Day after day, I see a growing number of up-and-coming rappers release entire mixtapes and projects using only demonstration, or tagged beats. In this video, I discuss my top three reasons why you should not do this and how it can negatively affect your music brand.
So what is a “Tagged” Beat?
A “tagged beat” is a demonstration version of an instrumental that contains distinct audio watermarks that typically play throughout the entire track. The purpose of a producer tagging his/her instrumental is to prevent piracy and to encourage serious recording artists to purchase a license.
Click here to see the TCustomz.com tagged beat terms >>
It’s the same idea if you were to a professional photographer to get a photo shoot done. The photographer would typically take a number of different pictures during the shoot, and afterwards you would have the option as to which ones you want to buy.
They regulate this by placing a company watermark or logo across each of the pictures and give you access to the demonstration, or sample shots. Once you’ve decided on the pictures you like, you simply go back to the photographer to purchase the prints and get the “tags” removed.
I still see many aspiring rappers downloading free beats from Soundclick, or ripping their instrumentals from streaming services like Soundcloud or YouTube – grabbing only the low-quality, watermarked versions to use for their songs.
Now if you have your own artist tag, that’s a slightly different story. If done properly and tastefully used, it can be a great tool help with brand recognition – similar to the way the Maybach Music tag is used is used at the 0:07 mark of Rick Ross’ – “If They Knew”.
1. Hurts Your Brand
Whether you know it or not, using tagged beats for your songs isn’t doing anything good to help you or your brand. Any music you release to the public online, whether it be to Datpiff, Soundcloud, Twitter, Facebook or your own site – or any music video you create, is affecting your brand either for the negative or positive.
If your fans listen to a four minute song of yours, and they repeatedly hear these watermarks playing throughout, you risk your music being perceived as as low quality. Any producer listening to your music (especially the producer who produced the beat) is going to notice the audio tags, and generally speaking your regular listener is going to notice as well. They know you aren’t investing into your craft, and therefore will take your music and your brand much less seriously.
2. Distracting to the Listener
The producer tags can be very distracting to the listener – your fans! After all, the watermarks playing over the demonstration instrumentals are intended to be removed after a license is purchased anyway. Over time they may become very annoyed, and in many case could be completely turned off from your music altogether and anything you release in the future.
3. Support Your Producers
In order for the music producers who are making the beats to continue to provide you with high quality production, they need your support. The same way you need the support of your fans 🙂
At the end of the day, if you simply don’t have a budget for beats – I recommend networking with other producers who are on a comparable level to you in terms of your music career, and possibly working out some sort of collaborative project. You can combine both of your fan bases and social media followings to help promote the project or song and better your chances to grab some traction.
Keep in mind, not every producer will be willing to offer you free production. It will vary case by case, but this is definitely a feasible option if you can connect with the right people.
If you have a limited budget to buy instrumentals, you may also consider contacting the producer for a special bulk discount for your project. That way you are supporting the producer, and at the same time you could possibly save some big money that can be spent on other necessary aspects of your release.
So if you previously thought using tagged beats was okay, even for your free promotional music – hopefully this article and video have helped you to understand why you don’t want to use them 🙂
Please LIKE & SHARE if this was helpful 🙂 And drop your comments below and share your thoughts on the topic.
or purchase more Hip-Hop beats with instant delivery today at www.TCustomz.com!
About the Author
Travis Cole has been operating TCustomz Productionz, LLC full-time since 2011 and hopes for it to serve as a source to help many music artists, producers and entrepreneurs worldwide achieve their dreams of success.
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