7 Reasons to Not Depend on SoundClick & PMP Worldwide

Here are a couple of reasons to not depend on beat selling communities like SoundClick and PMP Worldwide.

I’m a big fan of the websites mentioned above, but there are a number of reasons you should not depend on these websites for your music success.

I see many benefits in using these websites, but using them may actually be bad for your beat selling business.

1. They Aren’t Professional

If I’m claiming to be a professional, sending someone to a cheap generic profile that has no personality and is cluttered with useless information is an amateur move. Generic web profiles make it easy to be ignored in the competitive market of selling beats.


2. Promoting Competition & Losing Sales

One of the biggest things you should be concerned about is that when you promote your profile, you are also promoting Soundclick and the thousands of other music producers on there.

When I land on your profile before I even scroll down to your beats, I see links to check out the most popular music producers and the most popular beats, and I already want to leave your profile because I want to check out what is hot right now.

There are music producers on there that will have better beats and better prices, and you are losing sales because you are promoting your competition indirectly.


3. Cheap Beat Prices

How do you value your hard work? It doesn’t matter. Because when beats are being sold for $10.00 (on average) you will have to keep your prices competitive to try to snag the sales. And let’s be clear: when I say $10 beats, you may think “Those are some crappy beats”. But no, there are some really professional sounding beats on the market for really cheap.

We are in the digital age of FL Studio and Reason, where teenagers living at home can pump out beats all day, and $10 a beat suits them just fine because that adds up for new shoes. When your music is surrounded by under-valued beats, you will have to be accommodating to survive.


4. Wrong Audience

A site like SoundClick promotes itself to music producers. So most of the traffic is music producers and rappers. So if you are getting a lot of audio plays on your profile and wondering why no sales, it is likely because you are being listened to by other producers.

Let’s think about the type of visitor you want to visit your profile, and the type of visitor you don’t want. I’m sure the people that do buy beats from SoundClick go there for the wide selection and cheap prices.

Do you want to be a part of that wide selection and cheap prices, or do you want to meet a serious music artist with a real album budget? They probably aren’t searching those sites because they have tons of producers coming to them directly.

To be honest, I don’t know if big-name artists are searching on those sites… I suppose it is possible. I just want you to think about the group you are marketing yourself with. Are you in the group that spends 2 hours on a beat and then sells it for $10, valuing your time at $5 an hour, and can you make a living off that?


5. No Connection to Your Customer

You shouldn’t look at selling beats, as just selling a beat. You should look at it as building relationships. Here’s why:

By building a relationship with your customers you can sell multiple beats to the same music artist. Businesses call this customer retention.

The focus is on keeping customers happy so that they keep them coming back and paying for your services. It’s difficult to encourage someone to keep working with you when they buy your beat from a generic website that lacks personality.


6. No Personal Branding

The SoundClick profile pages have a profile picture and a thumbnail image above it. Other than that, every profile looks the same.

The focus isn’t on you. You are secondary to the advertising and other clutter on a page.

People would happily pay for a beat by Timbaland before they even heard it, because he has created a personal brand, and established a known track record of making quality music. These profiles don’t allow you to establish your brand or show off your previous work. You need to make people excited to work with you and it takes more than a profile photo for people to connect with you.

Check out Boonie Mayfield’s Website. As soon as you land on his site, you know it is his site.

You know right away that he produces music, and the site has a unique look and feel that helps it stand out. This is a serious producer who has invested in his craft.


7. Website Clutter

These sites don’t offer the best user experience. They are cluttered with ads, links to your competitors, and tons of other features that can take the visitor’s eye off you and your music.

If you are paying for a service, the focus should be on you and your music to help you stand out.

That’s it!

What do you guys think? Leave a comment and let me know if you think I’m wrong.


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Mark V.

Written By Mark V.

Mark Valenzuela is a professional blogger, entrepreneur, and educator with more than 15 years of experience in music production. In 2008, Mark founded Hip Hop Makers, a top resource for aspiring music producers and beatmakers. He specializes in content on music production, software, gear, and free music resources. Committed to empowering creators of all levels, Mark continues to inspire and help music creators pursue their dreams.

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Comments

  1. This really needed to be said because so many people are getting pimped by these social networks and don’t even know it. I’m a product of what happens when you leave social networks and do self branding. I know my website isn’t the best, but it generates incoming because I have my own lane for business. I went from making beats for fun to paying my bills doing this. So believe in your work and invest because you will get the my back in due time. Feel free to hit me up and ask any questions and I will break down the process.

  2. Great blog and great points made.

  3. I agree it’s better to promo your own wbaddress my site could be pimped some more i been using the reverbnation player cuz my
    HTML codes have not worked for me so far!! So i use what i got but lol!!! Im waiting on those word press templates to drop & try something new! wish me luck producers I have promoter setting me up in vip @clubcafeaisa in D.C.2nite tryna get a placement wit ACE Hood fingers are crossed!!!

  4. @BeatsbyBurn1.com

    Good luck.

    The theme is coming soon. I’m working on it everyday.

  5. Great info. Well put. It’s defiitely better to have your own site(s). More credibility means more traffic which means more money, Consistently.

  6. I left a few of my thoughts on this blog when it was posted on FutureProducers.com You’re welcome to check it out. Thanks.

  7. This article has never been so relevant. Most of you know as of December 1 Rocbattle has been down for 4 days so far and counting as it make way for the upgrade Rocbattle 4.0. So many beat maker who still or won’t get their own site are left in the dark. While I use many flash players I still have my own site and worst case I can just place my soundcloud player on my site and a pay pal button on the bottom for people to buy beats.

    Nice article good read

  8. @Daniel

    Thanks for the comment. That’s a cool idea you have with gravatar image.

  9. I agree 100% with everything said in this article Mark. I am amazed that anybody is even able to make any money selling their beats on some of those extremely cheap looking, beat selling sites such as, Soundclick, RocBattle, etc. I mean the free beat selling sites are great if you don’t have any money to purchase your own web domain, but at only about 95 dollars for a basic web domain, I’d say it’s pretty damn cheap of an investment if you are serious about being a producer or artist. And especially these days when there are millions and millions of talented producers and artists out there competing against each other in a society where music has become devalued to the point where a few hundred thousand album sales are considered good for a first week’s album debut and cd’s can be purchased on iTunes for $12.00 or downloaded for free. That said, I think that Soundcloud, and myflashstore.net are some of the best music sharing, selling and streaming services on the internet. However, I’d like to see more professional and attractive beat selling sites be designed in the future.

  10. I agree 100% with everything said in this article, I was considering setting up a Soundclick.

    In fact, someone highly recommended it when I told them I gave up on uploading some of my tracks on Soundcloud.

    But the truth is I now believe these are a starting point to say hey I make music. But once you get a bit of cash it’s probably best to invest in your own website domain.

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