The Whole Process

[yungboss]

I've been doing research on a producer by the name of Boi1da. It seems as though he sends his beats to artists to let them listen to them with no fright as to whether they would jus run off wit his beats. So I wanna know what are the consequences to this and where do the contracts come into play? There has to be some point where a contract is signed and also how does the absolute process go, for example,

I send u a beat, u like the beat

U record a song on the beat........now what happens after this. How does this song go from a regular track to a smash hit on the radio? And most importantly...how does the money end up in your pocket/ bank account?????

I know somewhere on this forum there is info and repeated answers to these types of questions but um too lazy to look. Can someone help me out??

 

[hanayalator]

I'll try and answer whatever I can. First off, feel free to send your beats to anyone to listen. If anyone is going to do anything with them, they'll likely need all your files and separate tracks, so don't get paranoid about having someone steal your shit. Contracts are generally signed when big money is going to be involved. Now you don't NEED big money to be involved, but attorney's are expensive, and unless you're getting something back, I doubt you'll have enough money to pay an attorney to look over your contract. Now lets say you send me a beat and I like it, there are a few options, depending on how popular you are and how popular the artist is. Most people when they're starting out will let people record stuff on their beats for free, just to get some exposure, but you still keep the copyright. Now lets say so cool artist that's doing well wants your beat, he could offer a lump sum for the beat, lets say $1000, and he gets your beat and you get the money. Most of the time this happens the artist that buys the beat gets to keep the copyright, although you have to communicate what's happening. Now, with a hit producer, let's say Timbo, the RECORD LABEL pays him an advance for his services (lets say $250,000), to record an album with Furtado. Timbo and Furtado and whoever else write the songs will own the copyright to those songs. Then the label will DEDUCT the $250,000 from whatever royalties come in for the PRODUCER (keep in mind that producer royalties are often less than what the artist gets. For example Timbo might get 3-5%, whereas Furtado would get 12-20%). So after all that $250,000 is recouped by the label, then Timbo starts to get his royalties straight into his bank, depending on how well the song/album does. As for how a regular song goes to a smash hit, well that's a long and involved process that involves more parties than you could think of. If I've missed something or you have a more specific question let me know.

H

 

[yungboss]

I understand everything but I need a lil more clarity as to the copywriting and the stealing beats situation

Lets say I made a beat with a rapper like Drake or Lil Wayne in mind and they want them to hear it. Would I jus send them the plain MP3 mixdown of the track? and if I do this can't they jus steal the beat, (by stealing I mean use the beat with no regard for the producer)

And what would the rapper need wit the essential file (i use Fruity Loops, so in my case, an .flp file of the beat)

 

[hanayalator]

Well, if you wanted them to hear the file, you could send them an mp3, that way they get the idea of the song, even though the quality won't be the greatest. They wouldn't record over that beat though because serious rappers would want to record over the raw wave files, not an mp3. With all that being said, if you have a handful of beats that you're shopping out to people, you can have them copyrighted. Whenever you finish a beat, YOU OWN THE COPYRIGHT TO IT! You automatically own it cause you made it. However, if things go to court, you need to prove that you were the first one that came up with that idea and made it to sound the way it does. So you can register your songs with a PRO (Performing Rights Organization). You can actually copyright a whole CD, so if you have like 30 beats just throw them all on a CD and get it protected (you have to fill out some forms and send in a cd and pay a small fee). You can also choose to mail yourself a cd with your beats on it and DON'T OPEN THE PACKAGE. That just shows that you made the beats in questions before a certain date, although some say that this method won't hold up in court.

 

[eldiablo]

And what would the rapper need weed

Most of the times yes

 

[Formant024]

lol sure.. send an flp file...

why dont you concentrate on learning the ropes first before getting into a million dollar contract and giving other rappers weed

 

[Relic]

Good question YungBoos, good answers hananaaylator

 

[classic]

These are good questions man, just reminder if your trying to sell beats to established artists, its all about personal relationships. You can have the best beats in the world but that wont really matter most of the times. Its about networking with the right people to put your self in a position to be taken seriously..

Im sure drake, fab 50 whoever are swamped with dope beats...

 

[Ozmosis]

Really thats the chance you take to get heard. Whats stopping anyone from taking a beat from soundclick, myspace, etc... If you want to get heard you have to put your music out there. All you can do is make the proper precautions and takce a chance.

 

[Quality]

Always remember it helps to put your vocal tag (vocal clip of your producer name) on the beats your shopping to help protect them. Another way is to just send out snippets, like 45 seconds for each beat so that way the rapper gets the idea of the track, but won't have the whole thing.

 

[H&R]

"Scared money dont make no money" ... pretty much

He did it the right way ... You put your music and let it be heard. If some one
note worthy uses it and you find out. Then you make contact and build from there.
If its a non pay situation put the credit under your belt and use that to build even
more credits and make people want to pay you based off your previous work/credits.
If it turns out smash hit on radio without you knowing then you get a lawyer together
and you go get your money ... Would you rather get jacked and hear your beat on
the radio then you go collect, or no beat on radio and no money to collect at all ?

I can steal your beats off myspace, soundclick, website, etc by going into the cache of
the site and directly downloading the uploaded file ... Again "Scared money dont make no money"

 

[yungboss]

O dat made perfect sense H&R...nice explanation.....now i jus gotta bring it home..........I got a beat that a lot of people said would sound good with method man on..........how would i get in touch wit method man???

 

[StraDivaRius]

you got to build your network up. Meth is not going to check your beat (and the 5000 others in his mailbox)just like that. Build relations with people that have access to him, manager, engineers, road manager, assistant...These are the people that Meth will listen if they say "you should listen to these beats .." or if you're really starting out, people that know people who know him... it like a chess game man.
To keep the quotes going "Your network is you net worth"

 

[yungboss]

Most of the times yes

lol oopz dat was a typo lol


Ok I understand,,,,so my best bet right now would be to copywrite my works and continue throwing them out there for people to here.

Also what I've been doing is giving my CDs out to my friends at skool. Is this a good move or should I be taking precaution in this situation