Beatstars is the go-to platform for new hip-hop artists and producers. For most, it’s the first marketplace that musicians will engage in as they set out on their careers (or start music as a new hobby).
I wouldn’t say that it should be avoided. In fact, I wrote nearly 90% of the songs from my first album thanks to producers I met on Beatstars. But almost 6 years later, there are many lessons I wish I would have learned sooner about the platform. Namely, why you should build a relationship with your producer, and how that can limit your ability to collect future earnings. This article offers up my lessons learned.
I need to say upfront that I don’t have an issue with Beatstars itself, or the producers who rely on it to make a living. In fact, I still keep in contact with a few of them after all these years! My hope is that if you’re reading this, you’ll learn from some of my mistakes, and at the very least, see them coming before it’s too late.
Building Relationships
If you’re renting (or buying) beats from other music makers, you’re going to want to build a relationship with them if you want to avoid being just another transaction.
3 Questions to Ask Yourself when Collecting on Future Royalties
But these relationships aren’t just to make both parties feel good, or to get the producer to promote your song (which they probably won’t anyway). When you’re finding a producer to work with, think about the future, ask yourself these questions:
- Will you be able to contact this person easily if you need to re-up your Agreement?
- Is their PRO number easy to find so you can register the songs for collecting royalties (more on that down below)?
- If they were to go out of business, what would happen with any Agreements you have in place now?
Speaking from experience, I’ll tell you straight up: these issues are a pain in the ass to deal with if you don’t plan for them ahead of time.
I know you just want to make some music. But if your craft becomes more than just a hobby, you’ll want to consider your answers to these questions if you want to collect royalty checks in the future. So let’s talk more about that.
Collecting Royalties
Now, this is a complicated subject. Entire books have been written about it. But I’m going to summarize it as briefly as I can. “Royalties” is a large bucket with two main compartments:
Songwriting Royalties
As an artist, you’re writing a song, whether you’re providing the lyrics or more instrumentals. Basically, you’re in the art of making music.
For most musicians, this means that, legally, you make the music, but you don’t sell it. You only get to make the one master file. You’re not allowed to copy or distribute it. That’s what record labels and publishing companies are for (more on that below).
Generally you’re allowed to collect songwriting and mechanical royalties each time the song gets played on a streaming platform – but it ain’t worth much.
However, once you create a song with someone else, you’re typically entitled to split these royalties in equal parts with your songwriters (unless you have something else in writing).
Publishing Royalties
Legally, you’re entitled to collect money from the one master recording you make. But you may be limited in how many copies you can make. This is where publishing contracts start to take effect.
Songwriting is the art of making music, not selling it. Publishing is the business of selling music, but not making it. The two work together like yin and yang. But if you don’t know how to balance the two, you’ll be left out in the cold.
The beauty of working with Beatstars is the Agreement that’s automatically generated when you buy or lease a beat from a producer. When you get this Agreement, save it somewhere you can find it easily in the future. It has all the info you’ll ever need for the life of the contract (yeah, I know, I hate that word too, but that’s basically what this is—a contract between you and someone else).
In some Agreements I’ve received, I’ve been entitled to 50% of the songwriter royalties, but 0% of the publishing. Instead, the Agreement might say that the producer retains 100% of all the rights to make copies of the song you helped them create.
This is where things can start to get prickly.
Making a Song You Can’t Perform – Why you Should Own Your Publishing
If you don’t have your producer’s publishing ID#, you can’t register the song with your PRO. You also probably can’t register it with the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) either.
You don’t own the multi-tracks on the song you made, so you can’t redistribute the song and collect royalties on remixes and other derivative works.
You might not be able to perform the song live, either.
But suppose you got past the hurdle of registering your songs. And suppose you were alright with only collecting songwriting royalties and giving up the right to publish, copy, and redistribute the song.
Working for Free
If the producer you’re working with doesn’t have their paperwork together, you might be forced to do all of this heavy lifting on the administrative side, and never see any of the benefit from it.
This work is called publishing administration, and most people who do it take about 10% of publishing royalties.
Don’t Go it Alone
What I’m saying is, if you don’t have a solid relationship with your producer, they might not go the extra mile to help you get every cent out of the song you created. They get all the benefit, and they may not even help the song reach it’s full potential.
This is why I suggest working with producers who have their paperwork together and are willing to build an ongoing relationship with you. Otherwise, you’re just another transaction, with no personality in your music.
This is complicated stuff, but I believe it doesn’t have to be. It’s why I started writing music with simple terms: you buy the tracks to the song, credit me as a co-publisher and co-writer with your PRO and the MLC when you release the song, we split everything even, and life goes on.
So if you’re looking for a songwriter or producer who has their paperwork in order, contact me today about working on your next project!
