I was reading the comments on a video, and a few people asked if I could show how to make $100 as a music producer. So today, I’m going to teach you how you can make your first $100 selling beats. There are a lot of ways to do this, but I’ll be sharing my personal experience and walking you through my process, plus any extra tips that I think you should know.
I’m going to be talking to you and trying to help you out. So if you’re not the type who likes to read people’s advice, go check out my other posts. But for those who are ready to learn and looking for valuable advice, this post is for you.
Before you dive into selling beats, there are a few things you need to understand. One of the main things is that your beats have to be on point. I’ve seen some people who’ve just started making music and after a week or a month they make two beats and think they’re ready to sell them. When you hear the beats they’re trying to sell, they sound like… well, they’re not ready.
Music production is a whole process. There’s a lot to learn, and it’s a craft you need to perfect every day. It’s not just about making beats, but also about understanding how songs work. When you want an artist to get on your music, you need to know what they’re looking for. I’ve made a lot of efforts to help people understand what makes a good beat, and we go deeper into these topics in my posts, where we teach people at all levels.
So, make sure you’re putting in the time and that you’re confident in what you’re making. And I mean confident, not just because you made your first beat or a two-note melody and think it’s great. Trust me, it’s not. If you listen to it a year later, you’ll probably think it’s terrible.
When I started, I didn’t even think about selling my music for at least one or two years. I started from scratch, and it took that long before I was ready to sell. Looking back at those old beats now, the quality has definitely improved, but at least I knew they were decent enough to give to an artist at that time.
So, spend some time learning and build up your catalog. Have at least 100 beats that you’re confident in, that you could send to someone right now, and they’d be cool with it. Your beats should cover a wide variety of styles, from drill to trap to R&B, dark to happy, or ambient. Just make sure you’ve got a good selection. Label your beats with your name, the title, key, and BPM. Artists prefer to work with someone who makes things easy. If you send them a beat with an untitled name, they won’t want to work with you. Make it clear and easy for them to use.
Also, reassess your mindset. Don’t go into this with the only goal being money. If your only focus is making money, you won’t get very far. This is about building relationships with artists, making music, and getting better. If you get that right, the money will come later. So, focus on making great music and building your network, and the money will follow.
A lot of people use BeatStars to sell their beats, or they post them on YouTube with a link to their BeatStars. But here’s a common misconception: just uploading your beats on BeatStars or YouTube doesn’t mean you’ll automatically make sales. It’s not impossible, but it’s not likely either. You could upload a type beat on YouTube and it might blow up, but that’s rare. Same with BeatStars—just uploading a beat doesn’t guarantee it’ll show up at the top where artists will find it. You need to put in the work. Your first sales are not going to come passively unless you’re really lucky.
So, how do you get clients? How do you get to the rappers or singers you want to sell to? When I was trying to sell beats, I used social media, mainly SoundCloud and Instagram. SoundCloud is great because you can find playlists of underground rappers—people who aren’t signed and are putting their music up for free. You can easily find one song, then swipe to another, and discover a ton of artists. There’s so much music on SoundCloud because it’s free to upload, unlike platforms like Spotify or Apple Music.
When I listened to music on SoundCloud, I didn’t just skim through it. I paid attention and asked myself if I could see myself producing for that artist. If they’re making music you’re not familiar with, like Afrobeat or something, maybe it’s not the right fit. But if you love drill music and know you can produce for that genre, then focus on those artists. Make sure it makes sense.
If you find an artist you like, check out their profile. They usually have their social links or email in their bio. Instagram is a great place to DM people, so send a message. But don’t be that person who just says “Yo, buy my beats.” That’s not the way to go.
How To DM Artists
DON’T just yo people. I never answer people who hit my DM saying “yo” like that. What? Yo, like you have something to say, but you just type “yo” and leave. Don’t be that person. Also, don’t be the person that says, “Yo, can I ask you a question?” You just did ask me a question. Be intentional with what you say. Also, don’t be the person who goes into the DM like, “Hey man, yo, yo, you need beats? I got beats on the low, man. Five dollars a beat. You need beats, huh? I got you.” Don’t be that person. Like I said in the very beginning of this blog, it’s about building relationships with these people. You’re not going door to door trying to sell Girl Scout cookies. You’re trying to build a relationship with someone.
So when you hit them up, be like, “Yo, what’s up? I’m a producer from wherever.” I’d be like, “Yo, I’m “enter name here”. I’m a producer from New York. I just heard your song, whatever the title is, on SoundCloud.” And I’m not lying because I actually heard it. I’d say, “I just listened to your song, and I thought it was dope. I really liked the hook. I really liked these lyrics. I really liked the verse. I liked the production. I like how it sounds.” Actually tell them how you felt about the song. Because people will see that and they’ll be like, “Oh, you actually listened to the music that I put out. I appreciate that.” People are gonna answer to that. They’re not gonna answer to, “Yo.” Be a human being with these people. It’s not just transactions and whatever. It’s talking to someone, letting them know that you like their music, and also introducing yourself. Make sure you mention you’re a producer, because who are rappers looking to work with? Other producers.
So by starting that message with, “Hey, what’s up? I’m a producer,” they’re automatically like, “Oh, this could potentially be someone I’m gonna work with. I’m interested in looking for beats. This person is a producer. Cool.” And on top of that, they’re actually showing love and saying that they listened to my song. And then they might respond, “Oh, what’s up? Thank you so much. I appreciate that.” If you’re lucky, you’ll get right into it, and they’ll be like, “Oh, you’re a producer?” Don’t look like a shady account. You know, have a profile picture. Be a person. And try to understand what’s going on in that artist’s life. They have an Instagram, and they’re posting stories. Maybe their stories are saying, “Yo, I need beats,” and you see that and you’re already talking to this person. You’ve got to take advantage of that. Or it’s like you see the stuff that they’re posting about when they say they’re working on a new album, and you want to be a part of that. You have to take advantage of these things.
Get to know who you’re talking to and how you can help them. How can you make yourself valuable to them? You know, there are so many people who skip right over that, who will just go right into the email, right into the message, “I’m trying to sell beats here.” Show them your face. You want to build a relationship with someone who could be a potential customer of your beats and hopefully a repeat customer who buys several beats from you over time. Get to know who they are, what they’re doing in their life, and how you can help them. Let the conversation keep going. Ask them some questions. “Yo, where are you from? How long have you been making music? What type of music are you trying to make? Are you working on anything special?” Blah, blah. Just keep the conversation going. Keep being a human being with this person.
Eventually, you’re going to end up with two options. They’re either gonna ask you, “Yo, I see that you’re a producer,” and they take it from there, maybe we can work or whatever. And if they don’t go that route, then offer your business card, which is basically, “Yo man, I really do like your work and I’m a producer. I’ve got plenty of beats that I feel like would fit with your style. If you’d ever be interested in working, let me know. I could absolutely send you some snippets. Maybe you’ll catch a liking for some of this stuff.” You just have to be ready for however the conversation goes. Sometimes they’re going to extend their hand to you, and if they’re not like that, then maybe you need to press a little bit. And from there, it’s really up to you how you want to move forward.
Send Free Beats
Don’t be afraid to send some beats for free. When you go to a store and there’s a brand that really wants you to buy their ice cream, they’ll offer you a free sample first. You test it out, you like it, you’re gonna want to buy the product, right? So I’ve never been afraid, when I was first starting out, to just send some beats out for free for the sake of building a relationship and seeing the potential of the music that we can make together. You gauge how it’s going with this person. Maybe you don’t need to send anything for free, and they’re like, “Straight up, okay, how much do you charge for a beat?” That’s a crazy thing to get. If they straight up ask you, “How much do you charge?” and they already mess with your beats, like you’re in. But other ones, you kind of have to weave around, gauge the conversation about when is the appropriate time to try to sell a beat. You could be like, “Yeah, man, I’m down to work, so I think what we could arrange is I’ll send you three beats for free and we can see how that goes. And then after that, we can discuss my price or whatever.”
And be nice. That’s a nice thing to offer. Like, that’s a nice little deal. “Yo, I’ll give you the very first two beats for free. We can see what happens. If you want to keep working, I could definitely set you up with some deals or whatever. You buy one beat, you get another one free.” You know, like ease your way into it. Don’t just be like, “Pay this amount now and I’ll give you a beat.” Maybe send a few for free. Maybe like be nice and give them a discount. “Yo, I’ll give you this one for half off.” You’re not just some producer who hides behind a laptop screen and makes beats all day. You have to be a human being. You need to be a business person. You’ve got to be able to have a conversation with these people, understand how you can be valuable to them, and just be smart about how you go about things. And eventually, you’ll get to that place where you’re sending that beat over and they’re sending you some money.
How To Go About Receiving Payments
The way that I did it? I didn’t use BeatStars. Or I did for like one sale, and I realized they took a cut out of what I was making, and I was like, “I’d rather just send the beats to the artist myself.” And that requires a little trust, because it’s like I would ask them to send the money first, and then I would immediately send the beat. So they have to trust you, but that’s what the whole relationship-building thing is about. Building trust with this person, getting to know them, and whatever you charge for a beat, like when I was starting out, you know, giving like a beat lease, $25 for an MP3. Okay, they PayPal you $25, and I immediately email them the beat. There we go. That’s a sale.
You could, if you could do that four times, only four times, that’s your first $100. You see how simple that seems? Like if you could do that four times, only four sales of $25 with some artists that you build relationships with, that’s your first $100 selling beats. So that’s something to be proud of. And yeah, it’s like if you want to increase your chances, then just keep on listening to other people’s music, sending out those messages, whether it’s on Instagram. Some of them don’t have Instagram, they’ve got an email in their SoundCloud bio. Hit their email with the same type of message and build a relationship with them. And at the same time, that also builds up your social media presence, because you can follow them, they’ll follow you back, and now you have like real relationships with artists, rappers, vocalists, singers. You follow each other, you work with each other. It’s a win-win-win-win-win.
I think when I was doing that, I’d send out like 50 or 60 messages in a day. Just sit, listen to stuff on SoundCloud, and send out so many emails and so many messages, and try to contact so many different people. Not everyone is going to answer. Not everyone is going to be interested. And that’s why I sent out so many, because eventually, you’ll get to the people you really talk to and end up working with. You get into a good habit of doing that, and you can start having repeat customers. You could be sending out messages or whatever, trying to get beat sales, and then out of the blue, an artist that you worked with in the past DMs you, saying, “Yo, I’m trying to buy some more beats.” And now you have a repeat customer. Isn’t that great? And you keep doing that, and as you do that, you’re building your song catalog of songs that you’ve produced.
And if people say, “Hey man, what have you worked on?” Now you have a bunch of songs that you’ve actually produced, and you can send to them and be like, “Yeah, I work with these artists.” So yeah, that technique is so much more than just selling beats. It’s building a brand. It’s building your catalog. It’s building relationships with people. Very, very effective, especially today with how popular social media is, how many artists are out there looking for producers, looking for beats every single day, songs uploaded every day, all these emails, all these Instagram accounts. You need to be on top of that.
That’s my advice. That’s how I started out with selling beats. Good luck to everyone who wants to try that method. I hope it works out for you. If it does and you start selling beats, shoot me an email and let me know because I would love to hear about that. That’s awesome. So thank you all so much for reading this blog, and I really hope I could help some people out today. If you’re interested in learning more ways to take your beats to the next level, take your whole craft to the next level, and be a well-rounded producer, then I highly recommend you check out our drum kits. They’re really changing people’s lives. I’ll see you on the next one. Peace!
