How To Place Beats: Small World
“How To Place Beats” aims to give valuable insight into the music industry through the telling of true stories of real beats being placed…Chapter I – Small World
Five years ago, I was in negotiations for a 10 song production deal with an indie label. At the time, I had not sold a beat for more than $150 and hadn’t worked with any known artists. Needless to say, this deal was going to bring in a lot more money than that. After working out the basic terms, I was eager to sign the dotted line. Even though I got a lawyer to check out the paperwork when it came, I was so impatient, I decided to get some free legal advice online first. I did a search for “Entertainment Lawyers” and anonymously instant messaged a random entertainment lawyer to see what he thought about the deal.
I talked to this guy about the deal for a bit then just started to BS with him. Turns out he was in NY. He was also working as a consultant on an MC’s project. Out of all the MC’s in the world this guy could have been working with…, it was an MC who was from the same camp I was about to sign the song deal with. He asked me to come through to the studio a few days later. I came with some tracks and he chose two, which ended up being my first big check (Which was cut before we finally straightened out the song deal).
Lesson Learned: It’s a small world, especially in the music industry. Treat it as such.
Applications: This is an extreme case, but this exemplifies the value of networking. If a producer can randomly contact an entertainment lawyer online and turn that into good money, there is no reason for any producer to waste any chances he may have to network. Also don’t forget to treat everyone you may come across networking with respect. Assistants and interns are future executives and as a rule, respecting people can only help things…
You can also look at this as a cautionary tale. Because if you do ever decide to badmouth someone (Which is pointless 99.9% of the time), you never know who knows who and how it can come back to bite you.
Dope post…..true words indeed. What are the chances of that artist being on that independent label though. That’s proof that you NEVER know who knows who.
Lesson learned boss. I was actually wondering about the transition from “$150″ beat sales to major placements…how do you properly “transition” the price to the next level? Think that would be a good topic post for up and coming cats…
What an interesting story, JB. Its so ill how a producer can go from a buck 50 to a major deal by a random online convo wit the right person. that was pure luck for you to find the exact right person you needed, when you werent even looking for something like that. u searched for an opinion, and got a record deal. lolz. catch u on DP… 1
That’s really good advice. You never know who knows who in this business. I’ve been on the other side of some of those encounters. People bad mouthing people I know and being unaware. That small world fact can really bite you.
Thanks for what you do to help.
I agree, it is a small world. I recently worked on a show in a club Manchester UK. When I turned up there was some one else there that I worked with back in Sydney, Australia. Bit of a shock being on the other side of the world and all.
Stop by and check out my blog some time
He wasn’t on the same label, just in the same “camp”. In fact, one of the guys who was involved with the song deal was chilling in the studio the night I came through to play them beats.