BeatStars
BeatStars is a global subscription-based music licensing platform where recording artists and producers collaborate, license and distribute their work to multiple parties through a variety of non-exclusive and exclusive license types. Founder Abe Batshon formed the BeatStars model to make his own music before launching it as a business in 2008.
History
Batshon grew up in the East Bay area and was introduced to hip-hop from an early age. As a songwriter in mid-1990s AOL chatrooms, unable to afford the high prices attached to purchasing beats from producers, he proposed paying less than the sale price, under the condition the producer could sell the same beat to others. Years later, this concept of leasing non-exclusive work to multiple clients formed the basis of BeatStars.[1][2]
Batshon started building BeatStars in 2008 while working at digital distribution company INgrooves. It began as a hip-hop site but now includes all genres of music.[2][3] In 2016 Indiegogo launched its equity crowdfunding platform, with BeatStars being one of its first featured campaigns.[3][4] As of 2018 it had over 500,000 registered users.[5]
Business model
Based in Austin, and launched in 2008, BeatStars is a subscription-based online music marketplace where recording artists and producers can collaborate, lease and distribute their music to multiple clients through non-exclusive licenses. It operates as a platform for producers and artists to create works together.[2][6] BeatStars has both free and paying subscription models in operation. All users receive all of their sales, pro and premium subscriptions in operation offer other benefits.[2][7] Licenses can be customized by sellers, the most common transaction is the non-exclusive production license where the licensee controls the master of their version. The producers usually control publishing administration, deciding on terms and price, and the producer and songwriter equally split the writers share.[2][7][8] The ability of the producer to license the same music multiple times means prices are lower than the cost of exclusive rights. BeatStars also offers collaborator splits, which enables users to add collaborators to their works and automatically split the revenue with them on their release.[9]
Products
Products include Free, Marketplace and Pro Page plans, and various tools that work across the platform such as the Blaze Player- a tool for playing and buying music,[10] and Beat ID- a music identification tool.[10]
Publishing
In 2020 BeatStars formed BeatStars Publishing, a partnership with Sony Music Publishing, open to any independent songwriters and producers, which provides a global online administration service allowing users to register their songs and collect publishing administration royalties.[11][12][13]
Impact
In 2019 the rapper Lil Nas X used a beat purchased from producer YoungKio on BeatStars in their country/trap fusion track ‘Old Town Road’, which went on to break records by spending 19 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.[13][7][11][14]
BeatStars and other similar online music services have helped to democratize the hip-hop, and music, landscape, as well as popularizing the use of type beats in music production- where producers tag artist likeness onto their music to engage search engine optimization.[15]
In 2021 BeatStars was featured in Fast Company's list of the top ten most innovative music companies of the year.[13]
References
- ↑ "How Leasing Beats Works—and Why So Many Hip-Hop Producers Are Doing It". Complex. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Hermann, Andy; Hermann, Andy (2018-05-03). "Work-For-Hire Websites Give New Life to Songwriters, Producers and Beatmakers". Billboard. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Payne, Ogden. "BeatStars: Introducing The Startup Making It Easy For Beat Makers To Collaborate And Cash In With Artists". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ↑ "BeatStars Founder & CEO Abe Batshon Discusses Equity Crowdfunding With Indiegogo & MicroVentures - Crowdfund Insider". www.crowdfundinsider.com. 2017-03-01. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ↑ Leight, Elias (2018-04-19). "How Internet Producers Took Over Mainstream Hip-Hop". Vulture. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ↑ "Beatstars Form C-AR" (PDF). Retrieved 5 May 2022.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Ifeanyi, K. C. (2019-05-07). "How a kid from the Netherlands and a startup called BeatStars led to Old Town Road". Fast Company. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ↑ "BeatStars: 'Money doesn't drive us. Our community drives us.'". Music Business Worldwide. 2019-07-17. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ↑ "BeatStars Founder Abe Batshon Is Changing The Way Beats Are Sold: The Plug". HotNewHipHop. 2019-11-14. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Buy Beats Online | Download Beats | Rap Beats For Sale | Instrumentals For Sale". BeatStars. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Having paid out $150m to creators, BeatStars launches Sony Music Publishing-backed publishing service". Music Business Worldwide. 2021-07-27. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ↑ Robinson, Kristin; Robinson, Kristin (2021-07-28). "Why Music Marketplace BeatStars Is Getting Into Publishing". Billboard. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Staff, Fast Company (2021-03-09). "The 10 most innovative music companies of 2021". Fast Company. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ↑ Unterberger, Andrew; Unterberger, Andrew (2019-08-20). "19 Weeks of 'Old Town Road': A Week-by-Week Look Back at Lil Nas X's Historic Run at No. 1 on the Hot 100". Billboard. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ↑ "How "Type Beats" Have Changed Hip-Hop Production". Genius. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
External links
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