10/12/2024

Best Beat

Setting the Rhythm for Your Music

Tips for Becoming a Big Time Hip Hop Producer

Tips for Becoming a Big Time Hip Hop Producer

There are thousands of producers out there who dream of living in the shoes of Timberland, DJ Premier or Kanye West. We need to remember that they didn’t start off where they are now, but through hard work and determination they prevailed. These are just some simple tips to keep in mind as you move forward with your production and obtaining placements. As you begin to establish a name for yourself and build a clientele, customers will remember their experience working with you, and this can either make you or break you.

Tip #1: Always Remain humble. I repeat ‘Remain Humble”. No matter how good your beats and production is if you don’t have the right attitude a lot of opportunities may fall through. A little kindness can go a long way in this business. We have to remember as the sales start going up and the fan base is growing not to let it all go your head. Always be polite to potential customers and do not judge them. You never know they could be the next Eminem or Jay-Z. You should be open and willing to work with anyone, as long as they show a passion for music and practice professional work ethics.

Tip #2: Try to show variety in your production. It’s OK to have your “specialty”. Mine is old school underground hip hop, but I also produce in the genres: R&B, Dirty South, Trap, New School and East Coast. You want to have something to offer to everyone. You never know who will come across your work. This will increase your sales and projects that you will be involved in. This will also help in keeping your production catalogue from sounding redundant. Other producers and artist will also respect you more for stepping out of your element and producing different styles.

Tip #3: Give back to the Community. I mean Give people some free beats. This never hurts. You never know who might hear your beat playing on someones iPod or mix-tape. Get your music out there. Giving away free beats for someone joining your mailing list is a valuable and awesome technique to build your customer base and also get your music out there. You can also give away free beats to customers who subscribe to your YouTube Channel. This is better then just having your music sitting on your computer, not being heard. If you produce as much as I do then you have hundreds of beats if not thousands just laying around. Give some out for free and save your prize work for the sales.

Tip #4: Network, Network, Network. With today’s technology we have the ability to reach a wide range of potential customers. This technology is called the “Internet”. Using sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube are free ways to reach your audience. I have found many rap artist to work with just on Twitter alone. One being Mista Cane, who has worked with The Game, and Savage-C, The Jokerr, Redman and more. Dont underestimate Facebook either. Also be sure to link all your social accounts so all your tweets show on Facebook and MySpace and vice versa. Beatstars.com is also another great platform for producers to not only sell their beats but also to network with recording artists. Save all your emails from past customers and create an email list so you may keep in touch with your customers and keep them informed of new material.

Tip #5: Don’t set your prices too high, not now while you are still building a name for yourself. Selling an exclusive beat for $500.00 is high end. And definitely try to stay under $50.00 for beat leases. Remember you are just starting out and you need to start small and build a reputation. The $$ will come later, just keeping doing what you’re doing and make quality music at affordable prices and you should be well off. Eventually you will be able to increase your pricing as the demand for them will go up.

Hopefully you have found these tips useful and will bring you one step closer in getting your music heard and your name out there. We all have to start at the bottom, just keep climbing and don’t give up.