​If you’re an artist or influencer, a home studio can help take your creativity to the next level. So why do you need a home studio?  Here’s a few reasons:

There are times when I have a few lines in my head randomly during the day, or I think of something witty to say on a song that I’ve started. When that happens, I stop what I’m doing and log in to the good ol’ pro tools and press record. Having a home studio allows you to record things in the moment, while your emotions and creativity are still high. 

Imagine this: You meet someone cool on Instagram, and yall decide to do a song together. They send you a dope record with an open verse for you to record over. What’s the issue? Well you have to fork over $40-70 to your engineer for you to record a 12 bar verse that will only take you a few minutes. Welp, unless you have a studio of your own. In that case, you’d just mosey on over to your studio set up and record it. 

You can probably set up your entire studio for under $500 starting off. For most artists, that’s about 10 hours of studio time. So look at it this way; after recording just a few songs, the studio will have already paid for itself. You can save some of the extra money, or use it for promotions. 

Let’s say a big rapper just dropped a song that’s going crazy online. You can do a remix of it or record a cover version of the record and take advantage of their momentum. What if you wanted to get in the studio to remix the song, but your engineer was busy that day, or out of town? You could miss your window. Having your own studio prevents this. 


​Thanks for stopping by.

Should you lease beats online?
 
 
Ok, I see a ton of artists that have this question. It’s actually a pretty simple answer. Hell yea you should. Lil Nas blew up off of a $30 beat lease. Crazy huh?
I’m going to tell you the correct way to lease tracks (and how not to do it).
 
To begin with… BRUH… stealing a beat off of Youtube is not a lease. That’s stealing, and you have no legal rights to it. At all. In fact, that’s an easy way to get sued. You also shouldn’t do the “free download” option on Beatstars. Why? Most of those beats are for non-profit use (duh, that’s the only reason why they are free). Also, those free beats are often lower quality, or have the producer’s tag all over them, multiple times in the record. Recording over tons of producer tags is ghetto. Don't be ghetto lol.
 
Here’s the proper way to lease a beat. Go to the producers website, select the beat, and pay for it. Easy. Hold up, take a step back for a second. Read the license that comes with the leasing option you are picking.
 
Here’s an example of what it the license will look like:

​Let’s really dig into the numbers.
​ I can sell up to 2,500 physical copies. Even if I only sell them for $1.00 a piece, you would make 100x the amount you paid for the beat. Hmmm…

I can also get paid performances from this beat? Ok cool, so promoters can book me. Nice.

I can also shoot a music video for this? And there isn’t a limit on how many views I can get before I’d have to potentially upgrade the beat license? Cool.

I can get up to 250,000 streams on the song? Whoa. That’s about $1,000 in royalties on Spotify. (Much higher on Tidal). Nice!
​
Oh crap, but I can only get it played on one radio station?!? Who cares? Do you know how hard it is to get your song on one radio station? It’s hard! And trust me, if you’ve sold 2,500 physical copies, are getting paid performances, can shoot a music video and have made $1,000 in streaming income from a $24.99 purchase, you are doing pretty darn well. And in 2020, you absolutely do NOT need the radio to blow up. Don’t get it twisted, radio DJ’s are still vital to an up & coming artist’s success. But they are no longer the ONLY way to get a buzz.
 
Here are some pros of leasing a beat:

1. It is less expensive than purchasing a beat exclusively. Plus it is pointless to buy a beat exclusively unless it is getting hundreds of thousands of views/streams. Imagine paying $1,500 to exclusively buy a beat, just to get 100 views on Youtube. Wait until the song really starts blowing up and then purchase an exclusive.

2. Buying a lease protects you legally and gives you a ton of flexibility.  

3. You have a ton of buying options. You can buy the MP3, Wav, track outs or exclusives. Leasing is perfect for artists on a budget. 

4.With most leases, you can get paid shows, radio play and hundreds of thousands of streams.  

5. If the song doesn’t blow up the way you imagined, you’ve only spent $15-100 on it, instead of thousands.  

6. The producers are usually really easy to work with and contact should you ever need to upgrade your license.  

So, Kayo you’ve given me a ton of pros. What are the cons to leasing a beat?
Well there are only a few.

1. Someone else could potentially make a song to the beat you purchased. (I’ve literally only had this happen to me one time that I know of. To decrease the likelihood of this happening, you can use lesser known producers). 

2. If the song surpasses the license limits, you will have to upgrade the license.
 
3. Someone else can buy the song exclusively. While this does not make your license unusable, it can make things more difficult for future long-term usage.  
​
If you are going to lease a beat, you just need to keep this one thing in mind: YOU HAVE TO MAKE THE BEST SONG POSSIBLE. Look at it this way: there could potentially be a few other artists that use the same track you picked. Be sure that their version sucks compared to yours. And then push that song as if your life depends on it.
 
In closing, you absolutely should look at leasing beats for your new project.

Hello gang! In today's blog we'll be discussing why it is absolutely necessary to have your own website. Let's dive right into the good stuff.

Ok, so I'm an old school playa, so I remember cool social media platforms that you young bucks don't know anything about. I used to have all the fly honey's on blackplanet.com (back when I had AOL messenger and dial-up internet at my mama's house). I also remember MYSPACE. Man!!! The golden days. I remember being in people's top 8's and feeling like I was on top of the world. I built a music page on there and was doing great with networking. And then poof! One day... and I mean suddenly. Myspace was engulfed by a new, more popular platform... Twitter. 

Many influencers built massive followings on vine and then... (read this in a very sad voice) she was just... she was just gone! Dang, remember how poppin Snapchat was a few years ago? There's still a ton of people that use it, but there are without a doubt fewer active users on the platform today. 

Now everyone's on TikTok and Instagram. But dawg, what if these platforms die down? Hold up, let's change directions. I know a girl that built a pretty solid following on Instagram (maybe about 8,000 followers or so). One day out of the blue, some guy hacks her account and she never recovered it. She had to start all over. This sadly enough could happen to anyone. 

So how can you protect yourself and stay in touch with your supporters? How can you post what you want to post, and not have to worry about Instagram deleting your projects? HAVE YOUR OWN WEBSITE. 

By having your own website, you can communicate with your supporters more intimately, provide giveaways for them, provide them with exclusive content, and most importantly... YOU CAN CUT OUT THE MIDDLE MAN. Want to sell your album for $20 directly off of your website? Sure thing, go right ahead. So what if only 50 people buy it!? That's $1,000 fam. 

Want to develop an online class to give back to the community? Yep. Do it from your website. Want to blog or network, or charge people for ad space on your page? Yep. Do it from your website. And the best part? It won't suddenly fade away just because a new social media platform has come along. Heck, this website that I'm writing this from is only $12.00 a month!!!! Shoutout to Weebly. You guys are the bomb diggity (do people still say that?) 

Anyways, I'll be releasing some more content over on my Youtube channel. If you haven't subscribed yet... 

So... suck a little less and sub here:

Until the next time... 
​Kayo out. ​