How To Make Money As A Producer

Hey guys, how are you? Wendy Day here. Okay, so let's talk about producers. It's a topic that I love, man. I love producers. Like, this is such a beat-driven industry. And you know how it is, sometimes you just hear a beat and it just makes your head nod, and you might listen to it like 4 or 5 times before you realize that there's somebody rapping over it. I love lyricists too, don't get me wrong, but it's very much a production-driven industry. A really hot beat can make or break a song. So this is for the producers out there. And I know the— it's so oversaturated, like there's so many producers out here today. And I think a lot of that is because the price of production equipment has really dropped. So you guys can really buy equipment and keep it in your bedroom or your basement and record from a laptop and then upload it right to the internet, right? And So there's just a lot of people out there that are making beats. And of course there's a difference between beatmakers and producers. And really I'm talking to the producers, and you guys know the difference between a beatmaker and a producer. And I'm really talking to those of you that have studied your craft and gotten as good as you possibly can at producing, and those of you who are the producers. It's very difficult in today's climate to make money as a producer unless you have music that is sold to artists who are successful. You know, back in the day when I started, producers were selling beats for anywhere from $500 to $5,000. And you could make a living just making beats for up-and-coming artists. And then all of a sudden, the industry got really, um, oversaturated, and producers started dropping the prices of their beats, especially the guys who weren't trying to do this for a living, like the guys that had, um, like regular jobs and were making beats on the side. Um, in order to get on, a lot of these guys were selling their beats for $15 or $10. You know, all of a sudden licenses became big in production. And if you've watched my videos before, you know that I'm not a fan of licensing beats because when you license a beat, you don't have exclusivity, and it's very hard to put a budget behind a beat that isn't exclusive. So I could license a beat for an artist, and then, um, a bigger artist could come along and license that same beat. And then I may have spent $30,000 to $50,000 for— on marketing and promotions, and that bigger artist comes along and spends $5,000 or $10,000 and goes further with the beat than the newer artist that I might be working with. So there's no way I'm ever going to put a budget behind beat that isn't exclusive. As a producer, you should always retain ownership of your publishing. The publishing is the ownership in the music of the, of the beat. And a lot of times folks in the music industry that know better and kind of, and kind of know how to get over on people will tell you that you have to give up part of your publishing in order to get the placement. Or sometimes they'll tell you that it's a work for hire, they just want to pay you X amount of dollars, whatever that is— $50, $100, $500, $1,000— and that's all they want to pay. They don't want to pay any royalties to you, and that is not a good deal for you. There is no reason in this world why you would want to do that. You always want to get your backend and your royalties. As the producer, you own 50% of the song, which is 100% of your publishing, and you should have an agreement with the artist or the record label giving them the rights to use the track and stating exactly how you're going to get paid and how much you're going to get paid. Experienced producers also get a percent On the back end, they usually get 3 points, which is like 3% of the retail selling price. Um, it's hard to negotiate that as a new producer because you don't really have the leverage yet. You don't have the power yet to demand that, that 3-point back end, but you might as well ask for it, you know. Um, as a producer, in order to sell beats, um, there's a couple things you can do. The most important thing you can do is build your brand and build relationships with people that buy beats. And that would be like A&R at record labels. You know, they're the ones who pick out the production for the artists that are signed to their label. So you would want to build a relationship with those guys and maybe get your beats to them at least once a month. The key is that you want to get your beats to them when they're looking for beats. For example, if an artist is recording in March, right, and it's January, you could send the hottest beats in the world to that A&R guy or even directly to that artist, but if they're not in record mode, they're not paying attention to what you're sending them. They may remember that your beats are dope, but they're not, they're not in the process of recording, so they're not going to save your beats. It's just not realistic. It's not realistic if there's 10 producers in the world and there's more like 10 million. So when you build this relationship with these guys, you want to have a constant flow of production coming to them at least once a month, or if not once a month, at least every 6 weeks. And you want to keep an open line of communication with them so that you know who they're working on, who they're looking for beats for, because every artist has different tastes and different need for different music, right? Like, if you're shopping music for Nicki Minaj or Bruno Mars or Flo Rida or Pitbull, it's going to be a lot more mainstream and upbeat than if you are shopping tracks for Yo Gotti or Kevin Gates or somebody who's a little bit more street in their orientation, right? Um, or if you're working with an artist who's more lyrical, they may have a different taste in music. Um, I know that with the more lyrical artists, the A&R guys are looking for radio records always. And it's hard to find a radio record for a lyrical guy because what they're saying is a little deeper than just a typical shake your ass song or a club hit, you know? So the communication that you have with the A&R person is really critical to knowing what type of music to send. You also want to have as many relationships as you can with artists directly. There's a lot of artists that choose their own beats and that have say-so. They may have an A&R guy that they have to run it by, but there's a lot of artists out there who choose their own production. So you wanna build relationships with the artist directly. And the best way to do that is one of two ways. If you live in like a secondary city, like, and what I mean by that is not New York, not LA, not Atlanta, not Miami, like a city where signed artists don't really frequent, you're going to want to, um, get backstage when these guys come to town, and you're going to want to be able to give them a memory stick of your beats. Or if you live in a part of the country where people still listen to CDs, you might want to give them a CD of your beats. But you want to make sure that you get your beats to them when they're in town, no matter who they are, whether they're a big artist or a small artist or an up-and-coming artist or an established artist. Um, the other way that I see guys building relationships with artists directly is on social media. There's still a lot of artists that when they see you're a producer, they'll interact with you because they need your service, they need what you have in order to survive. And you may— it may be a situation where you send them beats and they use them and put them on a mixtape for free, but hopefully they have obtained your permission before doing that. If they haven't, I'm gonna have to make a separate video all about that because somebody cannot use your beat without your permission and without your signature. Um, and then the last way to get music to people— and again, don't just send them beats blindly, build a relationship with them, find out the type of music they're looking for, the type of that they're trying to make. You don't want to send somebody 300 pop beats if they're trying to make something dark because they're making a song about their brother just getting shot or their grandmother dying, or, you know, something that's a, that's a little bit downbeat, and you're sending them all up-tempo beats. They're never gonna choose one of your beats. So if you can open that line of communication and find out exactly what they're looking for, you can be more effective. And then the last way that I've seen producers get beats to artists. And for this, you really need to be in a center where the artists are recording, and you become a studio rat. You, you build relationships with the studios so that when an artist is recording, the studio will call you and say, oh, so-and-so's over here. There's so many times where, like, I've gone to Patchwork and I'll be in the A room, and in the B room there is an established artist like a Wale or, you know, OutKast or Killer Mike or somebody in the other room. And it's like a steady stream of producers coming through to hook up with them because they know they're there. Like somebody at that studio has called and told them, hey, you know, so-and-so's in the B room, or so-and-so's in the A room. And then it gives you the opportunity to come through and play beats for them. You may not be able to just walk in and play beats for them the second you get there. You might have to hang out in the lounge until they're ready to hear the beats. But you definitely want to go in, let them know you've got some heat, and ask them, you know, when can you play them some music? You know, you may only get a couple minutes in front of them. They may listen to your beats and be like, yo, 'Dude, this isn't it,' or they might listen to the beats and be like, 'Yo, this is fire, you know, definitely, definitely, you know, give me your number. Let's, let's have a conversation. Let's get to know each other.' So there are some good ways for you to get on. Now, if you're in Des Moines, Iowa, it's going to be really hard for you to pop up at a studio in New York or a studio in Miami or a studio in Nashville or a studio in LA. You might have to take a vacation to go spend time at a studio. But then if you do that, you also need to have a relationship with that studio so that you know that when you come in, that the studio is actually rented to some artists and that you're not just wasting your time. So I guess what you're picking up from all of this advice is that it's about relationships. It's about building relationships in this business. It's a relationship-driven industry. And the last advice that I'm going to give you in terms of making money as a producer is no matter what area you're from, no matter what town or city that you reside in, your area has up-and-coming artists. And there's two different types of up-and-coming artists. There is up-and-coming artists who are broke, and then there are up-and-coming artists who have a budget. And unfortunately, the guys with money to market and promote are the artists that are going to go further than the guys who just have talent and no money. And it shouldn't be that way, and it's incredibly messed up that it is, but it is. And sometimes I feel like it's the super talented guys who are broke, and the guys with money always seem to be the mediocre ones. And that's not true. I'm kind of giving you like like an extreme exaggeration, but if, if you decide in your career that you're only going to make beats for the super dope guys that have no money, you're not going to get very far because they can't promote. Like, the value of you doing music for free for somebody or for a reduced price for somebody is that they're going to blow up that song or that album, and then you're going to get more work because people are going to hear your beats and say, wow, who did that guy's beats? I want them to do mine too. So if they're not able to spread their music wide enough so that enough other artists can hear it, you're not going to get anything out of producing for them. So you got to make sure that you've got a nice balance of really great artists as well as artists that have a budget. And, and if you look up and find an artist that's nice and has a budget, that's a win. So all that to say, to make money as a producer, you're going to have to do some work. Um, we offer lists at Rap Resources. It's rap-resources.com. We've got an A&R list there for sale. We've got some lists there for, um, for music supervisors so that you can place your music. Because aside from selling beats to artists to make songs, you can also sell your music to get placed in commercials or video games or, um, TV, film, cable shows. You know, there's a whole market out there of music supervisors that look for background music for certain scenes. So if you build— and again, it's relationships— if you build a relationship with a music supervisor and they're working on a show that has like a scary tense scene in it, they're gonna call you and say, "Hey, I need some music that would fit in this really scary tense scene." and then you can send them what you have. You might even be able to bang something out right on the spot and send it to them that fits whatever the scene is. And when you build enough of a relationship, you might even be able to get them to send you a clip of what they're trying to place music to so that you can see it and, and know exactly what beat or what music goes with that scene. So, um, there are all a bunch of ways that you can make money as a producer Um, as a producer, you're a product, so you're going to have to build your brand. You're going to find a lot of people in this industry want to work with producers that have already had hit records. So as you're trying to get on in this industry, you might find it a little difficult because you don't have any hit records under your belt. Um, and there's a lot of people that that subscribe to this philosophy where somebody who knows what the formula is or what it takes to make a record that reacts at radio— if, if you're going to spend money on a beat, why not spend it with somebody that can make a beat that's going to go all the way, as opposed to somebody who doesn't exactly know what it takes to make a hit record? And is just kind of like, like trying with the beats, like making effort, but doesn't really know what it takes. So you'll see a lot of these guys that have brands like Metro Boom and Sonny Digital, London on the Track, you know, these guys have C4, these guys have hit records under their belt. So a lot of us in the industry are going to gravitate towards them. It's better to spend money with somebody that's already had a hit than it is to try new producers. On the flip side, there's a lot of guys out here— 50 Cent is a great example. You know, 50 Cent has put out albums and he's had records with Dre, but he's also had records with people that have never had another placement in their lives, you know. But for the most part, the industry is built on what have you done, who do you know, etc., and it's built on money. So You gotta have a price that somebody is willing to pay. Don't sell yourself too cheap. You know, I get it, when you're unknown, you're gonna have to do what you have to do in order to get placements, but, um, it really pains me to see guys who are superstar producers selling their beats for $50 and $100. All you're doing is bottoming out the market, you know. Um, I'd almost rather see you give your beat to somebody for free and collect that backend that's going to really make you money down the road. And again, that would have to be a hit record because all these guys putting out mixtapes for free, they're not selling their mixtapes, so there is no backend. You know, they're going to be able to go and do shows with the music you make, but you're not going to get paid from that. So just keep all that into consideration. Learn how the business works. Make sure you have the proper paperwork. You want to make sure that you sign your— the rights to license your track to people, but not sign away the rights to your music. Keep the publishing, keep the ownership. Do not sign work-for-hire agreements. Do not sign work-for-hire agreements. A work-for-hire agreement means you get paid once and that's it. You're giving up the publishing to whomever is buying the track, and there's no reason to do that. No reason to do that. You just don't know when you're gonna have a hit record, and you'll be sick if somebody else is making millions of dollars off of a beat that you gave away for $500 because you needed to pay your rent. Okay guys, I hope I covered everything. Um, make sure you have split sheets. There is a video on here that talks about all the different paperwork paperwork that you need to have. Um, there's a video about the 10 things you need to do before you put out music as a producer. You should check that out because it goes into copyrights. Um, oh, copyrights. Um, make sure you copyright your beats. You can copyright, um, a group of beats. And like, let's say I'm a producer, right? My name is Wendy Day, so I might put together a group of beats um, and let's say I want to do it on CD because that's what's easiest for me, right? So I burn a CD full of all of my beats, like just, you know, 10 or 15 seconds, um, of my beat, and I send them in to be copywritten— copyrighted, excuse me— and I can pay one price and I can call that group of beats Wendy Day Number 1, and then I keep a copy of it and I store it someplace safe. And then when I have another group of beats, I send that in as Wendy Day number 2. And then I keep a copy of that in, you know, in someplace safe so that if I happen to hear an artist put out an album and my beat is on it, I can sue them because I own the copyright and they didn't get my permission to use my beat. And the last thing I want to talk about is if you're a producer do not sell your beats to multiple people. There have been many times where I've worked with an artist and I've gotten an exclusive contract from a producer, and then all of a sudden I hear that beat someplace else. And it happens a lot here in Atlanta. There's a couple producers here that I will never fuck with again because they do that, and they're famous for doing that. And the worst thing that you can do is sell a beat to an artist who puts a budget behind it, they spend tens of thousands of dollars, and then the Migos put out a mixtape and that beat is on there, or Future puts out a mixtape and that beat is on there. You know, that's a problem because you just cost somebody tens of thousands of dollars, and that's some shit that could make somebody take a baseball bat to your knees. It's, it's a very bad situation when you screw with somebody's money, and word spreads very quickly when you do bad business. Very quickly when you do bad business. This industry is a minute big. Okay guys, so, um, that's how you make money as a producer. Good luck to you. Build as many relationships as you can. If you need the lists for, um, record label A&Rs, or if you need a list of music supervisors or the supervisors for video games, um, rap-resources.com. Um, there's a fee, but I think it's pretty reasonable. I can't remember what it is offhand, um, but we made it really affordable for you. And again, build relationships. Don't just blast people by email with your music. They're never going to open it. Build a relationship, find out what they're working on, send them what they need, and send it when they're looking for beats. And the best way to do that is to send them beats regularly, once a month, or once every 6 weeks is not too often. Okay guys, good luck to you. Make lots of money. Be successful. Have fun.