I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “I GOT FREE BEATS BRO”, or at least seen it online in a Facebook post or instant message or something. You might even be one of the producers saying that!
Well, I am here to tell you that downloading free beats could possibly be harming your music career!
Now I know that’s a bold statement, but let me be clear… It can be good for you too!!!
Stick around to learn the advantages and disadvantages of downloading free beats online.
A lot of rap beat producers offer free beats as a form of promotional product or way to promote their beats online. It’s a fast and easy way to get your name on Google, Bing, or Yahoo. Plus, tons of novice rappers online are looking for free beats to freestyle and make records with every day.
So, if you have a beat selling website that offers free instrumentals, you’ll surely see a lot of traffic as long as you have professional SEO optimization and a content development strategy in place.
While offering free beats is a great way to promote yourself online as a producer and bring in search engine traffic to your site, it’s not always the best option if you are trying to sell your beats for money.
I’ve had millions of plays and over 1,000,000 of my beats downloaded for free online over the years, and I will show you the advantages and disadvantages of offering free beats and free instrumentals online. On that note, let’s get started.
Advantages of offering Free Beats on your Website, Facebook, Soundcould, Soundclick etc
Traffic
Brings in a steady amount of search engine traffic for users who type in the term “free beats” or “free instrumentals”, some of you might of even found this article by typing in a similar term, or just could resist the juicy title with content about crushing your music career just by downloading a free beat or two
Soundclick and Soundcloud are the dominators or the search engines, they rank for all of the highest searched “free beat” terms and have 1,000’s of artists who are looking for beats every day. However, there is very high competition on both mediums and getting in an area where you can get seen without spending money on their ads is almost impossible. I received almost 600,000 plays on my Soundclick page before I decided to build my own website and get my own traffic. I was tired of spending my time promoting someone else’s site. Best thing I ever did!
Can help you get your website visited by 217 countries (My site literally gets visited by every country that looks for beats online.)
Supply
You have an unlimited supply of stock available. Your only investment is your time and effort. You can literally create the beats for free by using a free program online to create the beats and a free account on Soundclick to upload them to.
Building Relationships
Offering free versions of your instrumentals gives rappers, singers, artists a chance to try the beat out before they buy it. Some artists prefer to work this way to make sure their voice sounds right on the beat. Once they get it into the studio, they come back and purchase the non-exclusive lease.
Sometimes people will find you by searching for free beats but end up buying the beat in the long run (goes along with the try before you buy thing).
Those 217 countries you get visit from can turn into customers, contacts, or friends. Networking is getting stronger with technology and social media platforms like Facebook & Twitter.
Social Media: Add links on your website to your social media pages and your traffic will turn into your followers. I get friend requests from all kinds’ people and countries I can’t even spell.
Disadvantages of Downloading Free Beats Online
Credibility
Some would say that offering something for free only devalues your product. I somewhat disagree though, if it weren’t for offering free beats on MusicBeats.Net, I would have never gained some of the 1000’s of relationships I’ve created over the years.
Haters
Typically the people who hate on producers offering free instrumentals are other producers. Some beat producers feel like those who offer free versions are tarnishing the industry and devaluing beats in general. I disagree with that as well!
Instilling Value
If your beats are hot, people will pay whatever you charge for them. Look at Apple’s Iphone, they charge more than every other carrier, but they also offer a superior product to everyone else as well. Do you research about pricing, price your beats accordingly but offer a couple free mp3 versions to get the traffic moving.
Free beats can hurt sales from certain artists
Some artists hate the fact that you are giving away your tracks for free and will actually turn your beats down if they have ever been in the hands of another artist. I’ve had numerous artists tell me that they weren’t going to buy my beat because another artist had downloaded it already. That killed a sale for me, even though that other artist had only downloaded the free version that even still had the tag on it.
Although, it seems like that is a bad thing… that artist may of found me because my website is ranking so well, and where do you think that came from? That is all thanks to offering the free downloads. People come to my site for the free stuff but keep me in mind when it’s time to make a purchase. Also, I keep in touch with certain artists that reach out to me. You never know if they might turn into a beat buying client.
Give them an inch and they will take a mile
You would think that because you are giving the instrumental away for free, no one would ask for anything additional and just take the product as is.
Well, for some reason, some artists think that producers should make the beat custom for them even though they are downloading a free version. They may start to take you for granted and think you will always give them everything for free. This is especially true when you work with local artists. If they are used to getting everything for free, they will always expect that.
Lots of work involved
If you use Soundclick or Soundcloud, uploading beats can be pretty easy to do. Although, if you have a website like me, uploading beats isn’t quite the same as other websites you might be used to.
Uploading beats to my site goes like this: First, upload purchasable version (make 3 different versions for non-exclusive beats, premium exclusive beats, and exclusive beats, all with individual pricing), then, upload the free version, add all the details in and what not, and finally, I have to add all the links on the link different pages I have setup. Adding a new beat can be time consuming but it’s worth the time you put into it. Your own personal beat selling website will pay off for itself 10 fold.
As you can see there are many disadvantages and advantages of producers offering free beats. I know from experience that offering free beats can: Help bring a steady flow of traffic to your website, engage more customers, sell more beats, and get your name out in the world for all to see!
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