upload of your productions. This last operation can be performed by clicking on the next Music & Media item . You will see a menu expand under the aforementioned item, where you can choose between Beats , Songs , Sound Kits , Playlist & Albums , Artworkand Voicetag .
So let’s see how to load a beat . Click on the Beats item , then, in the central box, click on the Upload button at the top right . Now press the New button in the center of the screen and a new window will be shown: here it will be possible to upload by dragging, selecting the file to upload from your device with a click of the mouse and, holding down the left button, physically moving it into the central area within the dotted frame. The files must be in WAV or MP3 format and without tags (textual metadata that can be edited during production).
Once you have uploaded the audio file containing the beat you will need to complete some fields that will allow users to better identify it. In addition to the title, in the Name field , it is important to indicate the BPM value (i.e. the beats per minute you used during the recording). Select the genre ( Genre ) by clicking on the relevant drop-down menu and choosing the one that best represents your beat, while clicking on the Moods field you can select some characteristics from a special drop-down menu, useful for describing the attitude of the song. Finally, you can insert tags , i.e. keywords to make the beat even more easily traceable.
I have shown you, so far, the main features of this highly evolved site. I suggest you also investigate all the others on the left menu, which include the possibility of using some very interesting tools for sale. For any further information I can only refer you to the Airbit support page .
Beatstars
Beatstars is among the most famous marketplaces for buying and selling beats. To register as a seller, go to this page , then click on the button in the center Start Selling . You will be offered three subscription methods: Free , which is completely free and provides for the upload of up to 10 tracks, Marketplace (€ 8.99 per month), which allows you to upload an unlimited number of tracks and Pro Page (17, 99 euros per month), which allows you to take advantage of all the features and complete customization of your virtual showcase.
Choose the plan that best suits your needs and click on the relevant Get Started button : on the next page you can decide to authenticate with your Facebook , Twitter , Apple ID and Google credentials , by clicking on the relevant button, which will send you back to the service authentication form . If you prefer to create an account from scratch, click on the Sign Up with Email button instead and complete the fields Your username with a username of your choice, Your email with a valid e-mail address, Password and Confirm Password. Then click on the box below, to tick and accept the terms of service and privacy policies , then click on the Sign Up button .
You will receive an email on the mailbox previously indicated which will contain a code , which you will have to insert in the new page just loaded on the browser. Once the code has been entered, the recognition takes place automatically and you will be redirected to the confirmation page where you will see the summary information relating to the selected plan. Click, therefore, on the Checkout button if you have opted for a paid plan and you will be redirected to a page where you can enter the payment method.
If, on the other hand, you have chosen to try the service with the Free subscription, click on the Subscribe button . In all cases, on the next page you will have to complete the profile by filling in the fields First Name (Name) Last Name (Surname) Display Name (which already contains the nick previously indicated) and City of Residence (city of residence). Click on the Continue button : on the new page, you can write a short biography in the appropriate BIO field .
Click now on the Upload Avatar button to upload your representative image, a window will open in which you can upload or drag-and-drop (by selecting the file from your computer with a click of the mouse and, holding down the left button, physically moving it in the central area with a cloud symbol) or by clicking on the Choose File button to navigate through the folders on your PC.
Finally, click on the Continue button . In the new screen you will be able to connect the payment methods that will allow you to monetize the sale of your beats, choosing between PayPal and Stripe . Click on the relevant button and you will be redirected to the service page to complete the process. When finished, click on the Start Uploading your beats now button .
You have finally landed in the Beatstars management interface. Depending on the piano chosen during the recording phase, you can choose to load Production Tracks (option also available for the Free piano and consists of tracks with beats, beats with choirs, songs and vocal tracks), Sound Kits (in case you want to also sell products such as sounds, loops, drum kits, or effects made by you) or even Songs (complete musical pieces made as a songwriter).
So let’s see how to load a beat. Click on the Create button inside the Production Tracks box . In the interface that is loaded you can fill in the metadata (textual data useful to describe the characteristics of the track). Then fill in the fields Title (Track title) and Tags (typing terms that can better identify the genre it is inspired by). By clicking on Track Type you can select the type of track you are loading from a drop-down menu.
The time has come to load the track: if you want to load an untagged WAV or MP3 (therefore without metadata entered during production), click on the Un-Tagged Wav or MP3 button and select the file from your computer.
By scrolling the page you can decide to value many other parameters: the mandatory ones are marked with an asterisk. I advise you to take into consideration in particular those present in the Track Details section , where it is mandatory to indicate the genre ( Genre ), but for the beats you also specify BPM (beats per minute) and KEY (keynote on which the composition). Finally, in the Selling Preferences section , you will need to indicate the selling price of your creations.
The last section could also be very useful, in which you can enter the URL of a YouTube video: to do this, click on the Add a YouTube video URL button , in the new box insert the link on the Enter Video URL field , the title ( Video Title ) and an optional description on the Description field , then click the Upload Video button .
You have completed all the information you consider essential: now click on the Publish button , at the bottom right, to complete the process. You can monitor the progress of your publications by clicking on the menu at the top, under My Media . Finally, I would like to point out that BeatStars is also available in a mobile version with a handy app for Android devices (also check availability on alternative stores if you don’t have access to Google services) and iPhone / iPad .
Sites to promote beats
To sell your music, it is not enough to upload it to the reference marketplaces: it is essential to gain visibility, publishing and sponsoring it on the platforms most followed by potential buyers. Let’s see which are, to date, the best sites to promote beats on the Net.
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a music sharing web servicethat allows musicians to promote and distribute their music, but also to listen to it. It is used in particular by independent and emerging musicians to make their production known to a wide audience of listeners in search of originality. For this reason it is important to present your beats also on this platform: producers and record companies are always attentive to any news that can arouse a certain interest from the SoundCloud audience.
To register, connected to the main page of the site , then click on the Create Account button located at the top right. In the next window you can choose to authenticate with your Google , Facebook and Apple credentials (by clicking on the relevant buttons you will be redirected to the authentication modules of the respective services), or to create new credentials by entering your e-mail address in the last field (you an email will be sent with a link on which you will have to click to confirm the registration). For any further information on this procedure, I suggest you read my guide on how SoundCloud works .
Once the registration process is complete, you will access the SoundCloud Home , from which you can upload music by clicking on the Upload button at the top . In the new page proceed to upload by dragging the audio file into it (click on the file on your computer to select it and, holding down the mouse button, physically move it to the central part of the aforementioned window). Alternatively, you can click on the button “or choose the files to upload” , to navigate with a window inside the folders of your computer: once you have identified the file with the beat to upload, select it by double clicking.
In the new page that will be proposed to you, you will find three tabs to fill in: Basic information , Metadata and Authorizations . On “Basic information” you can upload an image , by clicking on the appropriate box on the left, change the title , select the musical genre from the drop-down menu and insert some fields ( Tag , Description and Subtitle , for example) that help the listener to better define the type of music you propose. By clicking on the “Metadata” tab, you will be offered numerous fields that you can optionally fill in, such as Artist , Publisher, Composer , to cite a few examples: also in this case I suggest you complete as much information as possible. Finally, by clicking on the “Permissions” tab you can define, among other things, whether to allow downloading and offline listening. Click on the Save button to start the upload.
SoundCloud provides a free registration that allows you to upload 180 minutes of audio. To exceed this limit, you need to subscribe to a SoundCloud Go + plan by clicking at the top of the item Upgrade : you can take advantage of a free 30-day trial , following which you will be charged a cost of 9.99 euros per month . For any further information on the use of the site in author mode, I can not help but refer you to the relevant page of the community of the service .
SoundCloud is also available as an app for Android mobile devices (also check on alternative stores if you don’t have access to Google’s) and on iPhone / iPad .
YouTube
YouTube needs no introduction, being the most important and well-known video sharing platform . Not many people know, however, that it is also seen as a valuable tool for promoting music online . It is no coincidence that sites such as Airbit and Beatstars , which we have explored in the previous chapters, allow you to link your YouTube channel on the windows of their stores through specific functions: it is an essential and central synergy in this digital market.
Accompanying your beat with quality videos, elaborated with the best video editing programs and perhaps made following the latest trends , is certainly a promotion strategy to be taken seriously. If you haven’t already, then, I strongly suggest you create a personal video channel .
As for uploading videos on YouTube, I suggest you read my dedicated guide , where you will find a detailed description of all the steps necessary to complete the operation.
