Anybody else using beat stars?

[ImJOEPRO]

Of course I found out late about beat stars but apparently it's marketplace for artist and labels I'm guessing publishing as well to connect with producers. I joined the chat forum on their site in the hopes of connecting musically for a collaboration. Not a lot of luck there either. I also noticed that there is an option to load sound kits and make those available as well. Seems cool just wondering if there are other taxi members out there who use that platform to try to generate more income and a buzz for your brand?

[cosmicdolphin]

I don't know anyone who uses it that takes sync seriously. YMMV

https://youtu.be/YtUFZ9pQqkE

[cosmicdolphin]

Watching that video, I am not convinced why a prolific beat producer should not try and sell some on beat stars.

Depends what your focus is and what your goals are. LIke I said. I don't know anyone doing well in sync that also makes beats.

[Casey H]

I know nothing about selling beats. My **guess** is it's a VERY crowded space with a lot of amateur players. But I can't say, I just don't know.

But I will say that sync isn't everything. It is not the only market in the universe to make money with music and we have to stop acting like that's the case. For example, I know composers who write only for the RF market, make a lot of money, and don't care about "sync" as we know it. Yes, RF sales-- use in school projects, home videos, corporate videos, wedding videos, etc. is technically "sync" but it's not what most of us are involved with.

I make a little money working with in-store music service providers. That's not sync but a market I discovered was viable beyond music libraries.

For all I know, someone can enter the beats market, get really good at it and make good money.

Casey

[ochaim]

Watching that video, I am not convinced why a prolific beat producer should not try and sell some on beat stars.
Jessie says they may go for only $20. OK, sell a nice beat to 50 hobby rappers at $20 via this platform - makes $1000.
That seems to be way more than the average placement of a sync library track earns. So, I really don't see why
someone would not try it out at least. Heck, even if you only sell five, you might earn more at beat stars.

Tom

How do you reach those 50 “hobby rappers”?

More importantly, since the conversion rate in this space is typically 1%, how would you reach the 5,000 potential hobby rapper buyers to get those 50 sales?

Unless you have your “customer avatar” already fine tuned and you have sales copy that resonates with this demographic, you’ll be reaching multiples of 5,000 before you make those 50 sales, if any. And that will likely cost more than $1,000 worth of your time and/or money.

Like any business, there’s so much more to this than “sell a nice beat to 50 hobby rappers”. Nothing is easy.

[MartyAfterDark]

How do you reach those 50 “hobby rappers”?

More importantly, since the conversion rate in this space is typically 1%, how would you reach the 5,000 potential hobby rapper buyers to get those 50 sales?

YouTube

[Cameloide]

As someone who has recorded a ton of unsigned rappers over the years, I'd say the vast majority of them, like 98%, just convert youtube links to mp3s and record over them no matter if there are tags every 16 bars or not. Another 1.8% bring beats they made or one of their partners made, and the remaining .2% actually buy/lease beats legally. I'm sure it inverts the more successful they become, but that's just my experience in a small market.

[VanderBoegh]

I've never put any of my "beats" on any type of artist / rapper / licensing site like Beat Stars. I thought about it for a red hot minute, about 6-7 years ago, but in my (very) little amount of researching those sites, I found them to be incredibly big ponds, stocked with mostly garbage fish.

Much better, in my opinion, to just tailor your hip hop tracks into usable TV cues and try to get them signed to libraries. There is SO MUCH use of hip hop in TV, that your chances of getting revenue from your hip hop tracks is greater when targeting TV rather than cheap artists who want something for as cheaply as possible, and may just find a way to rip it off a site like Beat Stars anyway.

As Cameloide alluded to, I once had a guy email me a link of his latest YouTube "single" in attempts to pitch himself as a collaborator / rapper. When I listened to his song, I heard that damn producer tag (watermark) every 16 bars, which meant the rapper totally just ripped it off. Not saying that's the norm, but it happens more than you'd think.

For me, I'm just happy I chose to pursue TV rather than low-budget artists. We get paid for our work in TV, and there's nobody out deliberately trying to rip you off. But to each his own.

~~Matt

[Cameloide]

Y'all do know that the beat for Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" was a Beat Stars beat though right? He leased it for $30 (if I'm not mistaken, after it started gaining traction). The beat itself used a Nine Inch Nails sample which the beat maker cleared after the song was gaining traction. I think in the end the original beat maker at least got to keep a decent percentage of the writers credit, and a couple of NIN members also got writing credits.

But yeah, we now live in a world where our version of the beatles is some guy talking over somebody's else work/beat which itself was made from somebody else's work. Interesting times.

[Paulie]

I had a paid Beatstars account back in 2020, but dropped down to the free account. I think Casey mentioned this early, the beat market is so incredibly saturated right now... there are thousands, maybe millions of people creating beats. So much of it is about luck and timing. From my research the most success you can get on Beatstars is by collaborating with other members, liking peoples stuff, creating a following. It's basically a beats social platform. They have contests, etc. that can help increase exposure. But again, the market is so crowded right now you are probably better served by networking as much as you can. You can do the free account there to help promote your brand, YouTube is quite popular as well.

PC