Today I want to talk about a complicated topic in this world of beatmakers and music producers selling their music on the internet. More specifically, I’m here to explain some alternatives to buying basic licensed beats on Beatstars and other similar platforms.
My job is precisely to make custom instrumentals for artists, totally to their liking, and I come to defend it tooth and nail, because I feel it is ethical, fair and generous. However, there are sales models on the internet that I think are not so ethical, and I think it will help a lot of people if I give arguments as to why this is so.
Status
The thing is that many artists when they are starting their career don’t have a lot of cash to pay for big jobs and the idea of working on a track with a music producer hand in hand doesn’t even cross their minds. So they buy basic licenses from sites like Beatstars for 15 or 30 euros. The problem with these licenses is that they are hardly worth anything! They offer no real value to the buyer.
Handicaps of leasing beats
With this purchase you only have one track; you don’t have all the rights (in most cases you are banned from all radio rights, and many times they also extremely limit streaming rights), nor do you have the possibility to process the sound of the base with your voice to make it look at least minimally good, nor do you have the exact type of base you want, nor do you have the possibility to monetise it fully.
If you are just starting out, I don’t recommend you to pay a producer like me, who works on custom themes. But don’t waste your money on a basic license either, and also don’t waste your money on an intermediate or premium license (if possible). Just download a free beat from any website or even Youtube..
Options for beginners
There are many ways to have free bases, although you may not be able to monetise them either because authors usually dispose of royalties and copyrights. But it’s exactly the same as what you’re going to get for 30 euros. You will have a track and the availability to upload it to some platforms without including monetisation on those platforms.
My advice is to try little by little with free bases, and if you are ambitious and have some savings get a good producer to work an instrumental just the way you want it, with the elements and the exact style you have in your head, and monetize your work and take a good part of the rights, or 100% as it happens in my case. Is it 4 times more expensive? Yes. Is it worth it? I have no doubt about it.
Other strategies
But I will also give you possibilities that have nothing to do with the product I offer, because above all what I like most about the music market is that it is fair, and I think it is not fair in some things. But like the old tapes, some of them have two sides:
1 A: I recommend that if you buy a licence, save up and pay the most expensive one, because that is the one that will give you the most benefits and the fairest in all respects. There are other possibilities, such as our “Stock of beats“, a beat sales model in which, for a ridiculous price, you buy all the rights to a beat, and the right to freely monetize it as if it were yours.
1 B: Of course, this also has disadvantages: usually to buy the complete beat with assigned rights they cost a lot of money (in some cases 500 or even 1000 $). There are people who are very well valued and really good, but 500 euros for a track with assigned rights is a bit crazy in a country with the average purchasing power of Spain, and not to think about it in the case of Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. This kind of prices are not designed for this kind of songs to be sold. But in this way, the track gets a lot of rentals, so it can remain available on the producer’s website.
2 A: Another possibility (although more complicated)is to send your demos or work to record companies to get their opinion about your work and your talent. If they really like what you have to offer, they may offer you a contract that you might be interested in.
2 B: Anyway, the best possibility for an emerging artist nowadays is to become known on social networks before establishing any contract with a record label, because if you are not known they can take advantage of you and make abusive contracts. And whichever way you look at it, the best strategy when submitting your work to a record label is to have a good base aligned with your style..
3 A: Another good idea (though often more complicated) is to get into the artistic circles of your city and make important friends who produce good music, do something like Rosalia and El Guincho, who were friends and worked on a great album together without charging a penny at the beginning. That way you would save some payments.
3 B: It is also true that finding a producer who understands your style among passionate artists is more complicated, as they tend to focus on their favourite styles, which is difficult to match yours. The good thing about a producer who charges for his work is his versatility, his good musical level in all urban styles and his experience working with artists (which implies an enormous capacity to adapt)..
I would like to conclude the blog by defending my working method, or simply working methods similar to mine, which I consider to be suitable for when you are an artist who has already gone through the first stages and is at a moment of experience, ambition and the tessitura of claiming works at the technical and artistic level. Here I leave you all my arsenal of arguments!
Why buy custom instrumentals?
1 Because they are made to your liking
2 Because you have the large percentages of rights that the personalised service grants you (sometimes 100% of the royalties).
3 Because you save paying the mixing and mastering to another professional if the producer can do it himself. The final price will be cheaper. In many cases he can record the vocals and even do the lyrics, so you will have the complete product
.
4 Because you can have him as your trusted producer, and he will know how to find the perfect idea for each of your songs and he will be your best ally in your creative process. If he is ambitious like you, you will be able to reach the top as a great team.
5 Because if the producer works constantly with you he will give you interesting discounts (you will get the same musical quality for a cheaper price than usual).
6 Because, if you used to buy expensive leasing beats licences that give you the multitrack, you might feel it’s time to take it a step further. You might pay more, but this time your music will be your own, the fruit of your ideas; you’ll be calling the shots. It’s a blast, and it’s engaging!
Finally, I recommend that, if you decide to take the step of working with personalised music, always work with someone reliable, as there are people who charge cheaply and then make very strange tricks..
Artists I work with have told me very ugly things about selling ready-made bases, strange resales and works that were not up to standard (several times, and it makes me angry because it’s money that decent producers could have made profitable by enriching the customer and enriching ourselves as professionals).
In this world, people take a lot of crap, so be very careful! Make sure that the producer gives you his portfolio, his website if possible (even better), and that you read the opinions of some of the artists he works with..
Anyway, here are some blogs on similar topics. Remember that you can buy rap, trap, uk drill, pop, reggaeton, dembow, r&b…instrumentals!
