How to make money with your beats on Youtube

Over the past ten years Youtube has become a great platform for people to make money by uploading videos. Tutorials, vlogs, entertainment, etc. As a producer, you can generate a lot of income through streaming. Many Youtubers need music for their videos, but using third party content could get them in trouble with the law. So by using relatively unknown artist as background music, they're allowed to display ads. Videos with displayed ads usually generate a good amount of income. Youtube uses a system called Content ID. It basically memorizes the recording of your music. Whenever someone uses your music in their videos, Youtube will mark it. But in order to receive money, you need to sign up with a Youtube partner. You can use programs like AdRev, Audiam, Songtrust, Exploration, etc. You can also sign up with online distributors like CD Baby, music licensing companies such as Rumblefish. Make sure that your music gets around, and you're on a good way to generate a lot of streaming income. Also, by registering your songs with "Performing Rights Societies" like ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC, you will receive additional royalties.

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Build an email list

Now...this is where the BIG money comes from. Building an email list is probably the most important thing to do, when it comes to selling anything online. If people subscribe to your mailing list, that means they expect you to bring them updates on your latest projects. This might not convert to sales easily, but it's on you to give your subscribers reasons for being subscribed to your mailing list. Why should they receive monthly, weekly, or even daily emails from you? Because in every email, you offer them
Don't always go for the money. And don't always try to get people to visit your website, check your beats, or anything like that. Find ways on how to be a merchant, and a friend at the same time. Be human! Don't make your emails look like a robot just sent an email blast to 1000 people. A good way of showing humanity, is finding out about your costumers birthdays. How you can do that? You can set up opt-in forms (Aweber, Mailchimp...) where people enter their names, emails, occupation (anything you require) to join our list. Wouldn't it be a great idea if they could add their birth date? It doesn't even have to be their real birth dates, and I'm gonna tell you why! Subscribers don't care about you not knowing their real birth dates. But they will notice the humanity of you, sending them "birthday" gifts. So what can you offer them? How about a beat for free? How about 5 beats for free? How about giving away exclusive rights to a beat? All of that, just for knowing their birth date.
See, an email list is not just a list of people who buy stuff from you. Treat your costumers with respect, show them that you really care about them. Be careful on how many emails you send out, and the content that's in those mails. Don't always go for sales, give your subscribers some updates on your upcoming projects. That'll keep you relevant, and you will gain more sympathy.

How To Sell Beats Online Like A Pro

Tagging Your Beats

Every producer should consider tagging their instrumentals when uploading them online. Number one reason is because, you don't want people to rip your beats off the sites they find them. Especially on youtube, artists have the freedom to take an instrumental and record a song. So it's always important to let people know who produced the beat. You can do it by yourself, or you can get someone to do it for you and say your producer/production name on the beat. That way you will always have people knowing who the producer of a recorded song is. One tag on the entire beat in my opinion is too much. You should make at least 2-3, but i would recommend adding a tag every 45 seconds. When someone asks you if they can buy a beat, you (should!) can give them the untagged version. Because the artist paid for it, and has trust in you.
Always tag your beats!

How To Sell Beats Online

Network with artists

There are millions of independent rappers/singers on the Internet, all looking for beats to record songs for their mixtapes, or albums. You can find them on youtube, twitter, soundclick, soundcloud, datpiff, reverbnation, or hip hop forums. But it's important to communicate with them. Learn more about the artists you want to work with. Ask them questions about how they started, why they started, who inspired them to make music. Get to know them as if they were your real friends. That makes it easier for you to work for them. You can make beats custom made for them, now that you've figured out what kind of sound they're looking for. Building relationships is very important! Don't just always look for artists that are searching beats on the Internet. I mean, it's nice when someone accidentally finds you and buys your beats. But therefore you should be a genius in marketing, and SEO. And that's something that a lot of producers just don't know how to do.
So imagine 5 people you have worked with really like your music. What you should do, is listen to each one of them and find out how you can make them come back for more beats. Try to produce music that fits their musical styles. Communicate, ask them how they want their music to sound like. Give them demos of beats you think they might like, and ask if they want you to change certain things so they feel comfortable of buying those beats.
In the long run, you will see the results coming out of this. They will support you by giving you shout outs on sites like music forums, they will come back for more beats, they will recommend other artists to check out your music. Networking with artists is very beneficial!

How To Sell Beats