So what you got free beats

 So you got yourself some free beats from soundcloud now what? do you have the ability to record a song? can you get

that song mixed and mastered? Do you have a marketing plan or a budget to execute one? If not then

you just wasted your time Too many artist are stuck in a lack of mentality where they feel since they

don't have the money to pay for services That they should either get them for free or avoid having

them all together this is the way if thinking that will Kill your career before you even start it takes

money to make money is such a prevelant truth in the music industry According to Wendy Day it cost

a minimum of $30,000 per month for six to twelve months to build a successful music career So if

you are not willing to invest the couple of hundred dollars it takes just to create a quality recording

you most Definitely wont spend what it cost to build your business.The shift you need to make in

your thinking is how can you get The money to pay for these services and start educating yourself on

how to effectively monetize your music then you wont Be so reluctant to spend the money because

you now know how to get it back in multiples for instance if you knew how to turn A hundred dollar

Facebook ad into $7000 in your pocket from streaming in 30 days would you still be worried about

the $30 for a beat or the $100 to run the ad? Probably not So focus on learning the business your in

and devoloping a good marketing Plan so that all the costs associated with making your passion a

sustainable business is a drop in the bucket compared To your profits.

                                                             keep grinding and growing
                                                                                      sontwisted

Hedzhigh.com

Stop paying to perform

if your still buying tickets from venues to sell so you can perform stop it,if you can get 50 people a hundred people whatever to buy a ticket to come out to see you then you are better off renting a cheap venue or someones house for an hour and pocket the ticket money ie you sell 50 tickets for $20 you got $1000 pay the homeowner $300 to use their place for an hour or two you just made $700 instead of paying somebody else $300 to perform for the same 50 people you can also sell your album and merch if you know someone who cooks have them sell plates of food $10 each you can do this 2 or 3times a week and now your making a decent living off of your music instead of struggling and you have the ability to actually connect with the people who come out to the concert since its just you in a more cozy setting get their emails do q&a after and build up your fan base.

Music production

BE ON TOP OF YOUR MUSIC MARKETING GAME

Music Marketing and Promotion Strategies and Techniques

Total music marketing strategy

i know you had a dream of being a rapper and making alot of money with your music but you are struggling to make any  traction, that doesnt have to be the end of your musical story the reality is you dont need a record deal or an investor or even alot of money to get started so i have put together a step by step strategy to get you going

if you are not working  get a part time or full time job to fund  your music

secondly set up your own home studio so you can record whenever you want
if you already have a laptop or a pc you just need to add an audio interface,xlr mic,pop filter ,daw(your audio interface will come with a daw) and mic stand. buy a bundle for under $300 this is a one time payment you can
you can get one here or search for other bundle offerings http://www.guitarcenter.com/Presonus/Black-Audiobox-K52-and-990-Package.gc

next  do basic mixing to your vocals after recording you can look this up for free on youtube

use landr to master your tracks $20 each

or you can use fiverr to get your tracks mixed and mastered by someone who understands the process a little better than you $5 and up each

use Distrokid to distribute your music to google music,spotify and tidal this is a yearly fee of $20 and you get unlimited distribution

use ontrapages to create free landing pages offer your best song as a free download in exchange for an email sign up

sign up with aweber to create your email list and auto responder this is where  your landing page will send all your subscribers and how you will stay in contact with them
you will create 10 emails that go out once a week the first one will be a welcome email with the download link to your free song this goes out immediately the other 9 are meant to build a relationship with your fans to get thwem to know-like and trust your brand so that they will spend money on your music 80% should be  greta free content 20% should be a sales offer  that breaks down like this email 1 free download 2-4 free content(music videos -in studio content -vlog-blog posts etc) email 5 something for sale ie 5 track ep for $5 emails 6-9 more free content email 10 album purchase or create a monthly subscription service for $10 a month where subscribers get all new music for free. you can add more emails to make your drip campaign longer which builds more trust but start off with at least ten

buy perry marshalls ultimate guide to facebook marketing $17 from barnes and noble or  take it  out from your public library for free

setup facebook ads promoting your free offer $150-$300 a month (this is where the part time job comes in handy) run $10 a day ads targeting your ideal fans create a video ad of your music playing and offer a free download and  music updates in exchange for and email your ad should not run for less than two weeks you should get between 400 and 800 sign ups a month

you can also run a second facebook ad driving traffic to your streaming service links tidal,google play spotify and start generating revenue off of streaming for another $150-$300 a month you can reach between 60,000 to 120,000 people per month

here are the latest pay rates for streaming http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2017/01/streaming-price-bible-updated.html

you now have a business in a box that you can fund fully yourself for not a lot of money without a record label or investor just you a little bit of knowledge and  consistent work go get that music money

hedzhigh.com

Why should i pay for your beats?

Today i want to adress a notion that i see some would be artist throwing around when it comes to paying unknown producers for their services and that is why should i pay you when we are on the same level or when your not big etc this has to be one of the most ridiculous ways of thinking that i have ever heard and the independent music community is the only place i have ever heard of such non sense firstly you are not on the same level if you were you would have your own studio and the ability to produce your own beats and since you are seeking out the services of someone else then obviously they are at a level and ability that you do not posses secondly you dont pay these producers for their fame you are paying for the product so the only criteria should be is the product good and is the price reasonable or affordable by your logic no one should get paid for the work they perform unless they are world famous so you should not get paid for shows or have people purchase your album because you are not famous and are "at the same level of sucess as them" your boss at your day job should expect you to work for free because you are not world known for your job function,doctors,lawyers,mechanics,bus drivers ,teachers etc should not be paid for their hours of work because they are not well known? Sounds ridiculous doesnt it? So why do you expect a producer who has spent thousands of dollars on equipment and hundreds of hours perfecting their craft to just work for you for free.respect other peoples work and services just like you want yours to be respected pay your producers,engineers ,videographers,graphic designers the same way you expect to be paid for your music.

Get beats

How to market on a $500 budget

Getting started with marketing seems like it is complicated but it doesn't have to be if I were starting off with a$500 budget I would setup a sales funnel(squeeze page+email list+auto responder).I would sign up for aweber $1 first month $29 every month after (this is your email list host) it will be $19 if you don't get over 500 subscribersset up a 10 email auto responder to go out once a week for ten weeks the first email should deliver something for free most likely free beat the next three should be some other free valuable content email 5 should be an offer to purchase from you the next four emails free valuable content email 10 another offer to purchase from you. Create a free Wordpress site to create your squeeze page(this is the page you send people to offering them the free beat in exchange for their email,purchase a domain with monthly hosting $2 or less for the name no more than $10 a month for hosting. Run a $10 a day Facebook ad for 30 days for the first month offering your free beat then run that same ad for 15 days in month two you should end up with roughly 1200 subscribers. Before you spend any of this money find out how to set up a squeeze page and how to setup an effective Facebook ad or you can sign up for music marketing manifesto and get walked step by step through everything I just explained the cost is $147 then just reduce the advertising days to reflect the remaining budget

Hip hop instrumentals

Why you should be leasing your beats

The topic of beat leases versus buying exclusive rights is one that garners strong opinions from both sides of the argument. Some people believe that owning the rights is the only way to go but up and coming rappers can't afford to pay exclusive prices for every beat they use.the average price is between $300-$1000 if you made a 10 track album that would be $3-$10k in beat prices and you still have to pay for mixing mastering distribution and promotion not to mention studio time but if you lease the average price is between $15-$50 so that's $150-$500 spent on beats that frees up a lot of money for the other aspects of music creation so if you are not making at least $12,000 per month with your music yet you should be leasing then when the sales start coming in buy the exclusive rights to the leased beats do this until your income is consistent enough to switch to buying Exclusives only. You can still sell your songs and put them on streaming services to get paid while you build your fan base and income.you also avoid getting sued for using free beats that you don't have rights to for far less then what the lawsuit may cost you.

Get your leases or Exclusives at Beat maker

How much should I pay for beats

Prices

Don’t pay high prices for leases. It’s understandable if you’re buying exclusive rights. For a lease you should expect to pay around $10-$30 dollars per beat.  For exclusives it can cost anywhere from$300-$5,000 for relatively unknown producers.

Shop around and compare what producers are charging for beats. If you fall in love with beat that’s more than $30 for a lease then hold off on purchasing it, shop around a little more to see if you can get a better deal. If you can’t find anything cheaper that fits your needs you can always come back to it later.

Beat maker

How to find dope producers

If you are looking for good producers and are also looking to get on their mailing lists for updates and discounts here’s an easy way to find them on the internet. Even though serious producers typically will have their own website they will often upload their beats for sale on 3rd party websites such as Myflashstore.net, Beatstars.com and Soundgine.com to name a few. These are like producer hubs where you can find a large collection of active producers online.

 You can then click on a producers name and it should take you to their beat player which will also have their personal website listed if they have one. Remember to go to their website and see if you can sign up for their mailing list.
Beat maker

Where to find rap beats online

If you’re finding it hard to find good and affordable rap beats that fit your style then it’s time to narrow your focus. Most producers have their on website and usually have a mailing list that you can subscribe to. Many of them will offer special discounts exclusively to the people who are on their mailing list. They could run a special deal at anytime and will often do discounts around Holidays.

So find producers that make rap beats that fit your style and sign up to their mailing list. Not only will you likely get special discounts but they will likely send you an e-mail whenever they upload new beats.I might add that many producers will give away free beats as their way of saying thank you for signing up to their news letter.

Hip hop beats

How to get thousands of twitter followers

Today i want to  talk to you about how to get your first 1000 twitter followers with just a couple of minutes of work a day i 

was able to boost my account from 17 followers to 10000 in one month for free without  bots. After you have a song or two created and posted to your website,reverbnation soundcloud etc you want to post a brief bio in your twitter description section  with a link to one of your songs(if you don't have a twitter account go sign up now).you now want to go sign up for a twitter management service that allows you to track and unfollow people like https://manageflitter.com/  the install the twitter follower chrome extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/twitter-follower/hcghlfjkhaigchnbbkbcgadlnckobaei after you have done this  go into the twitter search and  search for another artist who has a substantially larger following than you but  is in the same musical genre and style as you go to their follower list and start following their followers *don't contact them and ask for a follow in return* just follow about  200 of them 30% of them will follow you back and even click the link in your bio as they want to know who you are and why you followed them. do this 5 days a week for a month it should take about 3 minutes to do,on the sixth or seventh day log into your twitter manager and start unfollowing all the people who didn't follow you back to free up space (twitter limits you to 2000 follows until your followers exceed 2000). once you start getting followers start interacting with them comment on their tweets favorite retweet etc  don't become a used car salesmen your post should be 80% interaction 20% sales so for every 10 tweets only 2 should be  pitching your music your followers want to feel a connection to you and your music so build those relationships and they will support your music. I hope this was help full i will stay in touch.

Hedzhigh.com

Get your music ditributed to itunes spotify and more click the link to register

Music distribution

Music royalties and how to start earning them

x

Start your music career off the right way

Welcome to this Rap Life Blog My name is Sontwisted I am a Rapper-Producer out of Brooklyn NY I have been rapping for the past 28 years and have been making beats for the past 4 years. I started this blog to chronicle my journey through building a sustainable music career as an independent artist. Starting out as an artist first doing music for the love of it and not trying to make money or even build a fan base there are a few things to know when deciding to do music professionally especially as an independent. Firstly you have to be able to record whenever you want for as cheaply as possible, so I would recommend if you don’t already have one to set up a recording studio in your home. For the most basic setup you need a computer an audio interface (preferably usb), an xlr mic, and a daw (digital audio workstation-pro tools, fruity loops etc.) I personally recommend adobe audition if you are only doing vocals audacity also works and its free, an xlr cable, pop filter, headphones, and a reflection filter. Secondly you need quality instrumentals if you don’t make beats or have a relationship with a producer, purchase quality beats online from producers hedzhigh.com , now I know a lot of online rappers don’t want to spend money on beats and want free beats or use tagged beats but if you are not willing to invest a couple of dollars into your own music how do you expect any one else to. when artist’s take the stance of well I’m not making any money off of my music so why should I spend money to buy beats that indicates to me that you don’t even believe in your own songs and if you won’t spend $25 for a beat then you definitely won’t spend $150 for mixing and mastering a song $20 a month for a website or email hosting you won’t spend $100 for Facebook ads or $65 for album artwork etc. how do you expect to sell any music without these things. You have to treat your music as a business and in business you have to put up the money to get started develop the product or service create a way to engage and capture customers then market and sell to those customers before you make one dollar. In essence you are now the record label so those big advances you hear about artist’s signing for that’s on you now you are the record label giving yourself the advance to go hire producers to pay for mixing and mastering engineers to do album art work or photo shoots, to pay for videos, to pay for distribution to run marketing campaigns etc. you have to invest money into your career or you are just a hobbyist who is not trying to make any real money even the biggest artist’s jay-z, 50 cent Beyoncé etc. have to spend a couple million dollars to get their albums to sell and they have worldwide stardom and millions of fans why would you think you won’t have to spend money for you to sell. If you are unfamiliar with any of the things I just stated do some research and educate yourself to know which service you can do yourself and which ones need to be outsourced how much it’s all going to cost and how long is it going to take to execute to get a realistic idea of what you will have to do to make a living off your music now I know I left out some things like merchandising and touring but again these are things you need to figure out for yourself if they make sense to undertake and what the process and cost will be. As indie musicians we can’t afford to take the cheap way out. like it or not you are competing directly with major and other indie artist’s for the same fans and dollars so your product has to be at least on par with theirs not just the sound quality but the visuals the fan interaction and the visibility. how can you compete with someone who has a budget and a plan when you have non even if it’s a small budget you can’t be a musician for no money it cost money to make music even from your basement. I thank you for taking the time out to read my thoughts and I hope I have given you something to think about that will improve your musical journey. I look forward to many more sometimes hard, sometimes ugly, always worth while experiences along my musical journey. Here’s to hopping that you are part of that journey. If you’d like to hear the most recent milestone of that journey,click here to listen to That’s The Boom Bap beat Tape . Thank you for being a listener and for making it all matter hedzhigh.com I will talk to you soon, Sontwisted.