For a beatmaker, to be able to monetize his beats properly, he has to understand how licensing works and the way he can apply it to his music in order to gain revenue. Learning how to make money leasing beats is not hard, although it requires time invest and working daily on improving your music.
Let’s take a close look to the various types of licensing.
How to make money leasing beats
While the music industry has become an incredibly competitive field over the years, it has also created many opportunities for independent artists to monetize their music online.
Although it may sometimes be a confusing process, there are several platforms that help the artists showcase and distribute their music/songs/beats without much effort whatsoever. Those platforms are Bandcamp, Spotify, CD Baby, Audio Jungle, Ditto Music, Beatport and several more.
Using these platforms, the beatmaker in this occasion, can upload his beats onto one of these (or on multiple) platforms and earn money from his music every time someone buys one of his individual tracks or entire project.
A beatmaker can also use his own website. This option is always considered to be the best, because he can have the maximum level of control over the distribution of his music and customize the website environment to promote his brand.
The downside of having a website is the lack of audience and potential customers, especially in the beginning stages of the producer’s career.
There are many different ways a beatmaker can monetize his creations. These types of monetization are called licensing, and they are accompanied with contracts that determine the terms that clarify the proper use of the beats.
For a beatmaker, to be able to monetize his beats properly, he has to understand how licensing works and the way he can apply it to his music in order to gain revenue.
Let’s take a close look to the various types of licensing.
Lease License
This type of license is considered to be one of the most profitable ones for the beatmaker. When applying this license on their beats, beatmakers usually charge a lower price for their creations. This is due to the fact that they can sell a single beat to multiple artists repeatedly.
Exclusive License
With this license, the producer sell his beat only one time to the artists that purchased the beats and provides a contract with full rights of the beat. The prices in this type of license vary according to how much every individual producer and beatmaker values his beats.
Sync License
Sync stands for synchronization. This is the type of license that is used to synchronize the beat or the music work of a producer in general with TV shows, youtube videos, motion picture, background music, movies etc. Prices are usually low in this type of license, as an individual beat can be monetized more than once.
Broadcast License
This is the type of license used for playing beats or songs on the radio, as background music in stores such as coffee shops or podcasts. The range of price in this type of license remain fairly low, as every song or album can be purchased by multiple individuals.
Performance License
The last type of license is the performance type. Using this license, the artist that purchases the beat can use it on live performances along with his lyrics or as a DJ. The prices in this type of license vary, and usually depend on the number of live performances the buyer intends to make.
What does the term Royalty-Free mean?
To get a better understanding of the term, you need to understand that it is very risky to use any kind of music without the appropriate clearance and rights, both for music producers and artists.
There is a high possibility of getting into legal trouble when the owner of the rights finds out, and it can cause the permanent block of your music from all music platforms and distributors. In the worst-case scenario, it can cause legal issues that involve rights infringement.
To avoid getting into that kind of trouble, when you decide that you want to use samples from other songs, you need to reach the owner of the rights and get a specific permission to use his song. The decision is up to the owner and they can accept or deny your request.
When they decide, to grant you the permission to use their work, they will give you a license which will specifically state the ways which you can use the sample of their work. This way, every time you are asked to prove you have permission for the sample used in your track, for instance in the case of Youtube Content ID, you can provide the license and proceed.
Payment options for a license
There are two main ways of paying for the license to sample a song.
The first payment method involves a fee. This fee applies according to how many times you want to use this sample in your work. For instance, if you use the sample two times in the same song, you pay two times the amount of the fee, if you use it three times you pay three times.
If you have used the sample twice in your beat and that particular beat plays on the radio one time, you have to pay an additional of two fees. This can cost you a substantial amount of your revenue and make it difficult to keep up.
The second way is a more compromising one. You can acquire samples that use pre-licenses. With pre-licenses, you pay a fixed amount of money the first time you purchase the sample and you get the permission to use the sample as many times as you want without any additional fees.
You can find samples and loops with pre-licenses in Royalty-Free Music Libraries. What is more you can choose among a wide variety of music genres, drum kits, instruments and sounds from our library.
Royalty-Free Loops and Sounds
You can search online and find high-quality loops and sound for any type of instrument or music genre you want. One thing you to look for is the reputation of the provider. You can preview the sounds and loops of any package before you buy it, and purchase the one that suits you best.
Professional musicians create the music loops and sounds of most of these packages, and that ensures that the level of the music provided will be top notch.
What is more, the both the loops and samples are mixed and mastered professionally by experienced sound engineers to make sure that the sound remains clean and loud, making it very easy for producers to use them in their own beats.
There is a large quantity of drum loop packages and drum kits, which are created by well-known and respected beatmakers. Established beatmakers have their own techniques and styles especially on the sounds they use, so if you are familiar with the work of a beatmaker you admire, you can purchase his drum kits and use the sounds he uses.
Once you browse through several Royalty-Free sound libraries, you can preview and decide which loops or samples you want to acquire. The fee of the purchase for most of these libraries is usually substantially low and appropriate for any type of budget.
The moment you purchase your loop package, you will be provided with a download link for your loops. Sometimes the loops can also be acquired in a physical form. License contracts will be included in both cases, and you will be instantly ready to start using them in your own projects.
The advantages of Royalty-Free Loops
Being able to avoid any legal issues and make sure that your music will be distributed without any problems is the main advantages of using and creating Royalty-Free music.
It is the most common way that beatmakers use to create their beats and artists to create their songs. Using Royalty-Free loops and samples for your music productions is a very fast and inexpensive way of acquiring thousands of high-quality sounds, and make the music production process much easier and convenient.
You have to take your time and search among music libraries about the products they have to offer, and choose loops for the music genres and instruments that suit you best help you create great beats.
How to sell Royalty-Free Beats through your own website
The best way to sell royalty free beats is through you own website. You have to acquire a hosting plan and a domain name, and find the appropriate wordpress theme for your brand and type of music business.
In addition, you need to list your beats on your website and organize them according to mood and music genre. This will help your potential customers browse through your beats more easily and find the beats they want.
Although having your own website has many advantages, you have to work hard in order to drive traffic and customers to purchase your beats. You can do this by adding useful informational articles to your website, so that people can reach to you from organic searches on the web.
What is more, you can increase the volume of your online presence with social media. You can run Ad campaigns or find people that are interested in listening to your music through Facebook groups.
A really great idea is to participate in forums. You can find relevant forum to the type of music you have to offer and start conversations, or provide useful answers and perspectives to already open discussions in order to help people with their problems.
You have to avoid spamming in the forums. Advertising your website straight forward is not the best solution when it comes to participating in forum discussions. Instead, you can provide meaningful answers and have the address of your website as a sign at the bottom of your post.
You can also ask website owners for guest blogging. You have to search for relevant websites to your type of music and watch carefully to understand what content they offer to their readers. You can then send an e-mail to the website owner and ask him if he is interested in having you post an article for him on a similar subject.
Last but not least, you can visit all those relevant websites you have found and post answers to the comment sections of their articles. For example, if a person has read the article and has an additional query about something you know, you can provide the answer. If your answer is helpful enough, this will lead him straight to your website for more information.
Remember to have all of your beats listed clearly on your website and make the navigation easy for your visitors. Create a detailed about page so that the potential buyer can find more about you. This way you can earn their trust faster.
How to sell Royalty-Free Beats through Music Libraries
Another way you can sell your Royalty-Free beats is through music libraries. With this way, you do not have to create content or customize your website, which makes the process much faster.
Music libraries already have big amounts of visitors that are there to purchase music. They usually provide great search tools to the buyers and organize the music on their websites in categories so that they offer a great user experience.
By joining a music library, you give them permission to sell your music to the people interested along with the appropriate licenses. They use pre-licensed ways to sell your music to the customers, and as a result, the buyer does not have to pay any additional fees, which makes them much more trustful towards their customers.
One of the main disadvantages of the music libraries is that for every sell you make through their interface, they take a cut. The percentage they take in exchange for their customer base and the service they provide towards the beatmakers can be pretty high, sometimes even up to 75%.
As a result, that means less revenue for the beatmaker, but you can make up if you use music libraries along with your own website, where the costs are substantially lower and you do not have to share a cut of your sales.
Conclusion
To sum up, being able to create and leasing royalty-free beats is a great advantage for every beatmaker and music producer, because this way you can assure that you will avoid all legal and license issues that otherwise would occur.
It is also highly suggested, that all beatmakers should create their own sound and loop packages as this might be a nice side revenue that can add up to their main income.
There are many music libraries available to sell both your beats and your samples packages. With a proper search, you should find the ones that suit you best and sell your music through their platforms.
The music industry provides many opportunities for beatmakers and selling Royalty-Free Beats is one of them!