Analysis

By interviewing longtime members of the community, it’s revealed that there is a lot of communication necessary to build a sense of support between members. Manager Stafford Beats confirms that there have been many producers in the community who have gotten placements just by networking, whether that has been deliberate or completely on accident. In the producer world, a placement is defined as a transaction between a producer and an artist. In most cases, it’s the vocalist who pays a producer for a particular instrumental. Fellow producer Goldra shared a valuable experience where he was connected to an artist just by being in the voice chat of the server. Through using the voice chat function, he was able to meet other artists who shared an interest in his particular producing style. He also mentioned that community events like a beat battle (beat contest) helped him to create more content when he was not motivated to do so.

To be able to participate in such communication, one must know some key terminology. For example, when producing for an artist, the word “placement” is thrown around constantly. In the particular beat battle that Goldra entered, contestants needed to use a specific sample (melody) that Stafford provided. The sample is labeled with its bpm and key of D minor. To be able to participate in this contest, one must know how to properly incorporate this sample in the beat that they make. This is where the specific lexicon comes into play. Staying on top of common producer vocabulary creates more opportunities not only in the discourse community, but in the business as well.

These are just a few examples of opportunities to get your music heard. Stafford brought up an experience where famous rapper Roddy Ricch’s A&R (artist and repertoire) team reached out to the community asking for new beats. As an unknown beatmaker, this is a huge opportunity. However, producers must also be conscious of context, genre, and audience when submitting their instrumental. For example, a casual listener of Ricch’s music would understand that an upbeat guitar, bouncy trap drums, and a tempo from 130-160 bpm is common in Ricch’s style. A producer would have to be able to take that knowledge and incorporate it into their beat which is no easy task. Similar to Goldra’s experience, this is another opportunity to get your music heard which is likely to motivate a producer to continue to create beats. Without constant motivation, it becomes harder and harder to create content as an artist. Manager Stafford had even admitted that he likely wouldn’t have been as successful without the support of the community.

In this online era, collaboration is becoming ever more important. In the world of mainstream music, major artists have teams of specialists in the studio and in marketing to help them achieve the quality of music and exposure that they desire. As an artist independent of a record label, all of the roles that a label would regularly provide have fallen onto one person. For example, the Introduction to the Music Industry: An Entrepreneurial Approach emphasizes this point by stating “creative entrepreneurs need to find resources, connections, and audiences. You have to change the mindset that asking for help is akin to begging. There is only so much that you can do independently. Most people have no idea how many partnerships go into making an artist successful” (Fitterman Radbill, C. 2017). Labels acted as a middle man between the artist themselves and exposure to the public by handling the marketing side of the business. This means as an independent, being a good musician was no longer the only factor in creating a career for yourself. Artists needed to also be good at business relationships to create a brand for themselves on top of creating quality marketable content. Part of building relationships includes getting involved in communities like Promoting Beats where you can network with fellow artists.

Online, you can find new fans, artists, communities, melodies, customers, and more. The Value Co-creation in the Popular Music Industry reinforces this idea by pointing out that “over the past twenty years, the emergence of the Internet and digital technologies significantly reduced physical constraints and facilitated the distribution of music, videos, software, and information. Consumers can therefore easily access a vast array of creative content available in the digital world” (Rudny, W. 2016). This concept is applied almost anywhere and especially the Promoting Beats community. Similar to Goldra’s experience, artists and producers alike can collaborate without ever having to physically meet up. This is only one example of how an online environment can benefit upcoming artists.