Found a goldmine @ Philaflava—producers discussing “who actually makes money selling beats”
http://www.philaflava.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=107554

THE QUESTION:
“Do you personally know anyone sustaining themselves strictly by making beats? I’m not talking about producing a record, I’m talking about someone sitting in their room making a beat and e-mailing it to MC Whoever-is-popular-this-week.”

BLOCKHEAD SEZ: “Highly unlikely.
it’s hard to imagine someone making a living on freelance beat sales on the indy level. major label guys get more money and the publishing money on the back end is better as well.
for indy guys, you either work a lot with one artist, do solo shit , or handle the production for multiple artists in a crew/label. i can’t see anyone making a decent living outside of that. unless you happen to liscense your music to movies/commercials. that’s where the real money is for producers anyway.”

WHICH RAISED THE QUESTION: “Blockhead what about royalties? I don’t mean to pry but Aesop rock’s albums did very well don’t u get royalties from that?”

BLOCKHEAD SEZ: “of course. it varies from album to album (he did most of “bazooka tooth” so i get less for that album where as i see more money from “labor days” royalties) but i get a little % of the royalties as well as publishing money.
the thing about being a musician (especially a producer) is that you make money in chunks and there is rarely any fluidity to it. i’ve gone months (like 5 months at a time) without making a penny and then made almost all my yearly salary in one month. it’s certainly taught me to be very careful with my money.”

-Still haven’t gotten around to leasing/heavy-duty promotion, the whole rocbattle thing, etc.  But I have been working on this promo album which is giving me a whole new dimension of insights by working with complete strangers.

-People will frequently misinterpret you, even if you take extra time to be super careful with the words you use and how you go about explaining things in detail.  Be prepared for that.

-Some cats are greedy bastards, some cats are the exact opposite.  Learn who’s real and who’s fake as quickly as possible in choosing who to work with.

-I think I remember reading Justin say this somewhere (could have been an interview or Audible Hype article):  something about the difference between being polite and nice.  “Be polite to everyone, but don’t be nice to everyone.” Something like that.  It’s true.

-Wilson’s 23rd law:  DO IT EVERYDAY.

-Learn how to deal with frustration in positive ways.

-Myspace and Facebook both suck.  Perfect your angle before worrying too much about either.

MalaKai - 30 November 2008 11:43 AM

i guess a lot can change in a couple of months

i may be deciding to test-drive the leasing route, because as we all know, some money is definitely better than no money.  and i need some new equipment.  plus i really need to get my stuff out there in general.  i have a bunch of 3 year old beats to put to use and no one’s willing to spend the exclusive cheddar if they don’t know who i am anyway.  for all they know i just stole the beats from someone else and am passing them off as mine.

Contradicted myself yet again and decided instead to release these “3 year old beats” for FREE.  I decided not to even mention whether or not anyone could use them, as that thought never really even crossed my mind, but a few people that want to use them have actually taken the time to email me asking for permission, which I thought was actually pretty awesome.  I told them go ahead and use them, that, as I stated in the liner notes, these beats have all served their purpose to me personally.  I explicitly told the people asking me to use them to do so without fear of retribution if they happen to make money off the songs they record over them.  All I asked in return were production credits.

So a lesson to potential up-and-comers…

Don’t shy away from giving away free beats, especially if they are the beats that got you to where you are right now in the first place.  Sometimes simply internet mixtape credits can be more useful in the long-run than trying to continually lease out beats you made 3 years ago.  Long-term connections are more important than immediate gratifications..

I still haven’t ruled out the positive possibilities of leasing in the future, I just want to make sure that I go about it in a good way.

I’m currently working on a guide to selling beats, doing it the right way, and i hope to be able to use what I know and have learned to help others turn a profit.

More on that later..

^^Yeah, I’ve been seeing Falside have great success with that route...he just dropped another collection “Bugs In Ya Teef” and, god bless him, didn’t BCC his email list so once again, my digital rolodex gets bigger and badder.  But point being....it works! He’s secured a lot of placements in the past year.

Falside interview: http://djmsp.com/posts/2009/apr/23/falside-beatsmith-hip-hop-production/

Some good food here:
http://djmsp.com/posts/2009/feb/4/hip-hop-production-roundtable-listen-learn/

My guide is finally done:

http://malakaibeats.blogspot.com/2009/08/guide-to-selling-beats.html

I put a lot of effort into this one, hopefully it serves a good purpose.  A lot of my research notes are basically put into essay form but I’ll be sure to continue posting tidbits on here.