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Here are a few ways you can make money as music producer and tips on how to start!Â
List of ways to boost your beat sales:
This is one of the best ways to make money as a music producer and also one of the easiest to get started with. First you need a storefront to actually sell your beats. I’d recommend Beatstars. I’ve used them for the last 5 years of my career and their consistent updates and complete ease of use and automatic delivery system to your customers is incredible!
Once you have your beats all set up, now you need to start driving traffic to your site to be making those sales. YouTube is (i would say) at the top of the list to generate organic traffic. Literally millions and millions of people search YouTube daily for new beats, so make sure you’re there! Some other great ways to generate traffic to your beat store are;Â
But never forget the most important factor in selling your beats… The Beats! A dope beat with no marketing is still a dope beat that can sell. A bad beat with great marketing is money down the drain.
You make beats, so without knowing it you are actually already creating your own samples, whether it be melody loops, drum one shots & loops or even foley sounds. This is a great way to expand your customer base and increase your income. Producers just like
yourself are always looking for brand new samples to work with. I can almost guarantee you have GB’s on GB’s of samples on your computer yourself! Just like with selling beats, the marketing is very similar and you can also use Beatstars as a storefront and fulfillment for selling your sample packs.
Side note – You can also create sample packs for other companies and receive a monthly commission from that company! You can purchase my new sample pack here 😉
This is great, especially for passive income. It’s also easier to get into than you think! You just need to reach out to qualified ‘Music Libraries & Music Publishers’. Most of them actually have song submission info and/or a contact email to reach them at. Then simply contact them, send them some music (as long as they are accepting unsolicited demos) and if they accept you, your music will be put into their libraries and sent out for placements on TV & Film!
Then you just make sure you have correctly registered the tracks with these libraries in your country’s PRO (Performing Rights Organization) and your publisher to make sure you are collecting all the royalties you’re owed! I wrote some songs for Universal’s TV & Film library 2 years ago and I still get placements every month and royalty checks every quarter to this day.Â
I strongly believe every producer should learn how to mix & master songs. It gives you an unfair advantage when it comes to what producer an artist wants to work with when you are a one stop shop for everything.Â
Think of it this way, if an artist is using your beat, don’t you think they’d want the person who made the beat to mix the song? Of course! It only makes sense. Reach out to artists who are using your beats, and offer this service. It can be a great additional income source. You can also just reach out to artists in general, they don’t have to be using your beats. Mixing & Mastering is a great skill to learn and can open up many doors in your career.
This sort of ties in with the last point, but takes it one step further.
So you can make beats, mix and master music, now why not offer in person studio sessions with artists and record them as well! Whether you’re doing it from your home studio or a local studio you can rent by the hour (and then of course add your fee on top) it’s a great way to connect more personally with an artist and build a better relationship and also just a great additional income.
If an artist has been using your beats, getting their songs mixed by you, then I’m sure they would jump at the chance to get into the studio with you! Now you’ve gone from just selling beats, to being a one stop shop for everything audio with your customers, and made a pretty penny as well.
Posting your beats on YouTube? Make sure as soon as you hit the threshold and are able to start showing ads on your videos that you do that. Easy passive money! YouTube Content ID your beats, this claims anyone using your beats on YouTube who doesn’t have the license/rights to monetize it themselves. This works especially well if you do ‘Free for non profit’ beats. I use Airbit for this.Â
Collect the royalties you’re owed. Any songs you produce that are doing well you must make sure you have the song registered with your country’s PRO & a Publishing Admin like ‘Songtrust’ to be collecting your royalties.
I didn’t know/do this for the longest time, and when I found out I was literally leaving $1000’s of dollars on the table, it hurt haha! Don’t worry if you haven’t done this yet for a song that came out ages ago, these places can collect what’s called ‘Retroactive Royalties’ which basically means they can go back and collect royalties owed to you for songs from up to 3 years ago!
I hope you find this post helpful and I hope it sparks some ideas for what you want to do next with your producer career.
All the best,
Mors x
Music Producer based out of London, England who has worked with Universal Music, Sony, Fox, ESPN and more. He has generated over 17 million plays on YouTube and earned over 200k selling beats online.
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