Hip Hop Producer - Networking Tips

Change How You Think About Hip Hop Networking
Part 1 of a 3 Part Series

It seems that Hip Hop Producers are everywhere today. Anyone who has a computer and knows how to use a file sharing site has access to Reason, Fruity Loops, or Acid and can start banging out tracks with almost zero money needed. For Hip Hop Artists this is great. They can get beats for almost zero investment. However, for you producers, times are hard. There are literally thousands of Hip Hop Producers that are willing to give a beat away for free, record it in their own home studio for free, and will help promote the completed song for free to make sure more people are hearing the work they can do in hopes of getting paid clients in the future. The reason it’s so hard to make a living as a Hip Hop Producer is that you are not competing with other Hip Hop Producers, you are competing with “free.”

In the past, when times were great for up and coming Hip Hop Producers, you could grind away in your bedroom, get your chops up, hit the streets with a better product, and charge a higher price for quality. Competition was based on skill level instead of “free.”  The best Hip Hop Producers would get the work and the not-so-skilled had work to do. Marketing was simple. All you needed to do to gain new clients was make a CD with ten or more quality beats, circulate it around the Hip Hop scene, and you could get a few clients in a weekend. It only took three or four clients a month to pay bills. Any clients after that was profit. “Free” is a beast, but it can be beat if you know how to network.

If you want to make a living as a Hip Hop Producer you have to stop thinking and competing with “free.” You will not get ahead giving away your beats. You will not turn “free” clients into paying clients in the future. You will not gain additional clients by giving your current clients free beats. Why? Because once you give a client a free beat they get used to it. If you suddenly stop giving beats for free they will find someone who will. The other Hip Hop artists that hear about you from clients you give free beats to will only come to you because you gave a free beat away in the first place and they will expect a free beat as well. “Free” is a beast and you can not compete against it. Until you come to that single realization, that “free” is not the way to network and gain clients, you will always give your beats away for free.

The key to networking as a Hip Hop Producer is in changing the way you think about networking entirely. You have to understand and believe that “Free” is not a marketing strategy or networking tool what so ever. You have heard the statement that nothing in this world is free. In non music related marketing, “free” always comes with a catch. The Hip Hop Producer industry has adapted the “free” marketing technique, but someone forgot to tell the producers that there is supposed to be a catch. In the non musical world, a business may offer a “buy one, get one free” deal, but the catch is that the cost of the first item bought at regular price covers the cost to manufacture both items and still gives the company a profit. Continuing to give clients free beats does not cover the cost of manufacturing nor does it offer you a profit. It costs you time, which equals money, to give away your beats for free. In essence, you are paying clients to use your beats. There is no way for you to sustain a career in the Hip Hop music industry if you are paying clients instead of them paying you.

Networking is the process of creating mutually beneficial relationships. It is not about meeting as many people as you can. It is about finding resources that need quality production, good business, and excellent follow though from you or that will help you get your music into the hands of more clients needing the same. Ask yourself this question; Is it better to spend all night long in a club meeting a handful of Hip Hop artists or is it better to meet one influential person in the Hip Hop music scene? You might be thinking that meeting a bunch of artists is better because it increases your chances of getting at least one artist to buy a beat and if the one influential person doesn’t like you or your music you have only talked to one person. It would be wrong to think this. Why? When you meet an artist in a club, how many times is the first question you hear; “How much do you sell your beats for?” That question is making you compete with “free.” You can not compete with the beast of “free” if you are trying to make a living. Now, how many artists, in the same night, first ask you; “Can you get to the studio on time? Can you break the beat out to individual tracks so it can be properly mixed? Do you work fast enough to make changes if necessary?” Ah, there it is.

When you find someone who asks these or similar questions, first, you know you are networking with someone who makes their living in the Hip Hop industry and they know they either have to pay themselves or know how to ask their clients for money. Why? People that are actually making a living in the music industry, no matter the genre of music, are willing to pay for quality production, good business, and excellent follow through. They know that these three qualities in a producer are worth paying a high premium. They have seen that unprofessional producers can destroy a recording session or project. They realize that it is better to pay for quality rather than deal with the unprofessionalism of “free.”

When you change the way you think about Hip Hop networking, you will soon start to change where you network. Finding the people that are actually making a living doing what you want to do is very important. As you start to change your way of thinking about Hip Hop networking you will fast learn that hitting every club or venue that has an open mic night or battle stage may not be too smart. Why? Because if the artists in the club where making money with their music they wouldn’t have the time to be in that club. Calm down. Yes, there are a lot of artists that go to clubs after they get out of the studio or off the road from successful paid show. In reality, it is a very small percentage of who is in that club. The next time you go to your favorite networking spot look around, take note of who is there, and ask yourself; “How many of these people do I see each and every week I come to this spot?”  Are you really getting the most bang for your buck with your current networking strategy or are you really just getting a drink at the club?

Hip Hop professionals that make their money within the industry are at studios, record stores, conferences, record pool meetings, and equipment dealers. Why? Because they have money to spend on buying new equipment, going to conferences to learn more about the music industry, promoting their music through record pools, and recording new songs. You will find that these professionals do not spend needless money at the club to impress people. They know that they need every dollar they have to work for them and they are willing to spend the money on producers or other service providers that offer quality, good business, and excellent follow through. They have changed the way they think about networking. They see that hip hop networking needs to happen in places that offer the best opportunity to meet new people that are looking for mutually beneficial relationships. They know that mutually beneficial relationships are a two way street were both parties involved need each other to reach higher within the Hip Hop industry.

Changing the way you think about Hip Hop networking is hard work. It takes practice, It takes patience, and it takes guts. When you see all the other producers in your area working with clients you have to realize they may not be getting paid to do what they are doing. They are still competing with “free.” The only way to start making money as a producer in the Hip Hop industry is to start charging for your services and stop competing with “free.” Quality production, good business, and excellent follow though is the path to networking with people that are willing to pay. In the next article we will discuss how to use three three areas to successfully position yourself and music within solid networking circles that can generate a lot of new clients that are willing to pay you for your producer services!

Peace,
Jai
“Love the Music in Yourself, Not Yourself in the Music!”
©2009 Jai Hutcherson. All Rights Reserved.