There’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t be living off your passion for music production and selling beats online.  In the first installment of this 2-part webinar series, we’ve revealed a number of reasons why you might be struggling to sell your beats.

1. You complain too much.

Way too many producers online would rather bitch and complain about how “rappers don’t buy beats” than to actually invest the time and money into learning the correct ways to market and attract artists to buy their instrumentals.  And nobody wants to buy from someone who complains all the time!

2. Your mindset sucks.

And it shows to your potential customers and clients!  Artists don’t want beats forced down their throat… simply because you are hungry to make the sale. They won’t respond to that, and you could really end up damaging some otherwise great relationships early on.

3.  You Buy every Beat-selling course on the market.

Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because investing into your education and marketing is an absolute must.  However, in many cases you may find yourself not even finishing them completely or applying all of the techniques and strategies that were outlined. Don’t develop “shiny ball syndrome”, and make sure you’re taking advantage of all your marketing resources to the absolute fullest!

4.  You’re copying somebody else.

Let me stress… modeling and copying are not the same thing. Modeling is where you take something that’s working for someone else (whether it be a marketing strategy, website format, social media operations, etc) and modify it such that it works for YOU! Copying requires no real work of effort on your part and will ultimately come across as disingenuous and fake to your following. Personal branding is all about what you bring to the table.

5. You’re dreaming too small.

If your vision isn’t big, you’re not going to make the money you want selling your beats online.  If you think small, you’re going to make small money.

6. You’re not prepared to listen.

Many producers email and message me on social media… asking for help and advice on how they can sell more beats and make more money from their music business overall.  I’ll usually respond back with an answer to their question, or a link to a video or blog post with some directly applicable strategies to implement.  Days… weeks go by and they haven’t taken any action at all on the advice that was given.  If you want success, you’ve got to be prepared to listen to people who are seeing the results that you want for yourself.

7. You don’t have a schedule.

White boards and note pads are your friends!  You’ve got to treat selling beats online like a business, because it is! And that means you’ve got to have an action plan compiled with a list of everything you have to do for the day… week and month.  And attaching specific deadlines for each task will tremendously help you to be more efficient with your time and get so much more done in a day!

8. You think it’s harder than it actually is.

Again, it’s no secret that artists are most definitely buying beats.  If you ever doubt that, I highly encourage you to check out the Myflashstore Charts or Beat Stars charts anytime 🙂  You’ll see new top selling beats added daily!  So what’s stopping you from being up there with the rest of the producers?  If you’re consistent and apply the correct branding and marketing strategies, there’s absolutely no reason you can’t be.

 9. You’re focused on everyone else.

Where attention goes, energy flows, and results show.  So your primary focus has got to be on your own goals and music business.  Other people can’t make the beat sales for you, it’s ultimately up to you to do the work.

10. You don’t have an “easy-to-use” personal website.

Sadly, many online beat makers and producers don’t have their own personal website or blog.  And instead of using websites like Soundcloud or Soundclick as platforms to help assist grow their beat selling business, they often rely on them solely.  Furthermore, make sure that you have responsive or mobile-friendly website like this one.

11. You think spamming your link on Facebook works.

Posting an unsolicited link on someone’s Facebook wall or mass tagging people to your latest instrumental is a terrible idea, and if you’re doing it… I recommend cutting that out of your “marketing” plan asap.

12. You haven’t built a trusted brand.

Having a professional logo and website is simply a way of visually representing what your brand is about. Building the know, like and trust… that’s the part that takes a lot of work.

When you go online to buy a digital product, and consciously make the decision to go to “Amazon.com” directly instead of Google searching your product… why is it that you went directly to Amazon?  Could it be that you’ve had a good experience with them in the past and you know what to expect – and you trust that you’ll have another good experience this time?

This is what building a brand is all about.

13. You refuse to post Content besides your Beats.

Shooting videos, writing articles or blog posts, updating your Facebook with informative or entertaining posts – there are infinite ways that you can provide value-based content to your following.  Simply posting links to your beats day in, day out – especially during the infancy of your brand – is NOT going to make you stand among other beat makers online, because most of them are doing the exact same thing!  Providing real value is one of the easiest way to cut through all the noise online and establish your fans and customer base in an expedited fashion.

14. You’re not uploading your Beats to 3rd-party sites.

Although your personal website cannot be replaced, and should be your primary hub and backbone of your business – you still want to leverage any and all exposure, traffic and supplemental beat sales you can from third party websites including, but not limited to: Soundclick, Soundcloud, Beat Brokerz, Beat Stars, Facebook, YouTube, ReverbNation and many more!  These are all authority websites, and there’s no reason not own as much property on the web as you can… expanding your reach and ultimately selling more of your beats online.

15. Your Beats aren’t Mixed well.

A lot of producers I hear have really dope beats, but many of them are mixed poorly.  Without a polished, high-quality mix on your instrumentals, you may be unknowingly turning artists away from purchasing your tracks.

16. Know your Strengths and Weaknesses.

My recommendation is to focus on your strengths.  You’ll be way more productive in those particular areas, and the places that you’re weak – you can hire someone else to do that work.  I’m not saying not to be well-rounded, but remember that there is limited time in a day.  So make sure that the time you do have available to work on your business is being allocated and exerted in the most effective channels.

17. You think all you have to do is make good music.

I’ve spoken to many producers over the years with this mentality… that all it takes is making dope beats, and that artists and rappers will automatically flock and buy right away.  Good music should be the primary focus, but there’s much more that goes into selling beats online and your success than quality instrumentals alone.

18. You’re not investing into your business.

You can’t expect artists to support you and buy your beats, if you aren’t willing to invest in yourself and the overall development of your business. Whether it be investing into marketing programs, new gear, quality sounds, or anything else that’s going to help your business grow and flourish. If you’re just starting out.. and making very minimal income from your beat sales – I highly recommend investing the majority of your profits (if not all) back into your business in some way.   You definitely want to be smart with your investments, and those informative decisions come with research and doing your homework,  or you can simply get 1-on-1 guidance and any questions answered here. But as the saying goes, “It takes money to make money.”

19. You treat your fans like you only want money from them.

You’ve got to talk to your potential fans and customers like actual people, not just people you want to extract money from.  Be genuine, take the time to build real relationships, and your supporter base will stick with you for the long haul.

20. No instant delivery.

In 2015, there is absolutely NO reason why your customers should not receive their digital beat downloads instantly after purchase. None. Especially for non-exclusive beat licenses, where typically there’s no paperwork or other transaction finalization process involved. An artist comes to your site and buys a non-exclusive beat lease for 25 bucks, they’re expecting an instant download. And if you don’t have a way to automate the delivery of your beats, your sales are probably suffering.  Don’t have a instant beat store? Here’s the one I’ve been using for over 5 years.

 

21. You don’t believe you can sell your beats.

This ties back into to some earlier points that were made on mindset, but if you don’t believe you can make the beat sales you deserve, you’ll never put forth the actual effort that it takes – and it’ll be virtually impossible to achieve the monetary results you deserve.

22. You already know it all.

You’ve got to be a student of the game in everything you pursue in life.  And you’ve got to be willing to take advice and apply the knowledge from people who are getting the results that you want.

23. You’re not consistent.

“Baby steps will take you all the way up Mount Everest… if you just keep taking them.” And giant steps with get you there a hell of a lot quicker.

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