How to Make Money Making Beats in Kenya

Wondering how you can start making money making beats?

In this article, I will walk you through eight strategies you can implement immediately to earn your first buck online as a beat producer.

I agree, a ton of people are actively looking for a way to escape the 9-5. Do what you love. Spend the better part of your day making beats.

It is a dream of all of us to make money while sleeping.

Can you imagine getting paid while chilling with friends?

It is the best feeling. And you can have it only if you implement the strategies I am about to show you on this post.

I know these strategies will help you because they have already been proven to work.

In fact, several producers who have already implemented these strategies are making money doing what they love.

Let me get you an example.

There is this well-known beatsmith from New York, Jair. He has worked with prolific musicians like Lil B, Soulja Boy, and Adam Hignell.

How did he land such deals?

By implementing some of the strategies you are about to learn.

What do you need to make money making beats?

Before we get started, there are some things you need to gets to start selling your beats.

*You Need Beats*

Yes, I know that sounds obvious but you will be surprised to see how many people ignore this.

We have a lot of dreamers and wannabes always fantasizing about making money selling beats. But in reality, they have nothing.

Here is a little something for you:

You don’t have a business if you don’t have a product, a service, or whatever you want to exchange for money. Starting a business without a product or service is how you will end up not making money..

*A plan*

If you do not have a plan, you are planning to fail.

It is the same old advice we hear over and over again. But how many of you actually heed to it?

When was the last time you set a goal and devised a plan? Wait, it doesn’t matter whether it worked out or not, but just having the plan brings in more focus.

You need a plan on how to move from making your first beat to getting the first customer. The truth is, getting that first sale is the hardest part.

That doubles when you don’t have a plan of action.

For example:

Your plan can be to first have a catalog of beats under at least three genres before you start looking for customers.

If you ask me, that is a good plan, and it is enough to keep you focused as well as to gear you in the right direction.

At the back of your mind, you know that there will be no customers before you have at least three catalogs of beats.

See how that gave you a reason to work?

With these two (having beats and a plan), you are ready to start looking for customers.

I am not saying these are the only two things you need to start making money making beats. But they build the foundation of starting a beat selling business.

That said, let’s look at the strategies I promised you.

How to make money making beats (proven strategies that work like magic)

*#1. Have a website*

Forget the regular websites you see on the internet. I am talking about an online store.

Instead of working the traditional way where nothing can be sold in your business without your presence; opt to work online.

Have a system.

Instead of doing everything manually, automate everything.

Here is how to automate beats selling business.

*Create a website

*Add a shop section and install a store plugin like Woo-commerce. Alternatively, use store builders like Shopify

*Set everything up. Unlike normal stores where you upload product images, here the product is your beats. Display a sample of it and the price.

*Drive traffic to the store.

With the store up and ready, whenever someone wants the beat, he or she pays and downloads the beat automatically. You aren’t involved in any way.

Talking of driving traffic to your beats store, you will love the next way of how to make money making beats.

*#2. Have a YouTube channel*

YouTube is really huge right now.

With over 2 billion unique users using it every month, it opens up a lucrative opportunity for you as the beat-maker to make money.

Making money off YouTube as a beat producer is two-folds.

The first way is to display your creativity and skills of creating great beats.

Think of it as a way of building an audience of raving fans who adore your beats. Also, in the process, you are building authority. When someone thinks of buying beats, he or she will think of you.

Why?

Because they have seen and experienced what you can do.

With that in mind, here is how to make money selling beats on YouTube.

*Record yourself while in Studio doing your thing.

*Upload the footage on your channel and ask your viewers for their opinions

*Ask them to subscribe to your channel so they can always be the first ones to listen to your work

*Put the links to your website on the description. Encourage your viewers to visit the link and purchase the beat if they like it

Use YouTube to generate interest and drive interested customers back to the store where they can easily order the beat.

The second way of making money making beats on YouTube is through monetization.

Here is how it works:

YouTube has a very popular advertising program where they pay you to show ads before, in between, or after your video.

All you have to do is sign up for the program and you can start making money selling beats on YouTube.

*#3. Licensing*

You can license other people to use your beats. For example, companies that deal with TV commercials, films, and movies among other video content producers.

Such companies are always looking for good music to accompany their video content. And not just any music, relevant beats.

With this method, you are getting paid every time someone uses your beats. It is automated and perfectly fits your dream of making money while you sleep.

Here are two ways to make money by licensing your beats.

*Register with a Performance Rights Organization (PRO). These guys will make your music public, keep track of the users, and send you cheques every time someone uses your beats. This is basically copyrighting your beats.

*License your beats through music marketplaces or libraries. Some libraries specialize with aggregating good beats so customers (artists or marketers) can find and buy them to use in their work. You make money when someone buys a license or gets permission to use your beats, as simple as that.

Here are marketplaces already popular with beat producers:

*Splice – https://splice.com

*Songtradr – https://www.songtradr.com/

*Bandcamp – https://bandcamp.com/

Join these sites now and make money making beats.

*#4. Get on SoundCloud*

Another way to get your beats in front of thousands of potential customers is through SoundCloud – https://soundcloud.com/

Why?

This is where most artists hangout, making it the best marketplace for music beats.

But there is one problem.

Unlike YouTube, SoundCloud is like a social community. There is no easier way to get your beats noticed by artists.

At least on YouTube, you have things like Search Engine Optimization where you rig your content with search terms used by your target customer. This makes it easy for your content to be discovered, but not on SoundCloud.

Solution – to get noticed on SoundCloud and sell your beats, look for artists you like and who would love your beats.

Genuinely engage with their content on SoundCloud. Hit that like-button, reshare a song, and post genuine comments.

*#5. Social media marketing*

Here, you are leveraging social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to promote your beats.

The objective here is to showcase your work and hopefully a potential customer will reach out.

There are two ways to use social media marketing to make money making beats.

*a. Organic way*

This is a free way of marketing on social media.

If you choose to go this direction, simply create an account for your beats business, say a Facebook page.

Build a fan base by looking for likes.

Start updating posts trying to get your audience excited about your beats, and hopefully, to buy.

For example:

You can post a video of you creating the beats. Post a link to your website and ask your Facebook fans to go buy the beat if they like.

*b. Using social media ads*

I should warn you, this is not free. Requires at least $10 (Ksh.1,000) to advertise on Facebook, but it is worth it.

For example:

Using Facebook advertising, you can reach thousands of potential customers with a small budget.

Here is how to use Facebook ads to sell beats.

*Create a Facebook page using your name or business name if you have a registered business

*Create ads targeting specific people based on their interests. For instance, you can target people who have liked music pages or visited websites dealing with beats

*Use a video of you creating beats as media

*Add a link to your online store and a Buy Now as the call to action.

With such an ad, you can set the budget to at least a dollar per day. Stop the campaign at anytime you want.

*#6. Build an email list*

Email marketing is the oldest, yet most effective way of marketing any kind of business.

Why?

Here is what you don’t know.

Do you see those people who have liked your Facebook page, your Instagram followers, or YouTube subscribers?

You don’t own them!

Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube own them because the platform is theirs. As such, they make rules and control what you can do with it. They do not care about how that affects you.

Here is a good example of this:

Recently, Facebook made an update to counter the spread of fake news. This affected the reach of page posts, in such a way that if you have 1K likes, only 1 percent of them will see your post.

This alone toppled so many businesses that relied on Facebook to make sales.

What is the solution?

Build an email list.

This is an asset to your business. You own it and no one will dictate how you use it. Even when it comes to changing tools, you migrate with your list.

More importantly, an email list is a group of people who have shown interest in your beats business.

Here is how to use email marketing to sell beats:

*Collect email addresses. To make it easier, offer something for free in exchange for their email, say, a coupon code

*Get email marketing tool such as MailChimp to help collect the emails

*Send the latest updates to your list and occasionally ask them to buy your beats

To make this successful, consider building a relationship first with your list before asking them to buy your products.

*#7. Create courses*

I know you are looking for how to make money making beats. And this may sound inapplicable, but hear me out.

Other people are interested in making and selling beats like you. Why not dedicate your time to teaching them how to do that and make money in the process?

How?

Document how you started the beats business, strategies you used to succeed, mistakes, and challenges you faced and how you overcame them.

Package the whole thing into a consumable chunk, say chapters (for ebooks), or modules for videos.

Upload the course somewhere like Udemy.com, and put a price, say $35 for someone to access the course.

You do not need to be there face to face to deliver the content, enabling you to make money while you sleep.

*Wrapping up music beats business*

Today, music streaming and downloading are at their peak. If you have the will and talent, join the industry. Use these strategies to earn a living.

Also, don`t forget to join our training on Money Agency Business.

Mobile and bank deposits and withdrawals have become part of day to day life of almost every Kenyan.

People are always depositing money into their M-PESA, Airtel Money, Telkom Kash, Equity bank, Co-operative bank, and KCB accounts, among other mobile and bank wallets.

In equal measure, others are always withdrawing money they just received into those accounts.

Does that in any way sound as if mobile and bank money deposits and withdrawals are vanishing anytime soon?

Definitely not!

The interesting bit of it all is that those money deposits and withdrawals are done via Mobile Money and Banking agencies who carry out such transactions every day.

An agent comes in the gap to provide the medium for depositing and withdrawing money and in return, they earn commissions for both services.

Now that you know that an agent will earn commissions to mediate deposits and withdrawals concerning Mobile and Bank Money, can’t you be that agent and tap in on those awesome commissions on the Mobile Money and Banking Agency business?

Interestingly, the mobile and banking agency business is one of the most profitable businesses in Kenya if it’s set up along a busy street or a strategic corner where people are always passing by and can clearly see from far.

If you merge being a mobile money agent with being a Bank Agent of one or several banks, you are indeed in a lucrative business and you can make over Ksh.100,000 per month.

Timothy Angwenyi
Business Consultant

Justine Nyachieo
Business Man & Mentor

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