whatup this is Luke aka Luke for Prez
and after about a hundred and twenty
beat videos I have finally made the
decision to step in front of the camera
and start doing different types of
content here this was not an easy
decision obviously it was not a very
quick decision it required a lot of
pushing by my friends and family to
actually get in front of the camera but
it is what it is man here we are here I
go
instead of just posting beat videos I'm
actually gonna make some content for the
producer community and hopefully add
some value so what I want to do is share
some tips and tricks with you guys that
I've use that I've found to be extremely
helpful when it comes to getting beat
sales building relationships with
artists and you're getting better with
your craft right so what I kind of want
to focus on at least at first with these
videos is some actionable steps that you
can take there's a ton of YouTube
tutorials out there on you know
different mixing techniques and that's
great I might dip into that kind of
stuff here eventually but for now I
actually come from a sales background so
I've been able to apply some of the
things that I've learned in past jobs to
my music and my beat selling business
and I've gotten some pretty good results
so far obviously it's still a huge
mountain that I'm climbing here so the
first thing that I wanted to talk about
video topic number one is how to sell
beats on soundcloud a lot of people
might say that SoundCloud is dead that
it's best days are behind it say what
you will you know there's a number of
different opinions but at the end of the
day I will show you how it's still a
very very viable source for beat sales
and for cultivating relationships with
upcoming artists which I believe is the
most important thing to do when you're
first starting out in in this game I'm
gonna basically give you a walk through
a step by step guide to my exact reach
out process on
Soundcloud when i'm on they're looking
to connect with artists and my goal is
to provide you guys with the most
qualified leads possible what do I mean
by qualified well basically who is most
likely to actually want to purchase a
beat from you this process that I'm
going to show you will work regardless
of whether your track producer boom bap
you know R&B whatever the case may be
you'll be able to apply this to multiple
genres with all of that said I'm gonna
go ahead and flip my setup around here
and hop on my computer and show you guys
what's up okay so I'm about to get into
exactly how to get beat sales and make
connections to the right kinds of people
on soundcloud here we go my favorite way
to do this is by starting at beat
starz.com
and if you don't know what beat stars is
you've been living under a rock and you
need to get your life together it is the
premier platform for producers to sell
their beats and it's also used by
artists to find beats so it's a beat
marketplace fun fact it's actually where
Lil nas X find the old town road beat so
take that for what it is but in any case
in order to do this you don't have to be
a member but I highly recommend if
you're trying to sell beats online that
you go ahead and get yourself a beat
stars account so step one you want to go
over here to where it says genres you
want to click on hip-hop assuming you
are a hip-hop producer if you're not I'm
not sure why you're watching this video
but in any case it's gonna take you to
the top charts page and it's
automatically sorted by top-selling
that's perfect this is exactly what we
need as you can see as you scroll down
you see who is selling the most on the
entire platform if you're not familiar
with producers in the space you're gonna
want to spend some time doing some
research to figure out who is killing it
the most in your particular niche the
next step after that is to find people
that fit that description on this top
seller page
so for me I'm a big trap guy one person
that I I find my style to be similar to
is a really successful and talented
producer who's really killing it on
YouTube named corn mill right so that's
the person that I'm going to target in
this example because I feel like his
style and mine are pretty similar so
people who have purchased his beets
might be more likely to be interested in
mine so what I'm gonna do is go over to
SoundCloud and if you haven't already
give your boy a follow because lord
knows I need some I need some some juice
there head to the search bar type in
prod by corn mill and I'm going to
search for that now what's going to
happen is it's going to pull up every
single song posted that has prod by corn
mill or some variation of that as you
can see here in the title obviously
there's over 500 tracks like I said he's
killing it so we're gonna want to narrow
this down so first of all you're gonna
want to click on tracks and then the
cool thing with SoundCloud is you can
sort by the past hour past day week etc
etc I like to focus on past month that
usually gives you enough tracks to work
with and that's gonna pull up this so as
you can see we got 67 tracks to work
with that have been posted on SoundCloud
that have been produced by corn mill in
the last month so basically all you got
to do is go down the list and listen to
a little bit of each of these songs even
if you're just starting out I highly
recommend being a little bit more
selective with who you work with and
really just focus on people that you can
see having a future in the music
business so it doesn't have to be
somebody that's super famous like this
first person has 13,000 plays that's
pretty good obviously you're gonna
encounter people on both ends of the
spectrum you might be wasting your time
if you hit somebody with like millions
of plays they're probably already signed
to a label they probably get hit up a
million times a day you're probably not
gonna connect with them but at the same
time don't write off people that have
two plays or you know whatever like 18
plays like this guy you know Nick Mira
found juice world on soundcloud when
juice world had like 300 followers
so there are diamonds in the rough on
this platform you just got to do the
legwork to find them so what I'm gonna
do is find people that I think would be
a good fit for my type of beats and go
from there so let's listen to this first
one for a second okay so that sounds
good but it definitely has more of an
R&B feel and that's not really my lane
so I'm gonna move on here see that's
much more my speed so I'm gonna go ahead
and open that guy's profile in a new tab
let's continue definitely definitely
shout out to poll are you killing it bro
that sounds good it's like Milotic kind
of like little mosey I definitely have
some beats that are similar to that
that's a little bit more R&B but you get
the point like I really don't spend too
much time on each one I go down the list
I open about five to eight tabs at a
time I don't want to get too overwhelmed
because then it gets annoying and once I
have that many you go ahead and you go
to their profile and what you're gonna
want to do is take the time to listen to
a few more of their tracks once you do
that you're gonna have a better
understanding of who they are as an
artist and you're gonna make sure that
they are indeed a good fit assuming that
you you like what you hear and you
definitely think that there could be
some collaboration between the two of
you go ahead and hit the little envelope
icon and that opens up the message tab
you're gonna want to write them a
message now the biggest mistake that
people make is they just go ahead and
spam everyone with a copy and paste
message you don't want to do that you
definitely want to personalize each
individual message to these people
because people are really good at
picking up on what is spam right away so
take the time to listen to the people's
music and write some positive feedback
right off the bat I actually do have a
template that I use but I customized it
for each message that I send and I'll go
ahead and pull up my template
so you can see exactly what mine is you
don't have to copy it verbatim by any
stretch you can honestly probably come
up with a better one mine is like very
basic I start off with a compliment
about a particular track so I say hey
brah randomly found your profile I'm
loving that questions track you posted
your flow is crazy now again that's like
pretty basic I recommend being as
detailed as possible with your feedback
so they really know that you actually
listen you actually mess with their
music ultimately from there I have just
a sentence introducing myself I'm a
producer from LA and I would love to
work with you that's it you can keep it
real basic and then boom I go right into
the pitch you have several options and
it's totally up to you which direction
you want to go in you can hit them right
off the bat with a sales pitch where
you're telling them hey look I'm doing a
buy two get one free special on my beats
tour right now and then you can go ahead
and include some links to your beats
tour with beats that you think the
person would be good for that's
something that I have done for quite a
while where I'll go to my website I'll
find three to five beats that I think
the person would be great for and I'll
include the links to those directly in
there and then I say let me know what
you think either way wish you continued
success lately I've actually been trying
a different approach where I'm offering
five free beats up front just to kind of
get the ball rolling and then I have a
link to where they can go to download
from there is just saying you know peace
out here's my name my ig and that's it
again it's gonna be up to you whether
you want to just hit them right off the
bat with a sales pitch or if you want to
take the slower approach and offer them
free beats to begin I'll be honest I
have had success of going straight for
the sale on the first message having
said that I have definitely seen better
results by offering something free up
front even if it's just one beat you
could start with if you're uncomfortable
giving out you know several but the goal
with this first message in my opinion
more importantly than getting the sale
right off the bat which again is
possible but what's more important to me
building a relationship with a potential
artist that you can grow with that
should really be your goal even before
you start selling beets if you don't
believe me I actually found a clip of
Scott Storch talking about this exact
concept so I'm gonna go ahead and let
him spit some wisdom on you guys real
quick and I'll be right back with you're
a real producer and you want to be a
leader find an artist develop the artist
and be their partner all the way through
it if you're gonna help build this thing
and you should eat off of every piece in
the pie if you're attaching yourself to
this artist you give them a fair deal
and you know you helped build it you
deserve so there you have it that's one
of the most successful hip hop producers
of all time it might be a good idea to
start with a free offer build that
rapport initially get the person to
record on some of your material and then
you can come back and say hey I'm doing
a two-for-one special on my site or hey
here's a pack of beats that I'll give
you for a discount whatever the case may
be then at that point once you build
rapport you are much more likely to get
a sale than if you're just to come in
hot you know trying to close them from
the jump
so spend some time doing this stuff I
feel like a lot of producers really
neglect the marketing aspect of things
and they're leaving a lot of money and
opportunities on the table by doing so
so this is my favorite way of getting
leads from SoundCloud the reason why is
because when somebody takes the time to
write prod bike or mill in the in a
title they've usually purchased a lease
so those are in my opinion the best
qualified people possible people who are
familiar with the beat selling ecosystem
that we've built because they've already
purchased licenses online that is the
the money zone those are the people that
you want to target they have a proven
track record of purchasing leases from
producers online so you might be
somewhat limited not all of these
producers have a strong presence on
soundcloud like let's I'm just gonna
pick a random one like Don Camilo
not familiar with let me see how many he
has posted on Soundcloud in the last
month so 34 so still a decent amount in
the last month but some of these you
might see they only have like five or
six in the last month for whatever
reason I guess their fan bases just
don't gravitate towards SoundCloud as
much if you run into that problem I'll
show you my second favorite way of doing
this and you simply go to YouTube and
now you just got to think about what
artists you feel would sound best on
your beats who is your dream placement
for me it's future that like my life
will reach its pinnacle when I get that
future placement that's what everything
I do is working towards right so if I'm
doing this I'll go to here and I'll type
in future type beat right the people
that come up first are killing the
YouTube algorithm game this is extremely
difficult future is an extremely
competitive keyword so the fact that
these people are ranking on the first
page right from the jump that means
they're killing it they're probably
getting a ton of sales they're probably
getting a ton of views and as you can
see like this first guy ace banks he's
got almost half a million views on his
future type beat so this is another
beautiful resource where you can find
producers with big followings who
probably get tons of sales that you
could type into SoundCloud so let's try
ace banks let's see what he's got going
on ace banks into the search
boom in the last month alone a hundred
and sixty-five tracks that have been
produced by ace banks have been posted
to SoundCloud you have endless leads to
reach out to that's basically my
strategy when it comes to SoundCloud
reach out and getting people that are
super qualified they purchased a beat
from a producer who has a similar style
to you and therefore they're much more
likely to be receptive to that initial
reach out and you can go on in there
make the sale make the connection build
that relationship find your niche find
producers that are killing it within
that niche find the people that are
already interacting with those producers
and target those people and there you
have it that is how to get more sales
and build more relationships using
SoundCloud I hope you've enjoyed this
video I hope you can take action now and
utilize these steps that I just showed
you to start leveling up your producer
career I guess I got to do that little
YouTube thing that everybody does with
their like like and subscribe go ahead
and do that I promise it's not just
about the vanity metrics with me
apparently likes and comments are
extremely important for the YouTube
algorithm so the more that I get the
more likely my stuff is to proliferate
across the interwebs so do me a favor
and leave a comment down below I'm
really interested to get some feedback
primarily just on this first video and
also if you guys want to see any other
videos I'm definitely open to hearing
some suggestions in terms of what videos
actually do next what topics you guys
want me to cover cuz you know stuff no
idea what I'm doing here basically yeah
once again I'm Luke for prez hope you
got some value here and I'll see you all
on the next one peace I know how you
bikini up down you catch a flight just
to come and say what's up