According to Findlaw, The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) established a fingerprint repository through its Identification Division beginning in 1924. This repository held fingerprint cards in a central location. Over the next 50 years the FBI processed more than 200 million fingerprint cards. Who would have thought that this same concept would be the catalyst that now protects the creations of intellectual property owners all around the World. As music consumption and distribution continues to grow faster than ever, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make sure owners of intellectual property are being justly compensated.
In 2007, YouTube launched a service called Content ID. According to YouTube, Content ID was created so that copyright owners could easily identify and manage their content on YouTube. First, a copyright owner’s intellectual property is scanned against a database of files that have been submitted to by other Content owners. Then, Content ID allows copyright owners to decide what happens when content in a video on YouTube matches a work they own. Finally, when a match is found, the video gets a Content ID claim. There are over 720,000 hours of video uploaded to the YouTube Platform everyday. However, Content ID attaches a digital fingerprint to each piece of Content to ensure that intellectual property owners can identify, organize, manage, and monetize their works.
According to YouTube there are about 2 Billion Monthly active users on the YouTube platform. Moreover, YouTube has paid out over $2 billion to partners who have chosen to monetise their claims using Content ID in the past five years alone. With over 9,000 partners using Content ID, 800 million videos claimed since Content ID was implemented, and over 75 million active reference files in the Content ID database, Content ID is the most powerful digital rights management tool in the world.
No matter what type of content you create for distribution, it is very important that all of your individual creations have a digital fingerprint. Creation of that digital fingerprint allows you to run ads against matched material and share revenue with the uploader. BeatStars Distribution has created the technology to help you earn royalties from YouTube and over 30+ download and streaming platforms. Furthermore, when songs are onboarded via BeatStars' Publishing Portal, they also go through the process of being onboarded to Sony’s Publishing CMS on Youtube. These songs are scanned and we are allowed to claim ownership and monetise your intellectual property that point forward. All you have to do is follow these simple steps here and get your digital fingerprint today.
If your goal is to commercially release an album, exclusive licenses are the way to go. While they can be on the pricier end, an exclusive license will grant you the exclusive right to use the beat for your projects, meaning no other artist can use that same beat.
If you’re simply recording a demo or mixtape or are on a limited budget, a non-exclusive license will work just fine. A non-exclusive license grants you the right to use the beat for for your projects, but gives the producer the right to sell the beat to other artists. Be sure to check which rights you get with your license (terms & conditions) as it can vary from site-to-site.
On BeatStars, Producers have the ability to create multiple license types for their tracks (depending on the subscription plan they’re utilizing). Upon checkout of a beat, be sure to thoroughly read and understand the licensing language to see what you can and cannot do with the beat. This is important because Producers on BeatStars manage their own pricing, licenses, terms, and sales. If you’re confused on certain aspects of the language, don’t hesitate to reach out to the Producer.
PRO TIP: Click “Read License” to view the terms & conditions of each license so you can know what your rights are with your purchase.
Don’t over-pay for a license when you don’t need to! Pricing depends on the Producer’s popularity and talent, however the following are standard, average prices you’ll see for non-exclusive and exclusive licenses:
Non-Exclusive: $15-$100
Exclusive: $100-$1,000+
Never pay over $1,000 for a license without talking to the Producer beforehand. Do your research, jump on a call, and ensure that you’re getting your money’s worth before dropping big bills on an exclusive license.
Try it before you buy it! BeatStars’ lyric pad is a great tool to use for testing out lyrics and vocals for your potential track purchase. Simply go to the track you’re interested in, click on the ellipses to the side of the track, and click on Write Lyrics.
Producers on BeatStars launch bulk deals all. the. time. If you’re on a tight budget, look out for BOGOs or beat sales. If your favorite producer isn’t running any deals, try emailing them! A friendly ask can go a long way, and the producer may make an exception for you.
BeatStars is a massive jungle gym for producers, artists, industry professionals, and music lovers alike. With thousands of tracks uploaded everyday, we know it can be overwhelming to find quality beats amongst the many. Every week, we carefully select tracks and share beats for song enthusiasts and artists to dive into on our Best Beats channel.
Looking for a specific type-beat track for your song? We frequently update our official BeatStars playlists, ranging from several genres such as Drake type-beats to Lofi tracks. To start listening and discovering, simply go to BeatStar.com and scroll through our recommended playlists.
Surrounding yourself with a healthy community of like-minded and creative individuals is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and the future of your music career. Building connections and establishing industry contacts not only unlock paths to success but can also increase inspiration-driven momentum to make music and collaborate. Networking is a long-term investment in your business. It takes time and effort, but when done correctly can result in amazing opportunities for your music career.
If you’re questioning how you can start enveloping yourself within a creative community, look no further. We’re sharing five notable ways you can immerse yourself in the BeatStars Community.
What happens when you take an engaging live show and pair it with a live chat? Great conversation starters, that’s what. BeatStars’ wide variety of live shows stream 7 days a week and feature guests from all aspects of the music industry. Community members that actively participate in BeatStars’ live show chats can gain new perspective and insight from others who are navigating their way through their music career.
Check out the latest BeatStars Live Show schedule here.
Looking for an intimate, casual setting to learn new things and sit with other creatives? Look no further, because BeatStars’ Twitter Spaces is where you need to be. The space is open every weekday from 4:00 PM EST to 4:30 PM EST, bringing listeners a wide variety of topics featuring special guests from all aspects of the music industry.
Participate in the next Twitter Spaces by following our official Twitter channel.
The opportunities are endless on BeatStars, most notably our playlisting opportunities! Submitting your music to one of our many open playlists not only puts your music out into the world but also opens up potential collaborations amongst yourself and those that discover you.
Show us what you’ve got and submit to an open playlist here.
It’s called social for a reason, right? We aim to open up the conversation in our social media posts through polls, questions, and production advice. On top of it all, our social community is always popping off in the comment section, which makes for great engagement and relationship starters!
Hop in our comment section and follow us on our official BeatStars Studio Instagram.
Discord is THE community-building platform, and you better believe that BeatStars is on it! One of the most important aspects of building your music’s brand and the community surrounding it is through networking and making connections, which is why our Discord channel is officially LIVE and ready for your presence.
Join the conversation and follow BeatStars on Discord.
Get those to-dos down on paper and create a daily schedule for your music tasks - starting off with your highest priority items. Set up specific time slots in your calendar to knock them out. Set an alarm (or ten) if you need to as a reminder to get started. Minimize disruption
‘Do Not Disturb’ mode was made for a reason - use that sucker. Attention spans are growing shorter everyday with the constant interruption of social notifications and news updates. Your phone is your productivity’s worst enemy. If need be, turn it off or set it aside in another room to prevent the 'reach of doom’ every time a notification goes off.
It’s easy to become caught up in the small details of what needs to be accomplished. Establishing your priority tasks will make you feel more productive and will help make the smaller tasks feel more easily conquerable.
Laying out the tasks you need to conquer in order to get to your end goal can help combat feelings of overwhelmingness and stress. Establishing a workflow to help achieve your goals will get you into a rhythm and make work time feel more productive and manageable.
Be real with yourself - everything is not going to be knocked out overnight. Give yourself realistic deadlines to meet and motivate yourself with incentives in order to keep them.
There are very few things in the world of work that feel better than scratching off items on a to-do list. Everyday, write down music-oriented tasks you’d like to accomplish that day as a visual reference. Studies have shown that creating to-do lists that consist of more than three tasks overwhelms the mind and results in less productivity, so keep it basic and to the point.
The vision of where you see yourself in 5-10 years may feel like a lifetime away, but we’re here to show you that it isn’t. Setting attainable goals and establishing a gameplan for yourself and your career can dissolve feelings of longing and restlessness, and in turn, will start turning your visions into a reality sooner rather than later. You owe it to yourself to make the most of your time on Earth and to feel like you’ve fulfilled your purpose. There will be ups and downs, and there may be goals you don’t accomplish - but you can feel satisfied in knowing you tried your hardest.
Writing your goals down not only forces you to get clear on what, exactly, it is that you want to accomplish, but doing so plays a part in motivating you to complete the tasks necessary for your success. In fact, you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down or create a vision board.
The fact of the matter is, big dreams take time to accomplish. Establishing a 5-year plan for accomplishing your goals helps frame your vision to a realistic timeline, leading to better goal success. We’ve come up with five key ways you can break down your long term goals into more manageable steps. Let’s delay no longer.
This may seem obvious, but it’s an essential first step. Writing down your goals is scientifically proven to help with long term memory, encoding, and external storage. Neuropsychologists call this the Generation Effect, finding that people have a better recall for information that they’ve created themselves rather than something they've read. Keep it old school and grab a piece of paper and a pen, and jot down every. single. goal and accomplishment you’d like to achieve in five years. Taking the time to write down each letter of every goal can help with mindfulness, and give you more time to think about the weight of each goal.
Knowledge Drop - You are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down
Five years can seem intimidating, especially when you haven’t even established what your game plan is for next week (or even tomorrow). The best thing you can do is to break down the goals you’ve written down into yearly objectives. If you have a goal that is extremely grandeur, write out a draft as to what it may take to actually conquer that goal. If you break down your goals into steps, it’s easier to establish realistic timelines for yourself.
For example, if your goal is to eventually publish your music, brainstorm all of the things you’d need to do over a monthly or yearly time span. It may be to increase your collaborations, distribute your music, or connect with music professionals for mentorships. Another goal example, especially if you’re just starting out, could be to establish your beat store business strategy. Think of everything you need to do to make that goal a reality, such as building out your beat store with the BeatStars Pro Page, set up your marketing integrations, or researching different marketing and business strategies to help increase your buyers.
Pro Tip - If you're more of a visual learner, try curating a vision or mood board of inspiring artists, albums, or quotes to accompany your goal wiriting.
Once you determine your yearly and monthly strategies, you can start to map backward. Look at your long-term yearly and monthly goals and outline weekly and daily steps you can take to start conquering those goals. This can be as simple as making a beat a week or setting aside 30 minutes every day to reach out to other producers for collaboration inquiries. Once you determine those smaller strategies to reach your overarching goal, slot it into your phone calendar and set reminders! Writing down and establishing these smaller steps is one thing, but actually implementing them is another.
Remember - These small, day-to-day tasks are more improtant than you realize, and they ultimately make up the foundation of your larger, big picture goal.
Marketers and business professionals are no strangers to the SMART goal strategy. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. Structuring your goals using this method can help guide your goal setting, focus your efforts, and increase your chances of conquering that goal. To help you get started with your first SMART goal outline, peep our example to the right.
Smart:
Specific - Release a successful beat tape
Measurable - Gain over 5,000 views on YouTube
Achievable - Use FL Studio to produce beat tape
Realistic - Establish beat tape Theme & Vision
Time-Bound - Release in two months
Avoid blindly writing down a goal without knowing all of the bits and pieces that ultimately make up that goal’s end. If you want to eventually become a published producer, but have zero knowledge about the world of music publishing, then it will be hard to write out actionable steps to achieve that dream. Knowledge is always at your fingertips. Research different facets that make up your end goal while you’re waiting in line or attempting to fall asleep at night. The more knowledge you have about your end goal, the better equipped you’ll be to actually accomplish it.
Let’s be real - channeling creative energy and inspiration every single day can be...exhausting. Maintaining relationships, paying the bills, and running a music business can take a lot out of a person and the inspiration they need to craft amazing music. If you’re struggling to push through burnout and are seeking an elixir to kickstart your creativity, then bottoms up, baby. We’ve put together five tried and true ways to tackle creative burnout so you can get your music-making back on track.
Sometimes the best way to tackle creative burnout is to simply take a step away from the main task at hand, and divert your attention to something else. If you have side hobbies, passions, or mood-boosting activities that you’ve been placing on the backburner, it’s time to pull those outlets to the forefront. Trying your hand at other creative projects can help rewire your outlook on the projects you’re stuck on, and reignite much-needed inspiration.
Believe it or not, but walking is one of the best things you can do for your creativity. In fact, a 2014 Stanford study found that a person’s creative output increased by an average of 60% when walking. The study saw that sitting participants produced only half the amount of creative responses as those who were walking. Next time you’re in a creative slump, put on those headphones, turn up the volume on your favorite up-beat playlist, and take a walk around the block.
That’s right - a physical, paper-filled notebook. Use your notebook to write down observations, thoughts, opinions, narratives about the people you encounter, and ideas that cross your mind. When you’re sitting in your studio feeling lethargic and stuck, flip through your notebook’s pages of past inspiration. Revisiting your notes can put you back into the headspace that you were in when you initially wrote your thoughts down, ultimately leading to a finished project.
If you’ve been sleeping on...well, sleep, then this is for you. Dreaming helps the brain process information while we sleep, which in turn leaves more room for creative synapses. Make sure that you’re prioritizing sleep every night and getting the recommended 7+ hours based on your age range. (Source: CDC) When you wake up from a good night’s sleep, you’re setting your future self up for creative success. If you’re feeling burnt out for days on end, take a breather and sleep it off. Sleeping IS productive, and your sleepy self shouldn’t let anybody tell you otherwise.
It’s easy to retreat into isolation when you’re feeling over-encumbered by projects that need to get done. If you’re experiencing a lack of inspiration or burnout, you may end up locking yourself in the studio until a spark of creative energy strikes. Take it from us - GO OUTSIDE AND BE WITH YOUR CREW. Surrounding yourself with people that boost your energy and ignite inspiration is the key to resetting your brain block. Take a step away from your equipment and hit up the homie you haven’t seen in weeks. They’re probably missing you, and your creativity could use a friendly spark.
If you’re stuck at home because of reasons related to the pandemic (totally valid), then try making social connections from home! BeatStars is officially on Discord, an instant messaging and communication platform. Get to know the diverse community of producers and artists on BeatStars, overcome your beat-block, and take a break in our Discord paradise.
You’re likely going to be approached by many people when you’re in the process of signing a record deal, and as a music attorney, I'm here to assure you that having a million questions is a part of the process.
If you came to me abruptly asking which red flags to look out for before signing a deal, I could easily spout off a million different things to keep in mind, avoid, or be wary of. While I don't have the years of time needed to write a full list of those million little things, I'm presenting you with red flags that may seem small, but in the long run could have a profound effect on your future. While this is not meant to be legal advice, the context of my recommendations takes into consideration that music industry revenues are expected to grow from $60 billion to around $131 billion by 2030. (Source: Goldman Sachs) Let's dive in.
Most people don’t realize how important it is to make sure that your lawyer is ONLY your lawyer. If someone comes up and recommends a lawyer to you, then it's important that you make sure this lawyer is not the lawyer of the person that you’re potentially doing business with. Attorneys are taught to avoid these conflicts of interest, but sometimes these conflict checks fall through the cracks and suddenly you’re stuck in a contract that was not negotiated as hard as it should have been.
Many producers and artists tell this story and often have the battle scars to prove it. Always keep your head on a swivel for this. Moreover, it is equally critical that when you’re doing your search for your lawyer, you find people that actually specialize in the area of entertainment law and that understand the nuances of negotiating a deal revolving around your music business interests. Producers and artists often forget, THE LAWYER WORKS FOR YOU AND NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. This means that while it’s their job to provide you with the most knowledge and insight, it’s your job to make the final decision. With that being said, you want to make sure that you have as much information as possible when making a final decision. Therefore, getting an entertainment lawyer that does not also negotiate on behalf of your contractual opponent is very critical.
I review many contracts on a daily basis, and I've found that 360 deals are becoming more and more prevalent. Rising producers and artists meet someone in their local town or region and get star-struck. Without abiding by step one, they sign a deal. Little do they know that this deal has made them transfer more rights than they even knew they had. They have transferred over ownership of all their master recordings and when their song starts to take off, they have no ownership rights.
Furthermore, they have signed an exclusive recording agreement, which prevents them from offering their services to anyone else. Now they can’t do a deal, but must be subservient to the owner of all their rights and essentially take what they’re given. Producers and artists have also failed to realize that they are also a songwriter. They have assigned over ownership of their publishing and administrative rights to all the songs that they have created for a specified amount of time. Now there's no way for them to collect publishing for themselves or enter into an administration agreement that allows them to collect their publishing.
Lastly, they have given over rights to the sale of their merchandise and tickets sales from touring. In the words of my grandmother, never put all your eggs in one basket. This diminishes the leverage that you have to create deals and likely decreases the value of all of your rights. In a perfect world, artists should be wary of agreements that combine master recordings, publishing, merchandise, touring, and management. It’s more beneficial to separate these things out and negotiate a deal on each thing. This is known as separation preparation.
We can learn a lot from athletes and how they negotiate - from football players, basketball players, and even soccer players. Deals are becoming larger and larger and shorter and shorter. In 1981, Magic Johnson signed a 25 year, $25 million dollar deal, which averages $1 million per year in annual salary. In 2021, Steph Curry signed a 4 year, $215 million dollar deal, which averages almost $54 million per year. Because the game of basketball has grown and become more international, the amount of revenue being generated has also begun to grow as well. The music industry is seeing the same amount of growth.
In May of 2020, Goldman Sachs released a report which stated that the music industry's revenue would grow to $131 billion by 2030. Just as the sports salary cap has grown, so will the music industry salary cap. With that being said, you don’t want to be stuck in an agreement that is so long that it doesn’t take into consideration the growth of the industry. Discuss this with your lawyer and explain to them that you want to make sure you’re not too locked in and can’t benefit from the success of your peak years.
Ownership and having a seat at the table are more important than ever. Without ownership, you essentially have no control, and you’re going to be at the mercy of who owns and controls what you create. Always look to have ownership in anything that you’re doing. With your masters, you can maintain ownership through the use of a distribution deal. With your publishing, you can maintain ownership through the use of publishing administration. For your merchandise and touring, there are always managers and agents that you can hire for a fee to help you. This is always a great option instead of assigning over your ownership rights to a person in exchange for a large advance. Always think about this and try to maintain as much ownership as possible. This is incredibly important to secure your future and your legacy.
Last but not least, it’s important to look at the success rate of who you’re doing business with and who they’re doing business with. Look at the producers and artists that your potential business partner has worked with that are successful, and look at the careers that have stalled or even failed. You want to make sure that before you sign any deal, you ask tough questions about why certain projects or ideas succeeded, while others failed. Then, go to the person producer or artist responsible for that success or failure and get their side of the story. As I stated earlier, this may seem trivial, but it's critical in business and can have a profound effect on whether or not you should do that venture. If the potential business partner is not truthful or willing to talk about their successes and failures, then they might not be the best
person to do a deal with.
Let’s be real. It’s easy to put email marketing on the back burner. Social media offers instant gratification and a visual follower count, and paid advertising can give your business the boost in sales that it needs. Here’s the thing though - email marketing is one of the most impactful and cost-effective forms of communication. Don’t believe us? Look at the stats:
Sleeping on email marketing is also sleeping on lost revenue and 1:1 interaction with your fans and customers. If you’re guilty of turning a side eye to email marketing, don’t sweat it. We’ve listed out three essential emails you should be sending to your customers to take your email game from 0 to 100.
Welcome emails are messages sent to new customers, subscribers, or users upon joining a contact list or newsletter signup form. Studies have shown that welcome emails have an average open rate of 91.43%, and read 42% higher than the average email. Welcome emails are an easy way to engage with your new subscribers right off the bat, and are a great way to give out discount codes, tell your story, or promote your music. With BeatStars’ Mailchimp integration, setting up automated welcome emails is an easy and quick task.
Most everyone has filled up their online shopping cart with a number of goods, gotten cold feet, and in turn has ghosted the goods they were once confident about buying. Cart abandonment may occur due to a number of reasons - maybe your customer is waiting for payday, got sidetracked with another task, or is needing that extra nudge to complete the transaction and buy the beat of their dreams.
Abandoned cart emails are a tried and true way to encourage customers to click “check out”. Including a discount code or BOGO deal within your abandoned cart emails help customers justify their potential purchases, and can help solidify a sale.
Every beat purchase should come with a 'Thank You' email within 24 hours of purchase. A thank-you email establishes two-way communication with your customers, which encourages networking and connection building. These emails help establish business credibility and trust, and are sent when the customer expects them, typically resulting in higher open rates.
When setting up your 'Thank You' emails, include a 10-15% off discount code that the customer can use for future beat purchases. This will in turn boost your repeat customer rate, which should look like 20-30% of your customers returning every month.
Every day, over 306 billion emails are sent and received around the world. That’s a lot of noise. So, how the heck do you cut through all of those other companies itching to be heard? Simple - though incentive. Studies show that emails that offer some form of discount or coupon tend to have higher open rates than emails that do not. Sending regular special offer emails to your subscribers is a great way to encourage more newsletter signups, increase your sales, and build customer loyalty.
If you routinely clean out your beat store or frequently put out new music, try offering coupons or BOGO deals for your older music, and promote that within a monthly email. The trick with garnering opens on your special offer emails is to entice customers through the subject line. Try personalizing your subject line by including the recipient's name, and let them know about the deal you are running.
Some great examples of email subject lines are:
With an influx of new music coming out and more unorthodox music discovery platforms coming to the forefront like Tik Tok and Instagram, searching for songs can feel like an endless black hole. To keep you out of the music search worm hole, voice search functions available on Google Mobile may be combining with platforms like Shazam to create a system that can identify that catchy song based on a few of its lyrics or notes. The days of frantically Googling “What is the song that goes ‘beep bop boop boop bop’” will soon be over. Thanks technology.
If 90% of your personality was made up of going to live shows every other day, you aren’t alone (trust me, we’re all going through an identity crisis). The pandemic has brought more virtual concert experiences to the surface, and music lovers are now enjoying DJ sets and concerts straight from their couch. Even before the pandemic took hold of the world, virtual concert experiences were breaking ground in the live music and events industry. Live virtual reality show experiences offer a number of pros. Viewers are not only watching the concert, but experiencing it from multiple view points, including the point of view of the band or DJ. While VR doesn’t necessarily beat out the energy of a show crowd or the feeling of strong bass underneath the feet, it sure does beat getting stuck behind a 10-foot-tall person or a group of attendees that would rather talk loudly than listen to the performers.
Unless you’re still the proud owner of a flip phone, the excuse of not having enough time for your music officially belongs in the trash. The rise of music production apps are dominating and becoming an essential tool for busy creators. No worries for your wallet either - the higher priced music production apps run at around $20, while others are completely free. There are full on DAW apps you can utilize such as Steinberg Cubasis, Image-Line FL Studio Mobile HD, and the infamous Apple GarageBand. There are also exceptional handheld drum machines and keyboards you dive into such as Native Instrument’s iMaschine 2, Akai iMPC Pro, and Arturia iMini. Cut your social media feed scrolling in half and start asserting your attention to your trusty, hand-held production apps.
With the rise in popularity of vinyl, tape cassettes, and CDs, it’s no surprise that nostalgia has its grip on the world. Nostalgia is also often used as a coping mechanism, so it comes as no surprise that nostalgic triggered product comebacks are dominating shopping carts. Expect to see a reappearance of eight tracks, cassettes, Walkmans, boom boxes, iPods, and of course, vinyl.
The internet is a beautiful thing. Every single resource that you could possibly need to make it big and establish your professional self is living on the internet, which is why so many artists are ditching labels and making a name for themselves. With beat-selling and distribution platforms like BeatStars, creators no longer need to rely on major labels or music middlemen to produce an amazing song and make it big. Producers are taking back the industry and are empowering themselves to run their music business on their own, making upwards of $4,000-$6,000 a month on BeatStars. In October 2020, BeatStars celebrated a milestone payout of $100 million to Producers, proving that creators can be self-sufficient and successful without the interference of restricting labels.
Let’s be real - we can predict trends and what the future holds as much as want, but trends and happenings often arise when you least expect it. Take that thought and run with it. Creators on BeatStars are a part of the future of music, and just like Lil Nas X and his rise to fame on BeatStars, the same could happen to you. Join hundreds of thousands of other creators on BeatStars and mold yourself into the future of music. Make 2021 your breakthrough year and start investing in yourself and your craft with the help of BeatStars.
If you’re looking for a digestible, easy-to-comprehend resource that covers literally everything you need to know about the world of music business, then look no further than this definitive guide to the music industry. This book has been dubbed ‘The Industry Bible’ by The Los Angeles Times, and has been spotted at the desks of A&Rs, music lawyers, managers, and entrepreneurs. This book breaks down complex concepts with an air of humor so you feel like you’re learning from a friend rather than reading a dull textbook.
You can purchase the book on Amazon or Audible here.
Creative Juice is a podcast brought to you by Indrepreneur, an organization whose mission is to help creatives break out of the local music scene. Every week the hosts of Creative Juice interview successful independent musicians, industry professionals, and music marketers to equip you with the inspiration and information you need to turn your dreams into a reality. There are over 170 episodes out and ready for listening, so sit back and throw those headphones on.
All episodes of Creative Juice podcast can be found here.
The Music Entrepreneur Club is a weekly conversation with some of the most forward-thinking artists, managers, marketing experts, executives, and entrepreneurs. These interactive dialogues help aspiring music entrepreneurs gain a real understanding of today’s music industry so that they can best position themselves to build their own successful businesses. In 2020, MEC partnered with BeatStars to bring FREE expert advice and mentorship to the BeatStars community.
Tune in every week, Mondays and Thursdays, to our Twitch channel or catch up on past episodes through the official BeatStars YouTube channel.
Regarded as an “indispensable guide” by Forbes, this how-to book has been widely adopted by music schools everywhere and has inspired thousands of creatives everywhere to stop waiting around for their “big break”. Learn how you can build a stable career by taking advantage of the many tools at your fingertips: conquering social media, mastering the art of merchandising, embracing authentic fan connection, and simply learning how to persevere. This book has been comprehensively updated to include the latest online trends and developments and offers inspiring success stories across media such as Spotify and Instagram. The result is a must-have for anyone hoping to navigate the increasingly complex yet advantageous landscape that is the modern music industry.
You can purchase the book on Amazon or Audible here.
Music Business How To is an educational platform and exclusive community where you, the hard-working artist and creative professional, learn key music business strategies to help you work smarter. Their mission is to empower you to establish successful, sustainable, and fulfilling careers on your own terms by having access to all of the music business information you’ll ever need in one place. MGHT has downloadable checklists, templates, guides, and mini-courses to help you organize and keep track of all your business needs.
Check MBHT out for yourself on their official website.
You don’t need to attend a four-year university to receive a quality music education. Udemy is a massive online course provider that has over 130,000 courses. Simply typing in ‘Music Business’ within Udemy’s search bar leads you to thousands of courses on music marketing, distribution, streaming, copyright, licensing placements, and more. Better yet? Udemy’s courses are almost always heavily discounted. $70-90 courses are often discounted from $10-15. Student loans are a thing of the past. Thanks, internet.
Explore thousands of courses here.
We hope you’ve already dived into the BeatStars 30 Day Challenge, but if not, now is the time! This achievable, day-to-day challenge is a great way to take your beat store from 1 to 10000 within a 30 day period. The challenge covers everything that can help level up your beat store, from setting up a chatbot to automating emails to retain customers. You also don’t have to be fully committed to the 30 days (though we highly recommend it), and can simply go to specific challenges that you feel your beat store could benefit from.
Join the 30 Day Challenge here.
CoPromote is a free co-promotion, co-marketing platform that helps content creators get more reach for their music, brands, YouTube videos, blogs, websites, businesses, etc. Their community is made up of musicians, filmmakers, designers, entrepreneurs, artists, and more. The main idea is for people to work together to get word out about the best new content.
You can use CoPromote to increase your social media's reach. This happens when you get a social post re-shared by other members of the community. People in the community who like your post share it with their followers on social media, exposing it to new audiences.
CoPromote tracks all of the re-shares you get for everything you launch. You can see exactly who is sharing your content and where they're sharing it. Join CoPromote to grow your reach and build your network. It's quick, simple, and highly effective. Oh yeah, and it's also free!
Learn more about CoPromote here.
Staying in the loop on all industry news and happenings is a great way to spot upcoming trends, emerging media companies, and how the world of music functions within the day-to-day. Music Business Worldwide also has a podcast you can dive into to find out what the brightest and best brains in the music industry are thinking.
Explore the site here.
This plug may feel like a cheat, but believe us when we say that the BeatStars Pro Page plan was intentionally engineered to give music creatives a one-stop-shop for showcasing, promoting, and selling their art.
The Pro Page plan is $19.99/month and gives subscribers the ability to create a fully customizable website, keep 100% of earned revenue, participate in playlisting opportunities and challenges, upload unlimited licenses, and WAY MORE.
Be the first to know about the latest challenges, live shows, opportunities, and more!
Subscribe to our Newsletter
