Countless incidents occur daily on the internet. Unfortunately, some of us have been through a situation such as identity theft, scam attempts, misleading offers, among others. For these reasons, some people do not feel safe buying on any website. But there are very safe ways to buy beats online. You only have to know a little about the market and a few other tricks.
Selling instrumentals online is a business that generates millions of dollars and continues to grow year by year. More and more artists, even high-profile ones, are encouraged to buy beats online to make their productions. Actually, many producers (and others not so) are surfing over this wave and, they are venturing to offer their instrumentals on the internet.
It has generated the appearance of tons of websites where there are beats for sale of all kinds.
Are there safe ways to buy beats online?
Absolutely yes! You just have to know a little about the market and a couple of tricks.
The first thing to know: there are several marketplaces with a proven reputation, specialized in selling instrumental tracks of all genres. Hip hop, trap, reggaeton, EDM and, even pop.
They offer a robust and secure platform, where producers can publish their music, and artists can listen and buy it.
The buyers can see the producer profiles, catalogs and, the different types of licenses they offer. Some of these sites include functionally similar to a social network. You can contact, comment, ask questions, and even negotiate.
Best of all, the purchasing process is easy and intuitive. The payment system is secure and, the delivery is immediate. Once completed a transaction, the buyer receives an email with the instructions to download all the audio files and the license agreement.
In my opinion, the most relevant sites of this type there are BeatStars.com, AirBit.com, SoundClick.com and, Soundee.com. The one with the highest traffic is undoubtedly BeatStars. But the important thing here is that in any of them you can buy very safely.
What many people do not know is the platform of these marketplaces can be integrated with external websites. This is a feature they offer to the beat sellers. The music player and the payment system can be embedded using HTML code on other websites. When a user plays a song or makes a purchase, he is doing it through the platform of BeatStars, AirBit, or whatever is used. Most beatmakers websites are set up in this way.
How to know which marketplace works as a platform for a specific website?
There is a simple procedure that, although it does not apply to all, it does for most websites.
You have to go to the music player and click on any share button. These are usually located on the left side of the ADD TO SALES CART button of each beat. Doing so opens a pop-up window where two URLs are shown (one short and one long). At least one of them (maybe both) can indicate who the provider is.
For example, if BeatStars is the provider, an URL address with this content https://player.beatstars.com will appear in the FULL URL field. If it is Soundee, the address will be something like this: https://soundee.com/player. The name of each marketplace can be found easily in each URL.
If you want to check out, you can go to the website (marketplace) and manually search for the beatmaker profile. So, you can be sure the producer effectively exists and; his catalog is the same as shown on his website. Ultimately, you can make the transaction safely through his platform.
Despite this, you still feel suspicious, have the option to make the operation through the marketplace.
What if no URL appears when I click the share icon?
It doesn’t necessarily mean that the site is dangerous or insecure. Actually, some famous beatmakers sites don’t even have a button to share beats. Perhaps due to the type of programming, the link is not shown. It may also be the case that it isn’t using an external platform.
What we can do is run a search on BeatStars, or any of the rest of the marketplaces, until we find the profile of the producer we want to buy from. Trust me, it won’t take you more than five minutes. 99% of beatmakers have their work published in one of these four sites that I have pointed out before. If it is not, then it is time to begin to distrust.
But then why don’t we always buy from these market places?
Well, while most producers offer their instrumentals through these sites, you should consider that each of them operates independently under their own terms. Although you can have an overview of what offers each license on a pricing table, sometimes they don’t show you everything. On the other hand, on the producers’ websites, you generally find more information about the beats you want to buy. Also, in some cases, you can get packages or discounts not available in the market places.
My recommendation is to try to get to know the producer you are going to buy from. I don’t mean by this you should stalk him or hire a detective to investigate him. Just read the license agreements and wander around your networks or website a little. You can even contact him. It doesn’t hurt to know the person behind the music or the logo.
Cristóbal “Catire” Mancheño
Music, Songwriter
& Recording Engineer