How do you get your beats heard?

I have this problem: people simply don't know that I make beats. I am known to do a few things: BBoy, Emcee, practice law (don't ask), but I got into making beats when my girl got me the Maschine in October for my birthday. But now, whenever I go to twitter or facebook or what have you to post my beats, no one clicks the link according to my analytics. My suspicion is that there are now so many wannabe beatmakers out there who buy a fancy new product (like Maschine) and suddenly think they're the new Dilla, so people get blitzed by their wack friends trying to show them the most god awful crap ever. Whenever I force my friends to hear my stuff, they're shocked at it like "Oh, I must've been sleeping!" or they swear it's sampled. That's great, but how do I wake them all up?

My question is simply how does one break into this already cluttered arena? The one thing I've done is ask myself "where do you hear about new beatmakers as an emcee?" And in recent years, it's been at live beat showcases. But aside from that, what do we do as decent noobs?

http://www.soundcloud.com/quemusiq/mm

 

I think this is one those golden questions that man has pondered since the beginning of music distribution...

And perhaps before. Even bards had to get a "rep".

"Social networking" seems to be a common and useful key at least to start. And, unfortunately, talent doesn't seem to be that important. It's not what you know but who. And if you know 14 million MySpacers/Facebookers/Twitterers/Whateverelsers then you're more likely to get noticed than someone who is genuinely errrmayyyzzzinnng who has one MySpace "friend". Called Tom.

I suppose though, just keep trying to spread your name and your work around. Do gigs, talk to people the old fashioned way, word of mouth still counts for a lot. Essentially, I think you have to "whore" yourself. In the most metaphorical of senses only, of course.

Though I'm sure some have taken it more literally to get where they are.

 

u might wana try hitting up soundclick. making a page there with ur beats. and/or look for artists u like and email them ur work and see if they like it. soundclick is good music networking site to start at

 

One word - exposure. It's all about how you get from the bottom of the cake to the top. Nobody will give a solid answer that would set you on the right path, you have to be creative, just like you have to be creative with your music. If it's same old thing, then you are reducing your chances of success, same with marketing, it has to be creative to stand out. I will give you a pointer, try not to think in terms of making money from your 1st release, but rather to get exposure.

 

I think soundcloud is a solid venue to get stuff heard. Join lots of groups relevant to your style and share your tracks in those groups. post on music forums as well. attend local beat battles. participate in online beat battles like over at the stones throw forums. just worry more about improving what you do and honing you craft moreso than exposure. atleast at such an early stage. thats my opinion. just learn and grow at this stage... once the music catches up to the passion... you'll know. stick with it man.

 

Absolutely. Do gigs for free. Play anywhere any time. Put your music on at parties. Like I crudely said before, "whore" yourself.
Unless you're darn lucky, that seems to be the only way. But it's not as easy as just holding up a sign on a street corner unfortunately.

 

Just to throw in my 2 copper pieces...Although I haven't done it myself (yet) because I'm still trying to come up with enough GOOD material, and I don't know if you've done it yet but why not post something here as well. I don't know what type of music you make, but everyone here touches on a bunch of different genres of music.You never know who's really here. I mean Dre could be in these forums under an assumed alias for all we know lol. But you never know. At least the people in these forums are "maschinists" like yourself, and they could help break down how you can make you beats better for you future fans. And some have their own followings so you can probably emulate some of what they do. (Duh, hence this thread you created) lol. But hey, at the end of the day it all comes down to exposure, exposure, exposure. By any means necessary. Right?

 

I feel this is a great point because there are a LOT OF ENDORSEMENTS of Maschine by some MAJOR PRODUCERS out there! You never know who might contact you!

 

I thought I posted my beats, but I guess not. Here's the one I just finished a few minutes ago:

http://soundcloud.com/quemusiq/best-air

The rest are here:
http://www.soundcloud.com/quemusiq/

As for the rest of you, my problem is not "exposure", my last mixtape did like 12k downloads and I never left my house to perform a single song off it. Just prior to that, I opened a major concert to over 10k people for Lil Wayne and Buju Banton. But there in lies my problem: if people know me as an emcee, and still others know me as an attorney, then they tend not to take me serious as a producer. It was hard enough to get my old college and law school buddies to accept me as a recording artist, and I still haven't quite done that. Most of my true fans haven't the slightest idea what my day job is, meaning my old school friends and my new school music fans are relatively mutually exclusive.

Now, I'm tryna add a third thing to the mix? It's giving me a headache. I think my best option is to produce my whole next album and hope to gain producer fans THAT way.

 

It seems you're where a lot of us wish we were, lol! If you're at that level already, then you've kinda gotten your foot in the door!

 

I have a friend. He has been working for a producer for around 10+ years. He has been given a song and he would have to arrange it, record it (all), mix it. So he was doing a lot of things and got numerous credits as a sound producer. And although he is known to others in the industry, he hasn't got the recognition the man he has been working for has, because none of the projects were his creation, even though he has done so much to make them what they are. So now he realized that to get same recognition as the other guy he needs to come up with his own project. He has done so. But here is the gamble. Instead of working on a project which is more "accessible" to people, he decided to go with a lounge electronics type sound with not very strong hook lines & that in the market that mostly appreciates melodic hooks and songs that are let's say easier to comprehend. Why did he decide to do what he has done? Because of his ego I think, ego can ba advantageous and the opposite, a two edged sword. It may pay off, but it's more of a gamble, because of the market of listeners he is in. I would have gone for a "sluttier" project as a first one, made some good money with it & then rolled out what I wanted to do as a musician. Needless to say his flight to stardom is proving to be slow, as DJs recognize new sound, but not enough of listeners do.

Just a story

 

Guess I'm a little spoiled. I live in L.A. and run with a pretty well known underground hip hop crew that's been around for quite some years. I credit them for opening up my eyes and ears to more than just emceeing. Because of that, I've gotten ON records with well known underground dudes, but I want so badly to produce for them, ya know? The problem is getting them to recognize that I can do more than rap.

One day, I guess. Meanwhile, I'mma keep making these buttons light up. It's just SO DAMN FUN!

 

And exposure is still important. You may have a reputation as an MC. And even as a lawyer... But you need to expose yourself, make yourself known and build a reputation for yourself as a producer.

So I think the points that the "rest of us" raised are still valid (even though we didn't know you had these reputations). If I'd trained to be doctor and then decided I wanted to be a surgeon, I wouldn't instantly be able to make the switch just because I'd been in the medicine for so long. Perhaps closer, a singer of a band for which the music was written primarily by the rest of the band wanting to start writing the music too. Not great analogies, but I'm sure you see my point.
Reputation is one field can help in another, but there are no guarantees, you still need to get yourself out there as a "beatmaker" or "producer".

 

On places like soundcloud etc. it's very hard to stand out above the rest. We all gotta be just as innovative in marketing ourselves as in making our music. Imitation is limited.

 

But all art is imitation.

 

Let's not get too philosophical

There can only be 1 Michael Jackson is what I was getting at. It applies to marketing too.

 

pump up the volume

 

That's a good girlfriend.