PROMOTION for your BEATS

[thebigjuice]

I'm trying to get my music/beats out there. I'm looking to do it myself, or partner with a professional (or someone who has some connections andknow-how).

How do all of you market your beats? where do you go, and what methods do you employ? I don't know many rappers, or industry people, so word of mouth isdifficult for me to accomplish.

What are some other hip-hop related message boards you frequent? where are the most people located?

any other suggestions and ideas?

and, as always, check my music out and let me know what you think: http://www.myspace.com/juicebeats

Thanks in advance

 

[hypebeast mcstreetwear]

I tried DynamicProducer.com pretty legit. They have annual beat battles in NY wit big names there and what not. They have some in LA too.

Right now I'm on PMPworldwide. It's pretty expensive but very very beneficial. That's an A&R playground, fam. I only been there not even amonth and I sold 3 beats. The site takes 0 commission of sales too. Hope that helps. You in Cali, right? So you better than me. I'm in CT...yea exactly

. Just take oppurtunities when they arise...ALWAYS. Attend seminars even if nothing immediately amounts from them. Let ppl see ya face..

 

[pusha x vinsanity]

Did you pay that $450 for the year subscription, Hype...? That just seems like so much of a risk, to me.

I'd be scared I barely gained anything from the site, after dropping half a G to "promote" tracks...

I've been meaning to join DynamicProducers, though. For $40, that's a nice look.


Have y'all been here at all...? I think it was started by a dude on Next Selection, but I'm not sure...

http://www.youshouldbeastar.com/

 

[hypebeast mcstreetwear]

Naw I did the $50 a month for now. I also did the Next Selection joint in like August. Was kinda disppointed cause I got "okay" feedback. But theydidn't have me join their production teams. I look back at it and understand now cause my beats at that point were well "okay". You should reallytry one Pusha. Me and my production team are gonna be in the beat battle for Dynamic Producer. That'd be a real good look.

 

[thebigjuice]

hypebeast--
not to pry into your personals, but for $50 a month, you better have been making a GRIP on those beats. were you selling to no-names or people with afollowing, or what? would you say it was worth it? and, if you don't mind me asking, how much did they go for?

 

[hypebeast mcstreetwear]

Originally Posted by THEBIGJUICE

hypebeast--
not to pry into your personals, but for $50 a month, you better have been making a GRIP on those beats. were you selling to no-names or people with a following, or what? would you say it was worth it? and, if you don't mind me asking, how much did they go for?

See that's the thing, you gotta start somewhere. I remember I had a chance to give beats to an artist who's on the come up right now, workin withmajor labels and Premo himself, but instead of askin "What style/direction you lookin for?" I asked "What's your budget?" and dudebasically

me over myspace. You gotta pay dues and put in workbefore you start makin beats for Jay-Z for $20,000 a track, feel me?
I honestly had a problem sellin me tracks for anywhere under $100-$200 but it'sbetter to be heard for cheap than not at all. So yea, I sold 3 tracks to this up-and-comer from the West Coast for $375

. Yea it's not's a grip but I've just gave dude on the completeother side of the country bangers. That one dude could get heard from my tracks. Then that following could come rightback here. It's all in the air. But the risk you gotta take.

The thing about PMP is that they have Track Dumps where producers send beats directly to artists and A&R's of artists/projects. They're obligatedby contract to listen to every entry. The hell else am I suppose to do? I'm not smack dab in NY.

Plus, mind I have only been on the site since Feb, 15. Up until that point I haven't sold a beat in my life.

 

[thebigjuice]

Honestly man, I'd take $100-200 for a beat any day. If you think about it, selling one or two beats at that price could add another element to your studiosetup, get you months more promotion on that kind of website, etc. etc.

If you look at it as an investment, it would be interesting to see the return that registering to PMP gets you after that initial investment. keep me updatedon how it goes-- i think i might sign up this summer when i get an official job.....

also, how many tracks can you put out there? how does it work exactly?

 

[flash uno]

they have alot of sites u can post up your beats.... like soundclick.com and youbeats.com ...... thats where i posted some of my stuff.....

 

[hypebeast mcstreetwear]

I dunno I'm kinda iffy bout those sites like "mybeats", "firebeats" blah, blah cause A&Rs don't be there and they put thoseproducers in the "wack" box...No offense. Don't get me started on Rocbattle.com

. But yea for the A&R track dumps on PMP they haveartists projects posted every couple days/weeks. The dumps have the artist/company whatever and the description. Your allowed to dump up to 4 beats to the dumpand once the dump deadline has arrived, they close it and the A&Rs review the entries. The dumps are usually a month long so the ones I entered should beending soon.

 

[tw3ek]

rocbattle is wack as @$**... who bunch of d ridin BUMS over there... hell i dont think too highly of rocwilder's beats... dude's %%## b soundin likenoise for the most part... west coast swizz beats...

 

[hypebeast mcstreetwear]

^Word. If you got friends...You get W's.

 

[mez 0ne]

I just post my stuff on soundclick, myspace (got enough ppl who check for my stuff on there), NT, boxden, crazypellas, etc.

But I'm just basically workin' with dudes around my way who have their "teams", you have a better chance getting noticed doing tracks withdope rappers.

 

[thebigjuice]

how u getting people to roll through your myspace?

this is getting to be a good discussion, btw.
hypebeast, let me know how the PMP situation turns up.

 

[hypebeast mcstreetwear]

Actually the homie I mentioned before hit me up like a half an hour talkin bout he want to cop one of tracks for maybe $500. I told him there are other buyers,(which is true) so I may be comin off. EDIT: I can tell you MEZ put in work. Thats prolly why he got people comin through his myspace. Dude makes/organizesWHOLE remix albums and like he said works with local cats. Plus, the material is quality stuff. Not just wholesale basura. Take time to perfect your craft ordevelop a sound before you declare to everyone (Namely potential buyers) that you make beats. That way when you finally meet so & so looking for beatsyou'll have that material and the wide selection to go with it. I can't tell you how many times cats would hear one bangin track and come through formore tracks and I didn't have any other beats on that level.

 

[mez 0ne]

Thanks for the compliments, but I def. do SLACK when it comes to promoting my stuff.

Dudes just hit me up randomly saying they feel my music, and they tell me I should def go harder on the beats.

I don't think I posted my Nas Remix tapes anywhere else besides NT, Boxden, and Myspace to be honest with you. I did put up some youtube video's forthe remixes I did though, but my boy told me to submit it to DatPiff or any other mixtape site to get my name out there (slacking though

).

With that said though, I have a ton of new stuff I haven't even shared yet at all, I'm tryin' to make a collab tape with different artists, hiphop, r and b, club tracks, etc. I AM currently working with my dude Camiliano from Corona Queens (around my area), he's a monster and is dropping an albumreal soon with a new label.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cf...&MyToken=35f517e6-a687-4b2e-872e-f1b0f372158f

I got 4 tracks in the works with him, but dude likes my stuff so much we may end up just doin' a 12 track album.

 

[tw3ek]

i bet he aint no Time...

 

[mez 0ne]

At least dude don't take a month(s) to finish a song, I sent my dude 3 beats this past weekend and gonnahave em done by this coming weekend .

 

[tw3ek]

Originally Posted by Mez 0ne

At least dude don't take a month(s) to finish a song, I sent my dude 3 beats this past weekend and gonna have em done by this coming weekend .

like i didnt have it written recorded in 2 days

 

[mez 0ne]

*still waiting for final version

 

[thebigjuice]

hah waiting for a song after you provided the beat is possibly the worst and most frustrating wait, besides maybe the whole waiting for your girls period tohappen please god lets hope it comes soon thing.. but yeah waiting for a mc to lace your beat can be a loooooooooong process.

btw, what is datpiff?

 

[tw3ek]

a mixtape website...

 

[pusha x vinsanity]

Originally Posted by Mez 0ne

*still waiting for final version

 

[treewing]

Hmmm I've been wondering the same thing about promotion. I even made myself some "free" business cards at VistaPrint. I might have to try out thePMPworldwide site. Shoot if I don't make it with my beats at least I'll have a degree in audio engineering a year from now...

 

[thebigjuice]

yo treewing--
do you feel like the audio engineering classes helped your beats at all?

also, what do you guys think about trying to access the actual artists themselves? my girlfriend is the concerts director at USC, and so i sometimes findmyself backstage with artists (last semester i met just blaze, drove kron don and phil da agony around campus.) sadly i didn't really realize that allthese people would be there, and i didnt have any beats or anything on me. in like a month, theres an all day concert, i think lupe is headlining, del, de lasoul, and aceyalone are on the bill (i got to put in my requests to bring some of these).

what should i bring? is it rude/annoying to give artists a sampler of beats? will they just throw it away? should i give them my electronic stuff?

i'm thinking of just preparing a CD of samplers and handing it out backstage.

 

[treewing]

Juice

I feel that my classes are definitely helping out my sound. Two months into this program I went back to listen to some of my old stuff and the quality justdidn't sound as good. I am definitely getting a better understanding of the dimensions of sound and how to use it to my advantage to stand out/discover anew sound.

On a side note, has anyone received message/friend request from Coast2Coast mixtapes talkin' about having one of your songs featured on an upcomingmixtape?? I emailed them back and this is what they said....

Thats whats up, we go through myspace each day and offer a spot on our mixtapes to 2 artists a day that we feel would be a good addition to the mixtape and you were one of them. We have done mixtapes in the past with: DJ Khaled, Big Mike, DJ Kay Slay, Flo Rida, Obie Trice, Mick Boogie and a lot more. We are interested in letting you feature one of your songs on our upcoming project, "Def Jam's DJ DMA & Shadyville's DJ Domination Present: Coast 2 Coast Mixtape Vol. 21 - Hosted By DJ Chuck T." If you get 100 copies of the mixtape that you are featured on, you can get your track on it. We give away over 10,000 mixtapes per volume and we also send copies to our exclusive list of over 1,000 major and independent DJs worldwide. Our mixtapes are also available on over 20 mixtape websites including Datpiff.com, Imixtape.com and more. Both of our in-house DJs also get a few hundred copies out to their industry connections across the US. To download our previous mixtapes for free, visit our website: www.coast2coastmixtapes.com

To get the spot, we need your track and payment for your 100 copies before the deadline at midnight on Saturday, March 15th. The copies are $3.50 each including shipping so it's a total of $350. (It is an extra $100 if you need international shipping, making the total $450 if you are located outside of ths U.S.) The track that you want to use is up to you and as long as you get your track and payment in before the deadline, your spot is guaranteed. Payment needs to be sent via Paypal.com to: [email protected]. If you cant pay through Paypal, just send the cash through Western Union to: Kyle Hiersche in Portland, Oregon. Then hit me with an email to: [email protected] and let me know your full name and city and state you sent it from along with the western union transfer number and your track attached as an mp3 and then your all set.

We only offer this spot to 2 artists each day and out of those only the serious ones who get everything in before the deadline actually get a spot. Please understand that all talented independent artists that we offer this to - "say" they will get 100 copies just to get on a major mixtape - but hardly any of them actually will. That is why we have to make sure you purchase the mixtapes upfront. After you send your payment, send your track as an mp3 to the email: [email protected]. Make sure your song is no longer than 3 minutes and make sure to name the file with the correct artist and track name. Also be sure to include your correct shipping address when you pay through Paypal and put your artist and track name in the "note" section of the payment along with your shipping address. Your track will then be featured on the mixtape and you will be sent 100 copies of the mixtape by April 7th. As you can see if you check us out at our websites below, we have plenty of experience in the industry, are Paypal Verified - with a perfect business record, as well as registered with the Better Business Bureau; so you can be assured we are very professional. Just make sure to get your track and payment in to: [email protected] before the deadline on Saturday, March 15th and we'll make it happen. Looking forward to working with you.

Thanks,

Lil Fats
Owner/CEO
Coast 2 Coast Mixtape Series
I am not going to do this I just thought it was interesting. This is probably how DJ Khaled got popular/known...