How to Offer a Free Beat to Email Subscribers

One of the best ways to build an email list is to give away something free. A lot of music producers give away a free beat to help entice music artists to join their email lists.

In the tutorial below I will show you how to offer a free beat download using the email service MailChimp.

MailChimp is easy to use, they offer a great visual editor to design emails, and they offer a FREE plan for up to 2,000 email subscribers.

How to Offer a Free Beat to Email Subscribers

Tutorial Overview:

This process should take less than 10 minutes to do.

  1. Create a free MailChimp account.
  2. Create a email list for people to subscribe to.
  3. Modify the confirmation email to include the free beat download.
  4. Embed the email form into a website.
  5. Looking at examples of how music producers get people to join their email list.

Let’s get started.

Video Tutorial

Step by step instructions:

1. Create a FREE MailChimp Account

Click here to sign up for a MailChimp Account.

  1. On their website click the Sign Up Free button.
  2. Enter your information on the sign up page and click the Create My Account button.
  3. You will have to confirm your email address in your inbox to activate your account.
  4. Once you activate your account, enter in personal info and save your information.
Create MailChimp Account - How to Offer a Free Beat to Email Subscribers

2. Build Your Audience

From the MailChimp dashboard click Create A List button next to Start building your audience.

MailChimp Build a Audience - How to Offer a Free Beat to Email Subscribers

3. Create a List

Before you build a audience you will need to create a email list for people to subscribe too. So click the Create List button.

Mailchimp need a list

4. Enter in Details For Your Email List

List Name Tip: Users will be able to see the name of your list. So maybe make it the name of your website and at “Newsletter”. Click the Save button.

Create a Mail Chimp Email List

5. Click “Set Up a Signup From”

MailChimp set up signup forms

6. Click “General Forms”

Mailchimp General Forms - How to Offer a Free Beat to Email Subscribers

7. Select Final “Welcome” Email

Under Forms and response emails select Final “Welcome” Email. This will allow us to edit the final email that is sent to your subscriber once they have confirmed their email address.

Mailchimp Welcome Email

8. Check the Box next to “Send a final welcome email”

Check Send a final welcome email - How to Offer a Free Beat to Email Subscribers

9. Edit Welcome Email

9a. In your web browser hover over the red dotted box labeled “Your subscription has been confirmed.” and a edit button will appear. Click the Edit button.

Edit your MailChimp email

9b. Type something like “Click here to download the free beats.”

mailchimp email message

In this example we are making the message in this welcome email very simple, but you may want to invest more thought and time into this email.

  • Thank them for joining your list.
  • Make it clear how to download the free beats.
  • Maybe include a short bio and some important links of yours.
  • I would NOT suggest trying to sell something right away.
  • Tip: Hit enter a few times when editing the email text to move the unsubscribe button lower in the email so it’s not their first instinct for users to click a button they see.

10. Upload Your Free Beat Download

10a. Click the Link icon.

Link Icon

10b. Under Link To Select File.

MailChimp Link to File

10c. Click the Upload button.

mailchimp upload button - How to Offer a Free Beat to Email Subscribers

10d. Browse your computer for your free beats.

  • It is suggested you put your free beats in a zip file.
  • Maybe include some type of license agreement in a text file or PDF in the zip file.

10e. Once uploaded, copy the File URL and click the Cancel link.

Upload File

10f. Highlight the free download text in your email and click the Link icon again.

Email Text

10g. In the Web Address (URL) input paste the file URL. Click the Insert button.

Mailchimp Web Address

10h. Next click the Save & Close button.

mailchimp save and close button

Large Download Files Tip: You may also choose to upload your free beat download file to your own personal web server, or a file sharing site like Dropbox. If you upload it to one of those options, copy and paste that file location in the Web Address (URL) input for the user to download the free beat.

11. Test the Email Sign Up Process

11a. Under Forms and response emails select Signup form.

Forms and response emails

11b. Copy and paste the Signup form URL in your web browser to test out the email form.

mailchimp form url.

11c. Enter in your email address, name, and click the Subscribe to List button.

mailchimp form - How to Offer a Free Beat to Email Subscribers

11d. Check your email inbox for the email. This email can take a few minutes.

11e. Once you get the email, click the Yes, subscribe me to this list button.

subscribe to email list

11f. Once you confirm your subscription, you should get a second email with the free download link. Test out the download link.

mailchimp confirmation email

If the download link works, you are ready to start collecting email addresses.

12. Add the Form to Your Website

In this last step I will be adding the MailChimp email form code to the sidebar of the Music Maker WordPress theme, but you can add this code to any website you want.

12a. In MailChimp click Signup forms.

mailchimp signup forms

12b. Next click Embedded forms.

Mailchimp Embedded Forms

12c. On the Embedded forms page I will…

  • Uncheck “Include form title”
  • Check “Show only required fields”
  • Uncheck “Show required field indicators”
  • Uncheck “Show format options”

Preview

MailChimp Signup Forms

12d. Next select and copy the code from the “Copy/paste onto your site” box.

Copy and Paste

12e. In WordPress with the Music Maker Theme I will go to the Widgets page and add a Text Widget to one of my sidebars. I will make the widget title “Get 2 FREE Beats Today!”, paste the MailChimp code, and click Save button.

WordPress Text Widget

Website Preview of How it Appears

Music Maker Theme Email Box

That’s it!

What to do next with MailChimp:

  • Customize the design of your emails – You can change the emails background color, add images, change fonts, and more.
  • Plan out your email messaging – Think about your visitors entire experience. How they sign up, what is the first messaging they will read, and how will you follow up to turn them into a fan and loyal customer.
  • Automate emails – MailChimp lets paid members send out automated email messages that can help you build a relationship with your email list.

Music Producer Email Marketing Tips

Tips to Collect Emails on Your Website

Email Marketing Tips

  • Spell check and sound professional.
  • Understand your audience so you know how to market to them. Be a helpful resource.

What NOT to do:

  • Don’t spam people.
  • Don’t add people to your list that did not subscribe, this is not a way to build a relationship.
  • Do not try to force people to join your email list before entering your website.

Email Marketing Examples

Here are a few examples of messaging from music producers to get people to subscribe to their email list. You should test out different marketing messaging to see what works our best for you.

Free Beat Download to Email Subscribers with MailChimp
Free Beat downloads
email marketing
join email list
free beats
simple email marketing form
email marketing landing page
1 free beat email
Email Newsletter Signup Example

I hope this post has been helpful. If you have any email marketing tips, feel free to share them the comment box below.


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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. Email marketing is a great tool. But it seems it doesn’t work well on Soundclick pages. Maybe it will work much better on your own site.

  2. Super helpful! Thanks Mark!

  3. Thank you for that information about mailchimp tuturial just starting out creating beat site ,your information with mail chimp is very helpful could you tell me how to send more then 1Beat and e-book and ConTract at the same time or explain how it’s done when setting up mailchimp free beat free e-book subscription

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