Looking into the situation in the current music industry, a record producer (or music producer) can have a lot of roles. Among these roles may be task like, mentoring and guiding the artist or musicians, controlling the studio recording sessions, organizing and scheduling production budget and other music resources, and obviously one of the most important jobs of the producer was the supervising of the recording, and the mixing and mastering processes.

In the last 20 years the term producer has essentially taken on a new meaning in the music industry. More and more producers are taking a more entrepreneurial role or approach to the music business. This role has been enhanced part because of the recent evolution of digital music, specifically in the hip hop genre. In contemporary digital hip hop music, it is possible for the producer to be the only person involved in the creation of a musical record, album or recording. Today the producer can be responsible for writing, performing, recording and even arranging all the material for a song or album.

With the change and ever decreasing price of professional music software in the industry like FL Studio, Digidesign Protools, Cakewalk Sonar, and Steinberg Cubase, producers can recorded, compose, and arrange entire tracks and songs on a single bedroom computer and get very professional results. All the parts of music production that used to take almost an entire team of people to do, can now all be done by one person, the producer.

The hip hop music industry, for the most part, can be seen as a major beneficiary to the current trend of music technology price drops. People of all economic statuses are now able to have access to some of the best music production tools at very affordable prices. Having powerful semi-professional music software and equipment was almost unheard of about 15 to 20 years ago. Now people of all age group and demographics are able to make music from the comfort of their own homes or studios. Most basic music producers are even able to set up small studios in their basements or bedrooms and get very close to a professional quality recording or sound.

We really don’t know where technology is going to take us in the future of music, but all the current economic signs say the technology will continue to get cheaper by the day. Making it more and more affordable for any body wanting to get into the music production business to set up a studio from home and make professional sounding albums and recording.

It has become ever so popular for independent recording artists and producers to buy and sell beats online. With this trend comes a lot of traffic from inexperienced artists trying to buy beats online. An inexperienced buyer will easily over pay for a beat online. This article was written from personal experience in hopes of giving some insight, not as a hard set of rules to follow, but a guide. Listed below are things beat buyers should know and understand when buying beats online.

Understand The INTRINSIC Value Of Hip Hop Beats And Rap Beats

You can’t touch, bend, break, fold, or smell rap beats. For that matter, you can’t even see them, yet in the music industry, we see them being sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Oh … but you can hear and fell vibrations from beats, can’t you. This kind of makes music like the wind, so I guess it’s fair to say the music industry is selling “air”… not really, but hopefully you get my point. It’s not the price of the beat but the producer or person you are buying it from.

The actual value of a beat or music is based on an underlying perception of its true value, perception being the keyword. Don’t rip yourself off by buying a beat online for $500 if the producer has no credibility or his or her image and stature in the music industry doesn’t give value to your demo or album sales. Look at what Brittany Spears did on her latest album, take note of the album credits and all the popular “Producer Powers” employed, essentially playing a major part in her attempt to revive her career.

Some Internet Beat Pricing Standards And Averages

The average rate on the Internet for a “Non-Exclusive” beat license is $0 - $75. With this type of license you are essentially leasing or renting the beat for a given amount of time or copies. The average for an “Exclusive” beat license is from around $75 - $250. This type of license gives you full ownership of the beat, as if you created it yourself. More popularly noted as “work for hire”. Note: Some exclusive licenses may restrict resale.

Try To Contact The Producer Before You Buy

To get the most for your money, and protect yourself from “beat-jackers” (people who steal other peoples beats and resell them) try to contact the producer first to see if he or she is responsive, email or PM seems to be the best method. Don’t just buy beats from “Joe Blow” without making some kind of contact first. Trust me, real beat makers who are truly vested in their craft make themselves available and they’ll be happy to hear from you (it builds their ego) and will more than likely work a deal out with you if you buy more than one beat from them. If a seller takes more than two days to respond, keep it moving. There are literally thousands of other producers who will stop at the drop of a hat to make a $20 sale in hopes of repeat business and a little recognition. Try starting off with producers that you see are already selling beats to others on the net or have their beats rated high or “Hot”. Obviously they are doing something right and they are more than likely satisfying other beat buyers needs.

Get It In Writing

When you buy beats online, make sure there is some type of printable licensing agreement associated with the beat you buy. A licensing agreement/contract will explain the rights you have with the beats and the terms under which you may use the beat.

Cheap Exclusive Beat

Cheap exclusive beats are the best deals to get but there are very few producers out there who are willing to sell you an exclusive beat from $20 to $40. Check out thebeattrader for some of those type deals. There are not a lot of producers on that site and understandably so, but the site became very popular for selling low priced exclusive beats a few years ago.

Cheap Non-Exclusive Beats

The next best thing is a low priced non-exclusive. Remember, the catch with non-exclusive beats is that the beat may have been sold several other times before you buy it, so if you are looking for fresh music, make a list of the producers you like on a site and watch their profiles. Good experienced online producers know to cycle out old beats and update their profiles with new beats at least every 2-3 days.

I’d say a fair price to pay for a non-exclusive beat is about $20. There is an abundant amount of producers selling beats online right now who would fight for your business. Online producers are almost a dime a dozen so it’s really easy nowadays to get unique music for your mix-tape, demo, or album at and very affordable price.

Happy Beat Buying!

When it comes to submitting beats and songs to the music industry, most artists and producers have no idea where or how to get started. The “how” seems to be the more important issue to cover first because once mastered, you’ll be ready to submit music almost anywhere. We’ve created a guide that will help you in mastering the “how to” of submitting music to record labels. Follow these steps and you should be generally successful in your endeavor.

1. Get permission

If you send hip hop and rap beats to any record label or music company without first getting permission from them, they are considered unsolicited materials. Most major and upper independent record labels will reject (trash) them. Part of the reason they do this is to protect themselves from lawsuits. The last thing they want is someone saying that their music was stolen, when the label had “no idea” that they received anything from you. Another reason is that they work hand in hand with credible music industry managers, A&Rs, record producers, lawyers etc… to filter through the junk music. If you really want to get into the music business this way, I recommend you hook up with one of these type kats to walk your beats through the door and into the right guy’s hand (remember it’s a people’s game).

2. Find out the guidelines for submission and follow them to a tee

If they ask for only 3 tracks, send only three tracks. There is nothing more irritating than someone who can’t follow instruction. If they give no limit, only send 5 to 7 of your hottest tracks. If they want more, believe me, they will call you.

3. Put your hottest tracks firstLike the saying goes… “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”. You have about 30 second to catch the ear of the listener.

4. Know the Addresse (the person, company, or the like to whom a piece of mail is addressed)

When you send in your beat CD, make sure you know who’s attention to address the materials to. Otherwise you submission could just end up in the trash.

5. Don’t expect to get your material back. (even with a S.A.S.E.)

6. Be patient

Most of the time, the artist will record to the track and let you know afterwards if they decide to use it for their album. If they don’t use it then you probably won’t here back unless you follow up. Also, if directly solicited, set an “on hold status” typically from 3 to 6 months. This allows you to shop your tracks elsewhere if they don’t get picked up soon enough for you. Silly, but I’ve seen labels hold or buy a track just so another label or artist can’t get it. Either way, try not to have your beats tied up for too long in one place. After all, you made them right…?