Library music composer writing music for beat selling platforms: the + and the –

[Edouardo]

I read a few days ago an interesting thread recently on MLR: (https://musiclibraryreport.com/forums/topic/selling-stock-music-vs-selling-beats/).

This was very timely with my own explorations. I have been in RF and NE libraries for a few years now. With mid 4 figures a year as passive, it is working quite well considering I uploaded my hundred’th track only very recently. I am currently considering expanding my musical world to the idea of writing ‘beats’. As an experiment, I wrote two tracks and uploaded them on Beatstars a few days ago.

Yet, I am still evaluating if it is actually worthwhile. Let me share with you my thoughts about this, and then please jump in to give your opinion.

THE MINUS
YOUTUBE ID Risk
I can clearly imagine a kid buying a beat, rapping over it, recording it, and all excited, publishing a CD on say, CD Baby. And of course his lack of experience would make him tick the Youtube ID box… It is forbidden by the License agreement, but does the kid understands the implications, or even reads it … I too didn’t really know what I was doing when I just started…
It is fine if I keep the beat as beat, but these beats could clearly work out as background music for RF/NE libraries… forcing me to consider beats as separated from my official catalog…: I was hoping exploiting the beats in RF too after mild tweaking.

A SMALL MARKET
With this in mind, the market for beats is actually tiny: 30 million dollars worldwide… It is oversaturated, as everything else in music actually… Yet 30M, compared to the sync market seems a little thin to me…

REQUIRES TIME FOR SOCIAL NETWORKING
It appears it requires a lot of com and social networking to get heard… after 3 days and absolutely no communication whatsoever from my part I got 0 listens.

STEMS and EULAs
Usually artists ask for stems, but this corresponds to sub-licensing the sounds which is forbidden by virtual instrument and sample pack EULAs (even a kick drum from a virtual instrument is a problem). I do not know how the others manage this , but I will not provide the stems, instead I propose a mixing / mastering service (I am allowed to do so by the EULA, as I am the one manipulating the sounds). This can be a disadvantage for me as it appears to add complexity compared to the competitive offering.

THE PLUS
A TRACK COULD LITERALLY BLOW UP
You keep 50% of the writing share… It is the Artist that will do the promoting of the track containing his vocals and the composer’s music. If he has talent and it blows up to become a chart hit, Boom! The Cash Machine starts spitting the bank notes. I cannot see this really happening with library music (Except in the top top tier libraries)

POTENTIAL FOR ENRICHING COLLABORATIONS
Beat selling is not necessarily a ‘pay and go’ process. The artist is required to mention you in the credits of his CD. It gives the opportunity to collaborate with singers and rappers and actually produce some great music, without the hassle of the marketing that follows (the artist does this…).

A NEW PERSPECTIVE TO WRITING MUSIC
I personally find it interesting as it allows me to write with a different perspective and a different sound. The two beats I wrote are pretty cool (if you are curious: https://www.beatstars.com/synapticbeats/tracks. As you know, I am new at this so feedback is welcome).

overall, what bothers me the most is the Youtube ID risk obliging me to write beats exclusively for beat selling platforms without not being able to propose these to libraries (with a little extra melody on top). On the other hand, it looks like a fun musical endeavor. So I am still ambivalent on the subject: 50/50.

I gave myself up to the end of this year to decide if this becomes a new project or if I should resume giving my full musical attention to production music libraries.

Any comments or opinions ?

[BEATSLINGER]

Good morning Edouardo, I hope you take no offense to this because I am simply trying to give you a bit of insight.

I read your post completely, and I went and listened to your work.

In order to compete in the “Beat World”, and sell tracks to Artist.Rappers/Writers you really have to know the genre, and the current trends. I noticed that your tagging said “Trap”. I would really suggest doing some “Home-work”. Really get to know the styles of music you want to sell; and study what is doing well and hot in that community/sound.
Here are just a few pointers in hopefully the right direction

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2Qw1dzXDBAZPwS7zm37g8g

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa10nxShhzNrCE1o2ZOPztg

I wish you lots of success!!

[Edouardo]

Absolutely no offense taken Beatslinger, on the contrary, I am very grateful for your insight.

You are very right, what I presented is not pure Trap, it is a fusion, an experiment: orchestral + trap: I set up a trap beat with bass layered with heavy subs, punchy 808 kick, fast high hats, sharp snares. But the orchestral elements do change the sound, making it less heavy and more airy.

I checked your links, these are not trap either ;-). The first one is more like RnB! The second link uses some elements of trap blended into electropop…
In my opinions, here is a pure examples: starting with Drake

And Lil Wayne that made the Trap movement popular more than a decade ago (Lollipop):

But you are right, I am actually considering removing these, (with a little retweeking, they could work well as background music for RF), and rethink my approach. I could introduce such a new derivation of the style if/once I am implemented in that field. It’s just that I am not a fan of making sound-alikes… but I guess I should consider it. And working on sound-alikes always has made me progress quite a bunch in the past anyway!

Thanks for your input!

[BEATSLINGER]

Thanks for understanding!
Did you go thru the websites and listen to multiple things posted? It might not be an example of the current featured song(s) but this is the trends.

Yes, the current “trend” is Trap/EDM styled, beats, risers, and breaks. But It is a reference to what is currently the trend.

I agree Kodak & Wayne are “Authentic Trap”. As well, Waka Flaka, Gucci Mane, Future, etc..

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