paypal

Apps and platforms I use as a beat maker

May 2, 2020 — Leave a comment

What’s good, y’all?

I, for one, have been making beats. There are a ton of ideas lying around in my laptop, and also around 7 finished ones I’m especially happy about that are ready to be shared in the coming weeks, in addition to the two I have already uploaded.

I’ve been playing around with the idea of making something bigger out of my beat making hobby for a while now, and would like to share what first steps I have taken prior to starting this blog.

This post is about apps and platforms that have worked for me in the past, and also some which are completely new to me. The common thing about them is that I have created a new account on each of them for my beat maker alias. Speaking in Clickbait, here’s my list of “7 Must-Have Apps and Platforms for a Beat Maker”:

I have also made sure to download a mobile app for each of them, so I could have access regardless of where I’m currently at. Some items from this list might be quite obvious, but I still wanted to get my thoughts out on why I’ve decided to go with this particular ensemble.

Instagram

This is what I use myself to discover new artists. There are a few hashtags I’ve been following, such as #soulbeats and #beatproducer, and adding the same hashtags to my own posts is what I’m also initially going to do. Not much of a strategy, I imagine, but this has actually got me most interactions so far. I have also followed a few of my favorite artists as well, but one thing I’m definitely not going to be doing is randomly following and spamming people in hopes of getting new followers. So far I have checked everyone’s profile who have liked my videos, and if they have something that tickles my interest, I have followed them back and even left them comments. But nothing pushy.

Bandcamp

This is where a lot of the music I like can be listened to and also purchased, e.g., releases from Mello Music Group, Supastition, etc. I also like how this platform promotes new music, especially hip-hop. My own release as a rapper from a few years back is also on Bandcamp, but I’m not ready to take my Sugar Lamont beats there yet. For now I just wanted to register a new account under my beat maker alias.

Soundcloud

Not much to say here, as it’s kinda obvious. In the era of Soundcloud rappers, this is a great place to showcase what I’ve got and attract new talent. I will also be using it for networking – following artists I really like and try to start a conversation with them.

Google account

As an aspiring musician, I naturally thought I’m going to need Youtube. This is where I also spend a great amount of time myself as a listener – lately I’ve been bumping instrumental hiphop mixes by – Raphael –. Until I have built a mailinglist, I might be sending an occasional beat to someone via Gmail. In fact, I’ve already done it once – to Rapper Big Pooh after seeing his Instagram announcement. Didn’t hear back from him, but it’s all good. Google Drive has also come in handy – this is where I upload my project files for safekeeping after the beat is finished. I have also set up a Google Alert for my artist name just for the fun of it, so I would get an email notification if the name ever shows up on the internet. To track the visits to my blog, I also enabled Analytics. One other thing I really like is the option to sign up on other platforms using a Google account.

Beatstars

Of all the places listed here, Beatstars is one of the two apps I had no prior experience with. Also, this is currently the only platform I’ve signed up for where I can sell my beats. I know there are more out there, such as Airbit and Soundee, and at one point I will join these as well, but first I want to get a hang of this one.

Dropbox

On its own, this I could probably have done without, as I already had Google Drive, but there was a completely unexpected reason I signed up for Dropbox. As it turned out there aren’t that many options to get a video from your computer over to Instagram. I’m reluctant to use some paid platform just yet, so one free option I came across involved putting your video in a Dropbox folder on your computer, let it sync, then open it on the Dropbox app on your mobile, save it to your camera roll, and then upload it on Instagram from the phone. Cumbersome, but gets the job done and I can live with it for now. If anyone knows a more convenient way how to do it straight from a computer, please leave a comment. I also checked the possibilities of Instagram’s Content Publishing API (I can do some coding), but it turned out to be in closed beta with their partners only and they are not accepting new applicants at this time.

Evernote

I have lots of ideas and use different apps (e.g., Notes and Trello) for jotting them down, but I wanted something that would be entirely dedicated for my beat making thoughts, so I decided to give Evernote a try. This is where I’m also typing the the draft of this blog post. I haven’t completely made up my mind on it yet, as it’s lagging a bit (compared to Notes), and the UX on its mobile app is pretty annoying, but I’m still learning to use it, so perhaps I will feel different after some time.

Wait, there’s more

In addition to that, it is worth mentioning that I’ve also had a PayPal account for more than ten years now, and also a Distrokid membership (about a year and a half) for getting my past release as a rapper out there on Spotify, iTunes + million other places. When the time comes, I’m sure I’m going to need these also. As far as the blog is concerned, I have had the web server for a few years now, and as it allows one-click WordPress installation, I decided to go with that, instead of registering a brand new dotcom domain.

So there you go. There are surprisingly many platforms and apps a bedroom producer like me needs to have an account on. Going forward I imagine this list will only get longer, so the important thing here is to not get distracted by all that and make sure I still have enough time for what I really love doing – and that is to make music.

Are there any apps and platforms besides those mentioned here that you cannot do without? If so, please leave a comment – I’d love to hear all about it.

From the soul, y’all
– sL