5 Things You Should Know About Buying Beats Online

By Bryon StClair

If you are an up and coming artist looking to buy beats online, here are a few points to consider before you make purchases for your next project.

Tip - 1 Know what type of beat you are looking for!
Before you buy beats online, you should first have some basic idea of what kind of beats you want for your projects. All producers do not create all types of beats well, even though they may claim that they do. You should also consider the type of consumers you plan to target. Planning this out ahead of time will help you choose beats. Then look for producers that compliment your writing style and personality.

Tip - 2 Know what your budget is!
Before you decide to buy beats, make sure you have a pretty good idea of how much you are willing to spend. Most producers will charge $20 - $100 for non-exclusive rights and $200 -$10,000 dollars to own exclusive rights per beat. Also look for bulk or package deals. Some producers will run specials where you buy a set number of beats for a discounted price. No matter what the deal STAY WITHIN YOUR BUDGET!

Tip - 3 Get to know your producer!
Before you buy beats, try to find a producer online that first: has the kind of tracks you are looking for, second: Is someone you would be willing to build a relationship with and third: has some credibility selling beats to consumers over the internet. There are many producers out there who are up and coming just like you so building that relationship and having that rapport is key to building your brand in the music industry.

Tip - 4 Exclusive or Non Exclusive!
Learn the difference between "Exclusive" and "Non Exclusive beats". You might ask "what's the difference between Exclusive and Non Exclusive beats?" Well if you buy an Exclusive beat you will be the owner of that beat. You purchase the beat and then download it to your hard drive, after which the beat is then taken down off the site never to be sold again. When you purchase a Non Exclusive beat which is much cheaper than an Exclusive beat, the beat will be yours but there is a huge chance that the beat has been sold multiple times before. That means that you will not be the only one that has it. So make a decision and decide what will fit into your budget.

Tip - 5 Get an agreement in writing!
When you buy your beats online you should definitely make sure you can get some type of printable licensing agreement which will let you know how and for how long you can use the beats.

By following these simple tips buying beats online will become an enjoyable part of building your music career and help you save huge amounts of money, time and headaches.

Good Luck to you and See ya on the journey peace
djbchill

Do You Really Need to Have Your Music Mastered Professionally?

By Caro Churchill

Most of the commercially manufactured and popular music you may hear and buy will be produced with a healthy budget and to high professional industry standards. Which most likely will involve sending the album or single to mastering engineer, to put the final polish and tweaks on a mix before it goes into mass production. But so many independent albums and self-made creative music is now composed, produced and mixed in more budget environments - maybe even using only a laptop and one microphone. So what is the mastering process and does it really matter?

Well I would argue that it does matter and if you feel strongly about your music and want to get it played on radios, car stereos or hand-held devices such as phones. I always find if nothing else it is invaluable to bring in a fresh pair of ears to my creative music and an experienced pair at that. Before going to print CDs or even just make available a download release, one of the jobs of a mastering engineer is to consider that the music will transmit favourably on most music listening systems and devices. Of course if you are pressing to vinyl this is even more crucial as frequencies do weird and wonderful things to the grooves of the record.

Someone who has experience of listening to lots of different music in detail can make the difference if you want a professionally sounding track or album. And someone who is creatively more detached from the material can give you a more objective view and space for reflection - for example do you want the vocal to be very in the foreground or more submerged in the mix? Bass frequencies can be particularly tricky to get right, especially for the most often used listening platforms such as computer speakers and MP3 players.

A professional mastering studio will have highly specialized studio equipment such as frequency and spectrum analyzers that can pick up rogue or problem frequencies. For my latest album it was only at the mastering stage that we noticed there was a very slight constant hiss at around 14 Khz due to printing all the mixes to 2 inch tape. Other problems may be picked up and remedied that can help compensate for budget home studio equipment - perhaps some phase was picked up by the microphone that had gone unnoticed, or a noise click or two occurred while rendering the final mixes.

So my conclusion would be mastering matters and save up or budget for going to a pro if you can. If you produce and mix your own music you can learn a lot during the mastering process. It has helped me develop as a recording engineer and as a composer and producer of creative music releasing independent albums. And as an independent artist it can give you a seal of approval before sending out your music to the public domain.

Caro is a recording engineer and has self-produced independent albums available. The album was mastered professionally by Blacklisted Mastering.

Football Parties

Thanks for the post from Nora Mccoy

My husband and his friends love watching NFL football because they are all in at least one fantasy football league. All week long they are on the phone with each other talking about who is injured, who is not eligible to play, and who they can trade. I have absolutely no interest in fantasy football, or real football for that matter. I do not get why it is so fun to have a fake football team. There are so many other things I can think of that I would rather be doing, instead of watching football. However, my husband convinced me that we need to have a football party every week. We are the only ones of all our friends who have the NFL Sunday ticket, so every week all of our friends want to come over to watch the games. Most of the time this means the guys will be drinking beer and screaming at the tv, while the girls gossip over margaritas. I really enjoy playing hostess, even if it is for a football party.

Beyonce Knowles and her mother Tina Knowles release their first fashion collaboration, House of Dereon, at Selfridges

Tina Knowles and Beyonce Knowles at The Launch Of House Of Dereon By Beyonce And Tina Knowles at Selfridges on September 17, 2011 in London, England.

(September 16, 2011 - Photo by Eamonn McCormack/Getty Images Europe)