In today’s world, you mainly promote your music online, interact with fans online, and grow your music career online – so, it’s only right that purchasing beats and instrumentals for your tracks have followed the same path.

Buying beats used to be a lot more complicated than it is today. You’d have to book a studio session, have a producer come by and show you some of his music production work, and if you liked it – physically exchange files. Luckily for us, we have the internet

So, in this post I’m going to show you how to buy beats online, as well as answer a few questions that may cross your mind while reading this.

1. Find Beats You Like

The first thing you need to do when trying to buy beats online is to find a beat that you like. This process can be quick or take a lot of time depending on how picky your beat selection is and what platforms you use to discover instrumentals. I’m going to list the top platforms that I’d recommend you use to find quality beats you like.

Platforms for Finding Music Producers & Beats:

YouTube

Beatstars

Soundcloud

2. Look At The Producer’s Pricing

The next thing you want to look at is the producer’s pricing. Depending on your budget, this will decide what beats you buy and which beats you pass on. There are typically a few different pricing plans for you to choose from. Although the pricing will vary based on the producer, you can expect to pay anywhere from $20 – $100 for a typical beat lease and $500+ for an exclusive purchase.

3. Look At Their Terms

A lot of producers that sell beats online have similar terms in their contracts. It usually includes not being able to sell more than a set amount of units, crediting the producer on the song, and a few other things. However, sometimes (especially when buying higher priced beats) – they’ll be sections inside the contract that will make your job of using the beat successfully, hard.

So, make sure you really look at their terms (and/or contract) well, and more than once. If you don’t understand something, get an entertainment lawyer to look over it.

PS: When purchasing cheaper priced beats, there typically isn’t a contract for you to sign. This doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want. Make sure to look at the terms listed on their website and look for any ‘out-of-sight’ terms that you may be agreeing to by purchasing the beat.

4. Write To The Beat Before Buying

I highly recommend all artists write to a beat that they like before purchasing it. Sometimes when you’re searching for a beat you like, you’ll hear something that triggers your inner creative and makes you feel like this beat ‘is it’, but don’t be in such a rush to purchase it. I’ve seen several artists quickly purchase a beat because it sounds dope, only to never use it because they couldn’t write to it or make a good song out of it.

You may be thinking ‘But what if someone purchases the beat while I’m writing?’. Well, the answer to that is simple, find a different beat. The more you listen to beats, the more you’ll notice that a lot of music producers use similar BPMs (beats per minute AKA the speed of the beat) and similar patterns. They don’t do this because they’re not talented or anything, they do this because:

That’s what artists purchase There’s only so many patterns It sounds nice

So, if a beat you’re writing to gets purchased, it’s not as difficult as it sounds to find another beat that has a similar BPM, sounds similar, and gives you the same feeling.

5. Purchase The Beat

By now you’ve already found a beat that you like, scoped out the producer’s pricing and terms, wrote your track, and now you’re ready to purchase the beat. In my opinion, this is one of the easiest parts of this whole process. Thanks to a few beat selling platforms, it’s fairly easy to find and buy beats from any producer selling online.

If you’re listening to a beat on YouTube, look at the video’s description and it’s likely you’ll find a link that directs you to a page that will allow you to purchase that beat. If you’re listening to a beat on SoundCloud, check the description of the track or look on their profile page.

Where To Buy Beats Online

If you can’t find information on where to buy their beats from their social profiles or where you heard the instrumental, search their name on these platforms:

Beatstars.com

Soundclick.com

Myflashstore.net

And, if you’re just having a terrible day with beats and can’t find them anywhere on those 3 platforms, you’re going to have to contact them directly. Buying beats direct is how it used to be done and typically involves a little back-and-forth, a PayPal link, your payment, and then the producer will email you the beat once the payment is confirmed.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if I blow up off of a beat I bought online?

It depends on the terms you agreed to, but you can expect the producer to contact you.

How do I know if a producer is legit?

Look for reviews and see if they’re active on social media. There’s not a method that’s 100% for figuring out if a producer you’ve never heard of is legit. The only thing you can do is try to get a feel for them using their digital platforms.

Can I make money with this beat?

This will depend on what terms you agreed to with the producer, but in most cases, yes. However, it’s likely that the producer will set a limit on how many units you can sell.