If you enjoy making music, then make music. If the money is good, then keep doing what you are doing. If you want more money from making music, there's always ways to do that.
You said that broke rappers want free beats. I understand your frustration but think about this; Lil' Wayne got HUGE from doing free mixtapes. Free is the key word. People were (and still are) able to listen to his newest music for free. Once people heard it and liked it, they anticipated his next mixtape. It seemed that he kept getting better and better on each mixtape. Next thing you know, he's getting paid big money to be featured on other artist's songs. And look at him now!
My point is this; work hard at what you love, get really really really good at what you love, and get your product out to as many people as possible. If it's for free, then so be it. Or you can charge $100, $50, or whatever price is reasonable for you or your customers who want it free.
If you were at a stop light and heard your music being played in the car next to you, how good would you feel? Even if you gave that beat away for free, it would still feel great wouldn't it?
More and more people will ask about getting beats from you if you are good enough. That's when you up the price. But don't expect to get big bucks if you aren't the BEST at your craft. People will only pay top dollar for a great product. Hope this helped
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Originally Posted by Errol Santos  I've noticed a pattern with succesful people. And that pattern is they don't really care about money and really care of getting their service/product to the customers and them being happy. Here's a few examples
#1 - Steve Jobs book Biography. I don't remember this word for word because I read it a while back but if anyone knows the exact words please correct me. But he said something like this. "When I was 21 I was worth 1 million, Age 22 I was worth 10 million, Age 23 I was worth 100 million, but it didn't matter because I never really did it for the money"
#2 - I was watching a Bill Gates interview yesterday, he was talking about his goal when he first started. And his goal was to put a computer in every home and offce. You notice how it doesn't say that he wanted to earn X amount of money each year.
#3 - Book: The Sedona Method by Joe Vitale. This will be word for word from the book.
"Years ago, Scrully Blotnick conducted a study of 1,500 people. They were put into two categories: Category A said they would pursue money first and do what they really wanted to do later. Over 1,245 people went into that group. Category B, made up of 255 people, said they would seek their interests first, and trust that money would follow later.
What Happened?
Twenty years later, there were 101 millionaires from the entire group. Only one came from group A. The remaining 100 millionaires all came from group B, the group that said they would pursue their passions first and let money come later. Right there is another clue on how to attract money.
Where is your focus—on money or passion?"
#4 - Steve Pavlina recently. He's been blogging about creating value instead of getting a job. Which means focus on giving rather than making the moolah.
I could go on forever with examples like this but I was just thinking about all of it recently...Whenver I make a goal to make X amount of dollars a month. I would make crap for that month. When I didn't care and did whatever. I would seem to earn more money. It feels like when I play video games all day or go out, then come home, I would have more sales by not thinking about sales. In all my business ventures. I've always made just ENOUGH to get by...Pay the bills and eat decent. Which I'm happy with because I don't have to do the whole job thing or 9 to 5 or whatever you wanna call those time wasters. And it's like that right now. Just earning enough in my business to get by. So my question is instead of focusing on making X amount per month. What should I focus on? Right now what I do is I compose music for rappers and singers. Should I focus on getting more plays? Page views? Should I focus on getting music in the hands of rappers and singers? Maybe this is going to one of the first steps in business which is knowing who your target market is. I remember reading an old post by Steve Pavlina about dark workers and light workers. And I have to admit I am a dark worker. I am an all about the money person. I am an all about me person. But at the same time I would never rip people off and I'm a win/win type of person. So don't think I'm evil. lol. But it feels good when I make money when I sell music. People give me compliments all the time saying things like "You're music is so good, I love your music" or things like that and honestly, if I had to choose money or compliments I'd take the money.
The reason I sell music now is because of example #3 up there. And I'm glad I am doing this. I make music as a passion, but the reason I take time to post them up, do contracts that take 20-30 mins. Answer emails, text, phone calls. Is for the money. So when broke rappers come up to me asking for a free beat and I say no they say something like "So it's all about the money isn't it?" My response is "Hell yes it is".
So basically, I think I shouldn't focus on money. So what should I focus on? Creating value like Steve Pavlina said? That's cool But I like Bill Gates approach where his goal seems to be definite. Like in "Think and Grow Rich" They say you have to have an EXACT amount desired. So "creating value" is cool but, what's something more exact that I can focus on with my music?
Thank you all for reading this long post
Errol Santos |