How to Sell Beats Online: YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.

Selling beats online is a great business to get into if you’re already making tunes in your bedroom studio and you need some extra cash and exposure for your brand.

But how do you go about selling beats? And is it really worth it?

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll take a look at all that and a LOT more.

Before we get into that, though, why should you take your passion and make it your business?

There is a lot of reasons here are a few:

• It feels great to do what you love and be able to make money doing it. So, if you’re in love with making music, this is a great way to live your best life
• It’s straightforward to sell your beats nowadays. With online stores and platforms that make it easy to upload and market yourself to the masses, it’s super simple to get your sound out there
• Your beats could be a lifesaver for content creators that need some unique sounds to make their content feel complete
• It’s not just a hobby anymore and can be a legitimate money-making business. You can build your brand and market yourself to craft a high-quality revenue source
• You want to make money to buy new equipment for your home studio setup

Now that you know why it’s such a great idea to take your passion and turn it into a business, let’s look at just exactly HOW to sell beats.

How To Sell Beats Online: Getting Started

When you set out on this journey, there are some considerations that you need to think about as you get started.

To start with, you need to really dig deep and determine IF YOUR BEATS ARE QUALITY ENOUGH TO SELL.

Figuring that out can take a little self-reflection and asking yourself things like:

Has any artist used your beats already? If they haven’t, then why?

The FIRST place to start is whether you have mixed your best well enough to grab the ear of artists to sample.

This should be no reason to deter you from this adventure, but this is definitely something that you need to think about.

The LAST thing you need to do is make sure all your sample tracks are either royalty-free or if you purchased the right to use them.

This will save you from a lot of hassle and potential legal costs.

Once you’ve figured this all out and have put together some sick beats, it’s time to get to selling.

But…where do you sell them exactly?

Where Is The Best Place to Sell Beats Online?

Artists have so many more avenues to promote and sell their wares now than a decade ago.

So, you can see why it may feel a bit overwhelming to decide on where you will be selling your beats online.

These are some of the best sites for online beat selling.

RELATED: Best Websites to Sell Your Beats Tracks

1. Do I Need A Website To Sell Beats?

Taking the time to build your website to sell your beats shows a level of professionalism that a lot of other producers do not take advantage of.

With your own site, you can build a better relationship with potential clients.

You can build lead generators and content specifically to create and convert customers.

Designing your own site is not as hard as you think with all the drag-and-drop website builders online.

This is also a great way to build an email list that will develop long-lasting relationships and craft return business.

Having your own website also alleviates the commission fee that many sites charge you for hosting your beats on their site.

2. Facebook For Musicians

Facebook is the LARGEST social media platform in the world. With more than one billion people on it, there are bound to be some people on the hunt for some beats.

Using this social media platform may seem a little weird, but with such a reach, you can easily use it to get the word out and drum up some customers.

You cannot only use your friends and family to spread the word about your beats, but you can also employ Facebook ads to promote your business.

With these ads, you can target an audience that’s already looking for what you have, which will convert customers faster.

3. Twitter For Producers

Twitter, much like Facebook, may not be a place you would think could drive sales, but with the right promotion and marketing, you definitely can use those 280 characters to do it.

You can use tweets about music production and other related topics to build authority in the industry.

4. YouTube For Beat Makers

This is the largest search engine in the world, and so you would be making a mistake to overlook this social media platform.

Knowing how to share your process and the creation of your beats via video can help drive traffic to your other social media or even your own website where you can sell your beats.

5. Airbit

This is perhaps the biggest and best place to sell your beats. Airbit deals with commission-free sales with a monthly plan and is easy to set up for your brand.

This is an excellent place for new beats sellers to start as it is a one-stop-shop for everything you need. You also have access to custom licenses and contracts so that you can protect your beats.

Plus, you can add voice tags to your uploaded beat, which is another level of protection for your work.

READ MORE: Airbit vs Beatstars Reviews: Beat Platform Showdown

6. SoundCloud For Musicians

This site also has millions of users and a great audio player, so why not use this as your home to sell some beats?

You can also use this site to build relationships with other artists to help grow your brand and brand recognition.

We discuss more of this later, so keep reading!

7. Instagram For Selling Tacks

Though this platform is a new one to the list, there is still a lot of valuable use you can get when looking to sell beats.

By utilizing all the features of Instagram (stories, IGTV, and your feed), you can show your workflow and share new announcements and beats.

You can even utilize Instagram ads to promote new beats or bundles to help build a business.

8. Social Media for Selling Beats

Taking your career into your own hands is a crucial part of selling your beats and using social media AS A WHOLE is one of the best ways to do that.

This tool allows the artist to not only build a relationship with their fans but also connect with other artists.

You can also use social media to build your brand authority and share content to help drive traffic to your beats. Building brand authority is crucial to getting your name known.

This can include:

• Creating content on social media
• A dedicated Instagram page for your brand
• A YouTube channel where you share your knowledge and process
• Or simply using online media via blogs on places like Medium to help make your name known.

This will help build your brand recognition, and that will translate into traffic to your beats.

SoundCloud for Selling Beats

One of the online markets we talked about was SoundCloud, and though Airbit is more popular among beatmakers, the SoundCloud platform deserves a little consideration.

There are a lot of great things about SoundCloud, but there are a few marketing tricks you could use to get the most out of your SoundCloud account.

Here are some tips to help promote and build your beat business via SoundCloud:

1. Make sure that your page has links to both your website and social media accounts. By including these, you will ensure that other artists and potential clients have access to all your content and your attention
2. You will want to make sure that the thumbnails attached to your page and your individual beats are on-brand. You will also want to make sure they are eye-catching as this is the image that is going to get that user to click on your track
3. Just like with videos and blogs, tags are essential to help your beats be found. By adding specific keywords, you will improve your beat rank in search of that term. This will increase traffic to your page and your beat which will in turn help sell your beats
4. When you add your description to your track, you will want to add links that allow them to purchase right there. This will make buying your beat easier and will help keep your potential customer on your own site or your social media profiles. This will allow you to potentially expand that purchase
5. You will also want to use your Instagram skills and add some hashtags to your tracks. With this, when people search for a hashtag or a style of track, your beat will appear in the search. This will get more traffic and convert at a higher rate
6. You will want to make sure your page uses high-quality imagery that’s on-brand with your image. Making the imagery engaging will help silently give your potential client an idea of who you are and what your beats are all about. This means the images, the color palette, and the font all need to work with the brand you’re trying to build.

Using these marketing tips will help you build a great page that will engage your audience and help you sell more beats.

Let’s Make Some Money

Making beats and laying down the track is an art that allows you to create and express your style and emotions, and that is sometimes enough for artists.

But for those that conclude that they would like to quit the hustle and bustle of their 9-5 rut and enjoy their work, selling their beats will become a goal as well.

But then once you’ve done all of the above, the tough question of how to sell them comes into your mind.

To figure out how to price out your beats, there are factors to consider.

Here are the most important ones:

Who Is Your Target Audience?

Though most artists may not really be concerned with this factor, it’s still worth discussing.

Knowing your target audience can help you determine where to sell and how to sell your beats.

For instance, if you’re looking to sell your beats more to video creators, you may want to use YouTube or Instagram to promote your content and drive traffic to your site.

If, however, you’re looking to promote your tracks to artists, you may decide to use SoundCloud. The rate you sell your tracks or the way you bundle them may be determined by this factor.

Should You Do a Collaboration?

Are you simply selling your beats, or are you willing to collaborate? This could affect your rates significantly.

You can offer lower rates if you’re going to collaborate with the artist, but if you’re doing a single sell with no collaboration, then you’ll want to charge more as you won’t be able to capitalize on the audience from the other individual.

By offering a lower rate, you will be building a relationship with the other artist, and this may bring more business and create a long-term relationship.

You will also be able to use this as a way to build word of mouth reputation, which in turn will bring you more business.

Private Site or Online Platform or Both?

Choosing whether you will use your own site, online platforms like Airbit, or both can affect how much you charge. If you opt for either of the options that include your own website, you will have an extra cost.

This may mean that you will want to add extra charges to cover your business costs. You will also want to consider if you’re using a platform that is commission-free or not as this may also require you to add a few bucks to cover your time.

Then again, if you go with a community or platform like Airbit, you will have a massive audience, and this could let you charge less as you will have more traffic.

Plus, if you exclusively sell via social media, you will have no entry costs, and that could also allow you to charge less.

RELATED: Send Beats to Rappers: Complete Guide for Beginners

Pricing

When you’re looking at pricing structures, there are really only two major options.

Exclusive

This is the pricing structure that allows you to sell one beat to one artist.

This will give that user an exclusive right to the song, and you will have no access to it at any time ever again. This type of pricing structure means that you need to set a FIRM price.

Determining how much comes down to what you think your beat is worth. The base number of beats in this structure typically starts at around $500.

You can sell for more as you will only get a one-time payment for this track, so get what you can from it.

Non-Exclusive

This is the structure where you can sell one track to multiple users.

This means that if 50 people like your track, you can sell it to every one of them. This means that you can price it at a lower rate because you’re going to have multiple sales.

Though you can price this structure however you want, you will want to make sure that you’re not shortchanging your works. Many feel $50 is the perfect starting price, but some artists offer rates much lower than that.

Donation/Bid

Though the pricing structures above are the most popular, two other options have become popular in the last few years: Donations and Promos.

This structure allows you to set a base price, and then buyers can decide if they want to pay more. This may seem like a crazy idea, but many buyers want to give more as they know how much work that goes into the beat.

It’s also great once you have built a relationship as your recurring buyers may feel almost like a patron and want to give you more.

Discounts and Promos

This may seem counterintuitive to deciding your rates, but it is an important consideration.

You want to encourage buying, and sometimes the best way to do that is to run a promo or a discount.

You could drive business by offering a discount on their first beat purchase or a promo if they buy more than one beat. These will both convert faster than selling at a single rate.

However, you shouldn’t run these all the time. But doing specials now and then will help build your audience.

Another great idea is to offer packages at a rebate rate for rebate buyers. This will help build your reputation and elicit a good word of mouth campaign.

The best way to do this is to use excellent marketing and a strong message. You can also use your email list as a delivery method as well.

This is another place where social media ads could be used effectively.

Putting it All Together

In the end, the price you place on your beats really boils down to your own decision. The above factors are simply there to help you figure out how to determine the base rate.

You will want to use your marketing plan to create a pricing structure that seems fair to your buyers as well as to all your hard work.

You will want to use every tool at your disposal to promote and drive business. The more you sell, the easier it is going to be to make this your career, and that will allow you to live the life you want.

One of the biggest mistakes new sellers make is to undersell their product, so do not be afraid to sell it for what you think it is worth.

If it doesn’t sell, then you can play with the pricing structure (or sell the beat on multiple platforms), but NEVER underestimate the worth of your work.

By making sure to know your worth and using useful research that you gather online, you should be able to pick competitive rates that allow for the conversion of traffic to an extraordinary level.

The Final Verdict

Finding a way to make your passion your career is a dream we all have. If you have a passion for music and enjoy creating killer beats, then why not sell them and find your way into a life you’ve always dreamed of?

With this guide and all of its information, we certainly hope you have found the answers you were looking for on how to sell beats.

The biggest thing to consider is how and where you are going to sell your beats. Once this is decided, the rest is all about CONSISTENCY and CONTENT.

Use your tools and build a brand and work your way to a business you can be proud of!

This can all be done by using the wonderful world of social media. Craft multiple forms of content on various platforms and do it where your audience is going to be.

With the tools at hand, you may find it a lot easier than you thought it would be. The equation is simple:

• Offer content that is engaging
• Build a following
• Create some sick beats

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May 26, 2021 – fixed and updated article formatting and content, added 1 external link

May 25, 2021 – updated title and meta description, updated publish date, tagged primary keyword, added table of contents, added schema