How to Maximize Your Music Production by Pricing Your Beats Right!

If you want to become the go-to beatmaker in your area, you need to learn the basics of beat marketing and pricing. Music producers understand the need to market their beats properly to attract quality clients willing to pay what they deserve. However, pricing your beats can sometimes be tricky and lead to lower sales than you might want.

This brief article will teach you everything you need to know about maximizing your music production beat sales by pricing your beats right! Master and follow these tips, and you'll be well on your way to building up a profitable music production business! 

Why it's important to know how much you should charge

Why should we price our beats correctly? To begin with, many great producers churn out amazing, consistent work but don't see a return on their efforts. There are several reasons for that, but one of them is simply failing to price their beats right. This can leave money on the table, as it were. 

You want to set a price that reflects your hard work and expertise. Secondly, charging less than what you're worth to get quick beat sales only opens up opportunities for people who won't deliver high-quality relations as they take advantage of deals like yours. At the same time, setting your price so high that no one is willing to pay does you no good. It all narrows down to striking a balance that allows you to market your beats to your target audience and earn consistent revenue. 

 

Here are some guidelines on how you might structure your beats:

Non–Exclusive Lease (MP3) -This license is the cheapest option for buyers and includes an MP3 File. It typically costs anywhere from $10 – $30. The beat can be resold to other artists as many times as possible. 

Premium Lease (WAV) is the second-tier option for non-exclusive buyers and sellers and includes a WAV file. It typically costs anywhere from $50 – $80

Exclusive Lease (WAV)-this is the most expensive license and is more of an outright sale. It includes all the files and exclusive rights to the beat. As the name suggests, once your beat is leased under this license, you cannot sell it to another artist or entity. This typically starts at around $300, but with the right reputation/experience, the seller could charge anywhere from $1000 to $30,000.

 

Tracked Out Stems (Unlimited – Non-Exclusive) (WAV)- This lease is the most expensive non-exclusive license. The buyers receive MP3, WAV, and tracked out stems of the beat. 

 

There is no one size fits all approach to pricing, but this article contains some tips that can help you maximize your beat sales success. 

Tip #1: Avoid Pricing Your Beats Emotionally

No matter how much time you have spent on your tracks, you can't think of beat prices in an emotional sense. Otherwise, your pricing will suffer, and your customers will suffer. 

"Well, it only took me 20 minutes to finish this track, so it makes no sense to charge a lot for it," or,

"I know people I'm selling the beat to probably won't have a lot of money, so I'll keep my price according to what I know they can afford it."

If that's you, it's time to change your thinking because you're not getting the maximum amount possible for your music production.

Sure, it would be great if we could charge $10 for every track we produce, but this is rarely possible and self-sabotaging. Instead, when determining what price you want to charge per track, you must decide on a price that makes sense both from a logical and business standpoint and a personal one.

Tip #2: Pricing Your Beats Logically

The most important thing you should know is that the value of each beat is entirely subjective and that it's something you can control. You can set your own value for your beats based on what you see in the market, how much time and energy you want to put into your beats, or how much money you want to make with them. You must research your competitors to get this information. What are they charging for beats that sound similar?

SoundClick.com is a wonderful site to do your market research. The site has hundreds of music producers from various genres that sell and earn from their beats. Look at the top ten best-selling producers in your genre to see how they price their beats. What is the average selling price, and what are they offering for that price? This is how you discover your "magic number."

Tip #3: Start Small And Work Your Way Up

As you're building your beat portfolio, you might be tempted to charge a high price right off the bat. This is a bad idea. You're less likely to sell a beat at a high price if you're a new or relatively unknown producer who doesn't have many sales yet. Instead, start small and work your way up—this will help you establish yourself as an experienced beatmaker and make people more willing to pay higher prices for your beats in the future.

Tip #4: Keep Your Pricing Consistent

For maximum music production beat sales, try to find a median for your pricing and keep your intellectual property within that price range. If you're an aspiring producer or are just getting started in today's competitive market, it can be easy to under or overprice your beats. For example, it makes no sense to charge different prices for your beats. You might want to sell an exclusive license to your favorite beat for $350 and a similar license to another beat for $150, but this will confuse your buyers and try to lower your prices.

How To Raise Your Beats' Prices Overtime

As you build a following for your music, you can begin to charge more for your beats. Like many businesses, the rule of thumb is to start at the bottom and work your way up as you gain more experience. This means that it doesn't make sense for new producers to set their prices at the same level as veteran producers when you're first starting out. While you may feel that your beat has the quality of a timeless classic, you'll need a well-established brand and reputation to back it up.

Find collaborators on the same business level as you and work together to raise each other's brand value. It's time to start raising your average beat price once you've gained some clout with your sales and perhaps had some published and accomplished tracks to show for it. You know your worth, but convincing others of it will take time and consistency.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many factors to consider when pricing your beats. But, if you follow this guide, you should end up with a baseline idea of how to price your beats correctly. Remember that prices should be decided by what works best for your own personal beat selling strategy and business plan. The prices in this article are not recommendations; rather, they are guidelines designed to help your own personal pricing structure.

Happy producing!