Is promoting beats on YouTube getting you anywhere? What's the best way to sell beats

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HB_Beats

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I ask myself this every time before uploading a new beat. Its like they're almost unrecognizable when uploaded. I see my subscribers growing every day, its been 6 months and I'm almost at 700 subscribers but they come from one successful beat I had that's free. It has some 80,000 views and overshadows the rest of my channel making people not want to check out the rest of my beats. If my first beat I made is that good, shouldn't they want to see the new ones expecting and getting better beats. I've gotten one sale off YouTube. It doesn't seem to help as much as they numbers say it should. I look at the popular YouTube producers and I'm seeing that they as well don't get a whole lot of sales.

I ask FP this question, how do you sell your beats if not on Youtube, Soundcloud, Soundclick, etc?
 
what kind of relationships are you building??
what are you doing through Social Networks??
 
I promote a lot through Twitter, coming to the artists instead of them coming to me. The types of relationships I build with people are mainly business but I connect with my customers and I'll usually give them their first beat free and have them come back for more then start charging.
 
You have to build relationships my friend, If people are viewing that beat its mostly because of the views. If you want others to listen to your other music you have to network, some may check it out on their own but the ball is in your hands.
 
Indeed. I am networking with people but when I am I'm having them peep my music directly from me rather than YouTube or Soundcloud, where those sites almost don't mean anything for my sales. Maybe popularity but the real question artists ask after taking an interest in your music is who you've worked with.
 
I can understand the frustration, as I always upload to Youtube.

I have sold 17 beats from Youtube. The way I did this was labelling the song instead of HartlessBeatz - 'Amnesia' I put something like, Kid Ink Ft Chris Brown Type Beat 'Amnesia' Prod.By HartlessBeatz (2014 Instrumental)
Don't forget keywords. Make sure you're using them to the full potent. You can't expect some to find a video for example called imadeabeat.avi. In the keyword section. Put things like 'Beat, instrumental, 2014, HartlessBeatz, Amnesia, Kid Ink, Chris Brown' Ect. That way if people are searching for a Chris Brown song, there's a chance your video could stand out too.
Also, list that the beat is for sale. You can set-up a Paypal button, which you can put in the description of your video. (Google, as it's hard to explain)

You also mentioned getting 80,000 views on the one video. Are you partnered with AdSense/Youtube? They will pay you decent money for some views like that, in return for you allowing them to put ads on your video's. I get like £50 monthly just for this alone. But my views have decreased. When a beat is in it's prime, i can usually rack up £80 monthly.

I hope this helps.

HartlessBeatz
 
you need promotion and for promotion is not allways free
try also to contact to people that maybe can help you for free like webzines or bloggers just to get your name
 
HB_Beats said:
I'll usually give them their first beat free and have them come back for more then start charging.
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Does this actually happen for you? Are they coming back to buy that 2nd and 3rd beat after the 1st freebie? Did you say you got 1 sale there?

I only ask because if you advertise a free beat, there's no question that one will gain far more attention than your paid beats.

If I was a rapper (playing devil's advocate here), I bet I could find 15 free beats in an hour. Mixtape! Why would I buy anything?

That's starting to get off-topic. But as far as advertising on YouTube, it's the same as any other social network. If you set it up right, and use it to its fullest extent, it can work for you. HartlessBeatz had a good post about that.

But IMO, cancel the free stuff. Give me a reason to buy your beats.
 
HB_Beats said:
I ask myself this every time before uploading a new beat. Its like they're almost unrecognizable when uploaded. I see my subscribers growing every day, its been 6 months and I'm almost at 700 subscribers but they come from one successful beat I had that's free. It has some 80,000 views and overshadows the rest of my channel making people not want to check out the rest of my beats. If my first beat I made is that good, shouldn't they want to see the new ones expecting and getting better beats. I've gotten one sale off YouTube. It doesn't seem to help as much as they numbers say it should. I look at the popular YouTube producers and I'm seeing that they as well don't get a whole lot of sales.

I ask FP this question, how do you sell your beats if not on Youtube, Soundcloud, Soundclick, etc?
Click to expand...

Youtube isn't a place for selling beats, its a place for promoting and finding your market. Personally, I never look at a videos based on its number of views alone, I care about more than such things. I'm not the type to troll under youtube's search bar looking for popular videos, that's not for me. Instead, I troll google's search bar which shows me all the videos I'm looking for, and sometimes popular videos show up. I type certain words into the search bar and get certain results as they relate to those words; although, I could be wrong this whole internet search query thing.

My guess (es), somehow the optimization for your most popular video is better than your other videos. Maybe the video was embedded in other websites which contributed a great deal to its number of views. Or, perhaps a bunch of bots played the video from different ip addresses in order to generate those views. The times and dates that you upload videos play a huge part in online activity also. Whatever the case, this doesn't entitle your other videos to the same number of views or the same amount of business. Its likely you'll need to put in the same amount of effort with every video you upload.

Does your most popular video continue to grow? What did you write in the comment section? Do you have a beat store? What where you doing with your video that made it hit 80k views? Can you do it again with your other songs?

BTW, this is the beast way to sell beats online. You need a place where money can be exchanged for beats quickly and effortlessly. Youtube aint the the place for that IMO...
 
You all have said some very good stuff. It just doesn't seem to be enough for me. I'm 16 and have been producing for 7 months now. I've gotten over 800 subscribers now in that time but it doesn't seem like good numbers to me, although others say thats good. Where's the sales to come with those subscribers though? It makes no sense.
 
Check out noodlesbeats on youtube and copy their business model.
 
Last edited:
Trip on this:

Here's the thing with sites like YouTube and soundcloud... if you google either site name and add the term "download" to it what do you get? tons of sites that allow you to rip its content. So for all you know half of your subscribers might be cats waiting to download your latest for free...

With that in mind you need to tap into a targeted buying market. This is not easy. Good thing your on this site tho as several methods have been shared here so be sure to use that search.

Also keep in mind that It's gonna take some time, grinding and dedication to get those sales comin in so get ready to work.

Here's a thought: one approach you could take might be to think like a buyer and search the web as one and see what that pulls up. Or as stated by olie model someone who seems like they are on to something and put a spin on that..

Because the truth is Until people are checking for you by name - you are just one of many hoping to get a sale who needs to grind it out to separate himself from the pack.

Good luck
 
HB_Beats said:
You all have said some very good stuff. It just doesn't seem to be enough for me. I'm 16 and have been producing for 7 months now. I've gotten over 800 subscribers now in that time but it doesn't seem like good numbers to me, although others say thats good. Where's the sales to come with those subscribers though? It makes no sense.
Click to expand...

​What makes you thinks its gonna make sense right now, you're just getting started? And subscribers do buy anything, unless you're giving them a reason and a way to buy what can't be easily stolen. This is the reason for posting to sites with certains securities in place for protecting from most online thieves. Just remember that any song can be stolen. Find ways to make money using your music, instead of looking for ways to make money from your music.

Producers that make money as producers do way more than make beats.

When you make post, what are you leaving in the comment section? Why haven't you left a link here or in your signature (in your profile settings), on this site for any of us to see what the deal is? What are you willing to do in order to make money as a music producer? I could be mistaken, however, I think YouTube or Google provides ways purchase from their site. Have you looked into that at all? At what point are you giving people ways to buy from you from YouTube? Whats your sales process, do you have one? If not, you're wasting your time, nobody will buy for you online because nobody can buy from you online.

Maybe you should stop trying to sell beats on youtube. Trying using youtube to sell the place where people can buy your beats...

SFTRAXX said:
Trip on this:

Here's the thing with sites like YouTube and soundcloud... if you google either site name and add the term "download" to it what do you get? tons of sites that allow you to rip its content. So for all you know half of your subscribers might be cats waiting to download your latest for free...

With that in mind you need to tap into a targeted buying market. This is not easy. Good thing your on this site tho as several methods have been shared here so be sure to use that search.

Also keep in mind that It's gonna take some time, grinding and dedication to get those sales comin in so get ready to work.

Here's a thought: one approach you could take might be to think like a buyer and search the web as one and see what that pulls up. Or as stated by olie model someone who seems like they are on to something and put a spin on that..

Because the truth is Until people are checking for you by name - you are just one of many hoping to get a sale who needs to grind it out to separate himself from the pack.

Good luck
Click to expand...

Stay true :cool:
 
good info here. im struggling to break out of my circle of friends and relatives on youtube. no one is subscribing unless your giving away free. well i guess its time to start dishing out the freebies
 
HartlessBeatz said:
I can understand the frustration, as I always upload to Youtube.

I have sold 17 beats from Youtube. The way I did this was labelling the song instead of HartlessBeatz - 'Amnesia' I put something like, Kid Ink Ft Chris Brown Type Beat 'Amnesia' Prod.By HartlessBeatz (2014 Instrumental)
Don't forget keywords. Make sure you're using them to the full potent. You can't expect some to find a video for example called imadeabeat.avi. In the keyword section. Put things like 'Beat, instrumental, 2014, HartlessBeatz, Amnesia, Kid Ink, Chris Brown' Ect. That way if people are searching for a Chris Brown song, there's a chance your video could stand out too.
Also, list that the beat is for sale. You can set-up a Paypal button, which you can put in the description of your video. (Google, as it's hard to explain)

You also mentioned getting 80,000 views on the one video. Are you partnered with AdSense/Youtube? They will pay you decent money for some views like that, in return for you allowing them to put ads on your video's. I get like £50 monthly just for this alone. But my views have decreased. When a beat is in it's prime, i can usually rack up £80 monthly.

I hope this helps.

HartlessBeatz
Click to expand...

Good info didn't know they paid that much.
 
HB_Beats said:
I ask myself this every time before uploading a new beat. Its like they're almost unrecognizable when uploaded. I see my subscribers growing every day, its been 6 months and I'm almost at 700 subscribers but they come from one successful beat I had that's free. It has some 80,000 views and overshadows the rest of my channel making people not want to check out the rest of my beats. If my first beat I made is that good, shouldn't they want to see the new ones expecting and getting better beats. I've gotten one sale off YouTube. It doesn't seem to help as much as they numbers say it should. I look at the popular YouTube producers and I'm seeing that they as well don't get a whole lot of sales.

I ask FP this question, how do you sell your beats if not on Youtube, Soundcloud, Soundclick, etc?
Click to expand...

Having a run away hit like that on Youtube is awesome. It means you got talent and the stuff to make people watch.

Youtube can be really powerful, but any social media hub I would recommend looking at it as an "accessory" more-so than the full on business builder. For example you could easily add in a link in that popular video to an email list (you can get one for free at mailchimp.com up to 5,000 subscribers).

You might get 1-2 emails a day, so in a month you'd have 30-60 people. In 5 months 150-360 from that video alone. Every time you come out with a new video you can email that list and have a potential 150-360 new eyes looking at the video instantly.

That amount of activity also will boost your video in the youtube search, showing up to people searching for things related to your beats.

An email list is an incredibly valuable tool for building relationships with people and getting them not just to be listeners, but social evangelists (people who relentlessly share your beats with other people.)

Hope my tip helped (and not just rehashing what someone said above me!) :-)
 
HB_Beats said:
I'm 16 and have been producing for 7 months now. I've gotten over 800 subscribers now in that time but it doesn't seem like good numbers to me, although others say thats good.
Click to expand...

Hey man, honest opinion here, you need to be patient. You only been producing for 7 months and have 800 subscribers..People would KILL to be able to say that. Instead of saying hey why am I not making any sales with all these subscribers, you should be grateful that you have those numbers and make them work in your favor. Be creative figure out some strategies to scale those numbers and make them work for you. That's more than enough people listening in..your just not marketing effectively. Engage your audience and they'll return the favor.
 
BeatAuthority said:
For example you could easily add in a link in that popular video to an email list (you can get one for free at mailchimp.com up to 5,000 subscribers)
Click to expand...

But how would he be able to convert youtube viewers into people to sign up to a email list?
 
triplea3xa said:
But how would he be able to convert youtube viewers into people to sign up to a email list?
Click to expand...

Simple. By asking people to sign up. If you give enough value, you won't even have to ask for sign ups. You can also use an incentive, but I'd rather gain people to my list through the fact they want more of my content rather than to get (say) a free ebook.

Cheers,
Jordan
 
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