Marketing Yourself

Hip hop beat making is definately a weird choice for an entrepreneurial career because people usually start off doing it just for fun, and then (if they get good) one thing leads to another and money is coming their way. Because of this there is never a business plan, and a lot of people don’t sit down and think of ways to expand. Now obviously some beat makers are great at the marketing aspect of this career, but this article is for those who may have overlooked this part, and is just aimed at giving some basic tips to get you in the right frame of mind for making you as successful as you can be doing this. This is obviously meant for beat makers, but other artists should read this too.

1. Treat yourself as a real business

Even if you are only doing this part time, on the side whenever you feel like making a beat, still go at it the right way. Make a business plan, sit down and think of marketing strategies and who you want to have fiending for your beats.

2. Get business cards

These are so cheap and so effective. Just carry a bunch with you at all times and hand them out to anybody and everybody that could possible get some use from having them. You can even get business cards free from Vista Print. How can you turn down something free that could help you out in any way? Exactly, haha. Go to local shows, meet with the artists (and fans) and let ‘em know about your beats. Give artists a beat cd with a business card in it and bam, potential callback.

3. Use the internet

Local scenes can be small and tough to get involved in if you aren’t too outgoing, which is where the internet comes into play. Obvoiusly you know about the internet if you’re reading this, so register to as many hip hop forums as you can and get the word out about your beats. Big forums, small forums, myspace, roc battle, facebook – there are countless places to meet with other artists and make a connection.

To successfully use the internet though, don’t just go around talking to people, make yourself a web presence – get a website. You can get hosting from $4.95/month. That is a small price to pay to get a one-up on those using only myspace and forums. If you don’t want to get a website for some reason, at least get an easy to remember domain name and put it to a myspace or something so that people can get information about you whenever they want.

Now all of this may seem very basic and it is, but not enough people think about these things enough. This post wasn’t meant to give you crazy sick ideas to become a millionaire, but just get your brain moving around in the right direction. If you are talented then take yourself serious and get out there.

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