So we’ve all been there as a producer – Trying to move some tracks while working towards major placements or working on your own project, but the same problem always crops up – No one wants to pay for tracks. We can blame as many different reasons as we want, but that doesn’t pay the bills or buy new gear does it? Here are 5 tried and true tips for selling more beats.

1. Get on Twitter! – Look at Twitter as the new myspace, so capitalize while you can. There’s a lot of clickback effect. Coming from a marketing perspective, twitter is one of the best ways to get quality visitors to your site and interact with artists who are really TRYING to be successful and not just messing around. Once you get on Twitter, check out Twellow to find artists.Twitter takes a good deal of time to really be effective, but that’s what seperates you from the millions of myspace producers now. (Follow us on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/beatstatus )

2. Get more involved locally – No matter where you are, there’s most likely a hip-hop scene nearby. Go to shows, bring snippet cd’s, business cards, and a humble approach. You need to make connections in order to make sales. Artists that are out performing are more likely to purchase beats in my experience. Why? Because they are really trying to do something, and if you have something they need, they’ll pay your price to get it.

3. Look for alternative payments – By “alternative” payments, I mean, buy me this, I’ll give you that. This is more for those people in your circle of family or friends that get freebies. Even if they are a project you are working on, ask them to pay up. Tell them you need that new peice of gear, a new harddrive, some new monitors, whatever you would spend the cash on. People are more likely to purchase something tangible that will benefit them and you, then just hand over cash. Just the way it is.

4. Package beats w/ free recording time – If you’ve got a decent home studio, package them together. This is the way a lot of independent producers really get their name out there.  If you sell beats locally, offer a free 2 hr session to record the track with the beat. If they like the product, they are likely to come back again and again because of the value.

5. Get your own Site – It’s gotten to the point where having a myspace page isn’t enough anymore, you need to show your professionalism with your own domain and site. It’s not that expensive, our friends over at http://www.guerrillaRed.com can build you a wordpress site for as low as $350. They built this one!

6. Offer “Finders Fee” - Every artist knows a million other artists. Good artists even know a bunch of other artists that look up to them. Offer a 25% finders fee, or free services for every client that an artist brings you.  The allure of $ will help turn them all into your own promo squad out in their circles. Give them business cards or snippet CD’s to take with them.

The most important thing to remember is that our economy sucks right now.  You’re going to have to sell for a little less than you’d like to, but any serious artist will still find some money to pay for QUALITY tracks.

Hopefully these tips have been helpful, now get out there and move some tracks!

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