You may produce the sort of beats to make Metro Boomin want to go back to beat-making school BUT if nobody is hearing them your career will flatline. In this article, we look at five methods you can use for marketing your beats and help land those all-important sales and placements.

Social Skills

Leveraging social media is one of the most effective ways of marketing your beats and building a following. Spend time and effort finding and befriending your target audience i.e rappers and vocalists and the algorithms should throw up more like-minded folk. Note* It’s worth separating your personal and professional pages. At the same time feel free to point people on your personal pages to your Beatmaking page.

Research the sort of content that your beatmaking peers are posting. Sharing your production skills and knowledge can be particularly effective. At the same time funny or quirky content has the potential to be shared on mass. This is particularly the case on Tik Tok where engagement through entertainment is key. Think funny music-related shorts or memes.

By all means showcase your music but try to avoid hard-sell tactics when promoting your beats. Instead, try to balance your posts with a mix of your music, other peoples music and non music content. If someone likes how you project yourself on social media they will feel a natural kinship and decide independently if they want to license one of your beats. (just make sure you have links to all your beat selling stores on your socials)

Another technique to encourage engagement is to create posts that require a response. For example, asking people to share their favourite album of the year or posing a question such as Dre or Kanye??? If possible avoid posting anything negative or being too opinionated. The real trick is to let your followers project their opinions and argue their points out between themselves, in turn boosting the visibility of your posts.

??? Type Beats

The ‘Type Beats’ phenomenon has been around since around 2006 and was thought to have first been used on the pioneering beat-selling platform Sound Click. The thinking behind using a type beats title is twofold. Firstly it helps to establish what your beat is going to sound like by associating it with an established artist whose beat choice people will be familiar with. Secondly and more crucially, it provides an effective way of keyword gaming by using a high-profile artist’s name or genre. It has become so established that users now know to type in their favourite artists’ name or genre along with type beat. Artists who aspire to be like their musical heroes will naturally search for beats in a similar style or flavour.

While the type beats game seems to be a winning formula it is crucial to realise that gaming very high-profile artists like Drake or Kendrick is likely to leave your vid languishing on page 178 or lower! Alternatively, it may well be worth targeting a less well-known artist who still commands a loyal following. Many beatmakers have done particularly well by researching and attaching themselves to an up-and-coming artist in the hope they blow up. In fact, it’s not uncommon for a beatmaker to use just one or two artists in connection with their type beat game in order to ‘own’ and dominate these artists ‘type beat’ search engine ranking.

YouTube Presence

YouTube’s search engine is second only to Google in terms of traffic and therefore represents a great place for your beats to be discovered. And while it is a well-established hunting ground for artists seeking beats the competition can be extremely high. As mentioned in the previous section conforming to the ‘Type Beat’ formula can be one way to get your beats discovered. There are however numerous other factors that come into play when trying to rank on YouTube. Optimizing your video titles, descriptions, and tags with relevant keywords is your first step. Using an add-on such as Tube Buddy can help determine how well your titles etc have been prepared for SEO.

Creating eye-catching thumbnails is also a crucial component. You may want to establish a uniform design layout and style for your thumbnails. While it is not common If you have a logo for your producer name or brand then consider using this in your thumbnail design. This will help in creating a brand identity and visual continuity.

As for your beat video’s visuals, they should not be too time-consuming to create. AI and motion graphics apps can be a lifesaver when it comes to producing beat video visuals. Some beatmakers choose to invest time in creating a professional and slick-looking visual that they then use to accompany all of their beat vids. Alternatively, you may want to simply use your thumbnail image, maybe adding some subtle motion to it. Think gradual rescaling or bass-triggered rumblings.

The other thing that YouTube rewards is continuity. Try to post new videos on a regular and consistent basis. If you can produce other non instrumental beat video content this can help to give you a wider reach and potentially a larger following. Also, don’t forget to utilize end screens and cards to promote other videos on your channel. This encourages viewers to explore more of your content, helping to increase overall watch time on your channel, in turn positively impacts your ranking.

Free Beats

If there is one thing most people love it’s something for nothing. People scoping out beats are certainly not immune and often specifically search out free beats. The key is to provide ‘some’ free beats as a way to lure people into your beat store where you can then expose them to premium offerings. You may also want to trade a free beat for their email address (see next section)

You may also want to consider creating an offer whereby you receive 1 free beat if you purchase a certain amount of paid beats. Just be sure that you don’t give too many beats away for free. While it is tempting to do so you should not undervalue your creative worth. Remember, much like in the art world, people often associate a product’s intrinsic value with its price tag!

You got Mail

Email may sound like a rather old-fashioned form of communication, but don’t sleep on this direct form of promotion. A mailing list provides you with instant access to a pool of potential customers. Perfect for marketing your beats. Online services such as Mailchimp and free alternative Brevo make it easy to produce slick-looking email marketing campaigns.

Consider targeting people on social media platforms and forums offering them something known as a ‘lead magnet’. A lead magnet is a marketing term that refers to the offering of something free i.e a free beat in exchange for their email address. Use the acquired emails to then share new beat drops, special promotions, Competitions, Tips and advice, Exciting news etc. Just make sure that you have been granted permission to send unsolicited promotional emails to comply with data protection laws.

Collaborations and Features

Tapping into an established or up and coming artist’s fanbase is a great way to expose your beats to a wider audience. A successful collaboration can lead to potential long-term partnerships, providing ongoing promotion and mutual growth. Researching and trying to identify and target artists that are on the rise can be particularly effective. A beatmakers status is often based upon who they have worked with and the placements they have got. Establishing early links with an artist that has future potential can therefore work out well in the long run.

If you identify artists that you think would compliment your beats well hit them up directly or through their management. Provide a small sample of your beats for their consideration. If the artist likes the beats you’re making It may be worth initially offering favourable deals. i.e no fee and exclusivity. It is however advisable to agree a major label clause or streaming royalty threshold in the event that your track blows up.

Summary

While the quality of your beats is a critical factor in your potential for success, marketing your beats effectivly is equally essential. We hope that the ideas we have highlighted in this article will help turn the world onto your creations.
And while these methods act as solid starting points the key is to inject your own personality into your promotional efforts. Don’t be scared to think outside the box. Being original in such a competitive marketplace can help you stand out, in turn giving you the edge over your competition.

Best of luck and go slay em!

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