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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I agree with you 100 percent I see things exactly the way you do
Totaly true i use the hip hop music maker them and its 100 times better
Great article i am a new comer to selling beats and not creating. Self branding and your own website is way more rewarding than 3rd party host’s i must say. Plus u can use analytics to monitor your site and see what works and what doesn’t. One problem i have is selling my hard work beats for less. Never sell yourself short.
This is a good post. I wonder though, what kind of avenues are out there that’s primary focus is fans?? That’s who I want to share my music with; The People! Hmm, I gotta say I’m gettin’ hella frustrated when it comes to having to constantly retweet (@DaOnlyabstraCtG) and posting snippets on my Instagram (@theonly_abstraCtg). I want to create a solid buzz man. Somethin’ that can’t be denied. A way to spread some love…
Great article.
Very informational. I’m motivated to build my own beat page.
I commend the producers that are now creating their own websites and networking their way to the top. Rocbattle is great in terms of networking, I’ve met a lot of great people there. You definitely need to have something to fall back on if your social media profiles suddenly get deleted etc. Great points made here.
Seems like its just a advertisement for us to visit boon doc’s page. You could have listed a whole lotta other sites but you just listed his..nice try !
I have not connection to boon doc. I only shared one example.
this is all very true…to many years i wasted making other producers rich…getting your own site is the only way to go if u are serious